I have a problem when the word “passion” is used as a byword for “competence“.
It isn’t.
The two ideas can often be mutually exclusive.
Ferrari is a car maker that oozes passion, but you know what else they are?
Extremely competent engineers, brand makers, designers, craftspeople, business people.
Sure, they’re also passionate, but passion is ephemeral fizzy-outy-quickly, and competence is what you get with years of hard knocks and experience.
Just because I’ve had a tough day today, and I’m feeling a little jaded, and have had the passion knocked out of me for the past few weeks by chasing late payments doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten how to do my job splendidly and can therefore be supplanted by some inexperienced child and their AI prompts.
My competence doesn’t disappear just because I’m tired or drained or a little uninspired. Competence means that I see this as a job, as my mission, and I won’t be extinguished so quickly just because I’m not feeling it today.
