The most important thing is to be passionate about our industry.
It’s like the love of a parent. As parents, we do not tend to compare our children with others or wish that another child were ours, no matter how charming that other child may be.
We love our child as we would love ourselves if we were truly capable of self-love. They are more than just a person; they are the embodiment of creation, our own divinization.
Therefore, such love should not even be classified as love but as a natural veneration, the kind only a devotee has.
We need to love our industry in the same way. Our industry is the best that exists. What we do is extremely important for the world. At least for me, when I interact with a merchant, I always prefer those who live and breathe what they are selling. A fruit vendor who believes he can heal all my problems with half a kilo of oranges; a baker who might refuse to sell me bread if he thinks it doesn’t meet his quality standards; an ice cream vendor who reads the flavor of the ice cream he gave me to taste from my facial expression; a teacher who, although recognizing the existence of other subjects, thinks that their subject is the most important in the whole school and sees themselves as the most important teacher in the school.
Passion for our business and our industry improves our quality of life. We see work not as a duty but as a mission. We see the customer not as a walking wallet but as a lost soul we need to rescue, or better yet, as someone only we can rescue.
It is necessary not only for us as company leaders to have this passion but also to hire employees who share this same passion, not people who are just interested in receiving a salary at the end of the month. A passionate employee is an evangelist; an employee waiting for a paycheck is merely a spectator, a helper who would rather be doing anything else than being on the company’s boat, rowing with us.
Authored by Stélio Inácio
The Entrepreneurial Experience Day 6