Brazilians are a passionate lot. Football is their religion. They drink, eat, breathe, sleep football. By contrast , the Germans are legendary for their precision, systematic approach and discipline. We don’t think of Germans as passionate. I came across a catchy tweet – German precision beats Brazilian passion which set me thinking. I always believed that passion was one of the most important ingredients to achieve excellence and to be successful. Iconic legends like Steve Jobs drove home the importance of passion. As Ophrah Winfrey once said – “Follow your passion, it will lead you to your purpose”. So, it challenged my belief about passion. Are other attributes like discipline and precision are more important than passion. Can we succeed without passion ?
I looked back to the early days of my career when I was closely associated with Germans. I closely worked with Germans, lived in Germany and my first customer was a German. I tried recollecting whether he lacked passion and if he was driven purely by discipline and precision. The answer was a clear NO. I could distinctly recollect the how passionate my German customer was about his vision and his product. Having seen them from close quarters, I can say that Germans are as passionate as Brazilians or Indians. However, what is different about the Germans is their external expression of passion. It is far more subdued than their Brazilian counter parts. It is a cultural thing. But that does not make them any less passionate. It is important to distinguish the two. One is passion, the other is expressing the passion externally and these two should not be confused with one another. Or rather, lack of external expression of passion should not be interpreted as lack of passion.
Renowned anthropologist Edward Hall explains it very well in his seminal work “Beyond Culture”. He classifies countries as High context and Low context cultures. High context cultures like Brazil, France, India are more expressive and display their passion in a more explicit way. Where as low context cultures like Germany, Netherlands and Finland are less expressive. It is important to understand the differences in culture so that we don’t risk drawing conclusions based on external manifestation.
Lack of external expression of passion should not be mistaken as lack of passion. High context cultures like Brazil and India are more expressive in their display of passion than their counterparts in Low context cultures like German and Finland.
Some of the best cars in the world – the Mercedes, Audi and BMW are made by Germans. These brilliant cars are the purest expressions of passion. If Germans were not passionate, the world would never have seen a Mercedes BMW or Audi.
The passion of the Germans are exhibited in their excellence, in their results. Which is what ultimately matters. Nothing wrong in wearing passion on your sleeve. By the same token, nothing wrong in not displaying your passion externally. But what ultimately matters is whether the passion is channelized to drive excellence.
Saurav Ganguly and Dhoni are arguably the best cricketing captains of India. Both are passionate about cricket and passionate about winning. Indian cricket has seen some of its finest victories under their leadership. Yet, they are as different as chalk and cheese when it comes to expressing their passion. Saurav’s passion is best exemplified by his shirt waving act at Lords cricket stadium. On the other hand, Dhoni is much more reserved and it is hard to even get him to utter sound bites to the media. That does not mean that Dhoni is any less passionate. It is just that he chooses not to wear his passion on his sleeve.
The passionate Brazilians may have been defeated. But passion is not dead. Don’t quit on your passion. As Van Gogh puts it – Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you are put here on Earth to do, with such passion and intensity that it becomes your spiritual calling.
