(This article was written in May 2012, but for some reason never got published. Better late than never, I assume)
I read, with great interest, Davy Kesten’s article on “Just do it". It’s to-the-point and he makes for very compelling arguments, which to most extent I agree.
There is just one quote that bothered me in that article.
The difference between successful entrepreneurs and jokers isn’t passion. It isn’t luck. It isn’t money. It isn’t their network. It isn’t knowledge. It’s the fact that they simply DO.
Passion.
Perhaps I’ve read the article with another mindset (not that of an entrepreneur) but that doesn’t matter. The article is about accomplishing your goals instead of talking about it, that’s true for everyone – regardless of what you do in life. But if you want to accomplish something, you need to be passionate about it.
If you are, truly, passionate, you’ll accomplish your goals no matter what. You’ll “just do” automatically, because you want to. It’s what drives you.
I’m a geek myself, and the article reminded me of a quote I particularly like. It’s hard to track the original source of this, but from what I can tell it could be @hijinksensue on Twitter.
Geeks don’t just have interests. They have passions.
If you’re passionate about something, you’ll go for it. It’s that simple. Whether it’s coding a new app, discovering a new tool you want to master or traveling around the world, if you’re truly passionate you will achieve your goals.
To me, the difference between a “do’er” and a “joker” isn’t just the fact they “just do it", it’s whatever it is that drives them to “just do” in the first place: passion.