You Trade Your Passion For Glory
Selling out on what you initially stood for presents a harder path to walk.
I am taking inspiration here, not from a quote from one of the many stalwarts of following your own path from Steve Jobs to the Dalai Lama, but from the lyrics of The Eye Of The Tiger:
‘You trade your passion for glory’
You want it, you got it in all its grandeur
If you said that you stand for something and the content you create represents a space that you truly believe in, to head in another direction can prove to be unnerving.
Those who move away from ideals and trade it in for a newer sense of grandeur can become an unfulfilling space to be part of and reside within.
I discovered this week an example where a story approach can take a wrong turn when it used in a manipulative and dangerous way.
The Whole Pantry
To many people in the UK, Belle Gibson was unheard of until a couple of months ago. She is the author of the The Whole Pantry app and also the book of the same name. Everything Belle stood for was to educate others that nutrition is the key to well being after being recognised as a survivor of blood, spleen, brain, uterus and liver cancer. A harrowing card for any person to be dealt with.
Her app was highly rated within the Apple store and was planned to be transferred to iWatch. She commanded 193,000 followers on Instagram and became an inspiration to those fighting their own Goliath. Belle represented a true fighter who had experienced and achieved something that many could cling to and draw hope from. A beacon of inspiration and aspiration.
It turns out none of this was true. Belle was not a cancer survivor. It was a fabricated story.
An online persona had been created where someone was within the wellbeing sector for the money, fame and status.
It now doesn’t matter that Belle loved to create simple menus and her own curiosity to create continuous meals with a back to basics approach. The website even had a section as a resource to inspire others.
Belle had sold out. The only thing she now stands for is manipulation and exploiting the hope of others.
She traded her passion for glory.
Bring It Back To The Working World
Lets bring everything to the working world and the businesses we represent. Sometimes the shortest route to success is what many strive for. Contrasted to this is the business that understands that its customers are more interested in the stance they take, whether that is ethical, user appeal or appealing to a niche.
We all have dots to connect, it’s just that for most of us we have moved on from the silhouette of knowing that we’re going to make Mickey Mouse, to something that we’re still not sure of even if we have connected 50% of the puzzle.
This is part of the journey we are all on. What I do know is that standing beside something you truly believe in takes more time to be acknowledged than approaches we have all become accustomed too ie. making sure the word ‘bespoke solutions’ and ‘excellent customer service’ is littered throughout a website and any piece of printed collateral.
There are no extra points awarded for:
- spending a sizeable amount of budget on Google Adwords and throwing out a net to as many strangers as possible with your fingers crossed in the hope that a tyre kicker becomes a buyer
- thinking that automation means that the world can run itself. Who needs to be present when someone raises a question, as long at someone’s Twitter stream is filled with a post that you set to an alarm clock
- believing that creating more content is the answer to a bigger audience when there is no strategic ‘we are…’ in place
- relentlessly sending out emails to an audience with no invitation for interaction, involvement and participation, just an expectation that someone will react to a message with a call to action that 90% of the business population will use ie. buy now
What I am trying to emphasise here is that you need to sometimes remind yourself the reason why you are doing ‘this.’ If the answer is purely to ‘make money’ then someone else is going to present a more believable proposition to the marketplace.
Trading your passion for glory highlights a lack of contribution to the role you play within the industry you are part of.
Flip the sentence to bypassing glory for passion represents those elements of compassion, connection, energy and curiosity.
This is what becomes the differentiation for businesses today. It’s the value that you create for someone else, rather than time related prompts to ‘buy now.’ Have a read of another related article from two weeks ago where I made a case of ‘You Before Why.’
I have to say that staying true to what you believe in is probably the harder road to walk but it does become more rewarding in the long run. I fully understand that a major role we all play is to get people to buy our products and services, but there is a way to do this that is empathetic and honest.
I don’t have the magic formula for what works, I am still finding that out, but I know that I have clarity now for what can strike a chord with others and to encourage a conversation.
Rounding Up
Coming back to the words from Survivor and this iconic song from Rocky III (back in 1982). We all backed Rocky and his spirit over Clubber Lang’s (Mr.T’s) bravado and showmanship (naturally he was made to eat his words by saying that his prediction for the fight was ‘pain’).
If you trade your passion for glory, you lose what you represent. In turn it becomes more difficult for others to recognise your role as a trusted influencer. When others can pinpoint what you stand for, everything becomes easier to channel. From the content you create to the viewpoint you express, when you channel your reliability and trustworthiness, finding a rhythm can build momentum.
Image at the top of the article courtesy of Jase Lam
If you are looking to discover and carve out what you stand for, come along to my Content Revolution Workshop on Thursday 16th July in Bournemouth. A half day workshop intended to help you discover a new muscle that is content and story driven. Special guests confirmed and only three spaces left. Click here for what you will learn and to book your space.
