Love bites [?]

Def Leppard’s song of this title quite unequivocally disagreed with common sentiments of the day that is upon us. Voicing even stronger disagreement was The J. Geils Band [didn’t know that one – thanks Google] with their cool song “Love stinks”, sung so brilliantly by Adam Sandler in “The Wedding Singer”.

However, for today [14th Feb] I couldn’t leave this topic alone as it allows me to quickly slip this one in and still remain in the spirit of the day, so to speak [and please excuse the Google-inspired amateur doodle above, included here just to prove that even a boring business blog can be a little bit creative]. [edit: for those who missed it, you can see the doodle here]

Observation: people who excel at what they do really LOVE what they do. Haven’t you seen that too?

And please note - I’m not talking about what they do. I’m talking about what they DO...

I’m not talking about dentists that love drilling teeth or filling holes... I am talking about dentists that love making people feel good about their teeth. I’m not talking about accountants that love counting beans and preparing pages filled with numbers... I am talking about accountants that love providing useful relevant information so that businesses can grow beyond their wildest dreams. I am not talking about developers that love coding things to death... I am talking about developers that love creating apps that revolutionise the way people work and think forever.

It’s not about what you’re doing but why you’re doing it. And why do I say that? Just look at this:

“Vision is about… wild, passionate, intemperate… LOVE.” – Boyd Clarke and Ron Crossland [as referenced by Tom Peters]

Now read it backwards too… it comes back to the vision. I believe if we have a real vision of why we’re doing something, we’ll really love it [not the task itself necessarily, but everything about it] and therefore we will excel at it [even if just by accident].

So let me ask you… do you love what you’re doing? Not what you’re doing. What you’re DOING!