One of my simple early morning pleasures is sipping coffee while tackling the daily Microsoft Rewards challenges on my PC. Each challenge has three components. Some bit of trivia, a poll, and my personal favorite, a 5, or 10 question quiz.
One recent quiz question asked, “which F1 driver said; ‘You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well.” Drawing upon my extensive F1 driver knowledge base (it contains two names, Emerson Fittipaldi and Niki Lauda), I selected, James Hunt. Wrong! It was Jaun Manuel Fangio. A famous, not to me at the time of the quiz, F1 driver from Argentina. A quick read of some of his experiences and accomplishments added context to this quote.
What first caught my attention was the direct association of “passion” with “pleasure.” To me it read like a grammatical faux pas e.g. using an “is” with a plural noun. They just didn’t seem to go together. Does pleasure usually accompany our passionate pursuits? Consider the “Passion of Christ” as an apparent falsifying example. Pleasure! In such pain, agony, and death!
If you continue to read Jaun’s story, you see the steady rise to fame of one of the world’s most accomplished F1 drivers. He won the World Championship of Drivers five times! A record that stood for 46 years. A passion for cars and driving indeed! But, did he experience great pleasure in everything he was doing? I believe he would say no. And, I think in saying no, he would not be negating his assertion. Why not?
To answer I will refer to his initial claim that “you need great passion.” He didn’t say you need great pleasure. He implied that pleasure follows actions moved by passion. So, if passion is the driver (pun intended 🙂 ), how is it “obtained”? Can we muster up some passion as needed? Does the experience of something stir it up? Let’s return to Jaun’s story for a possible answer.
At the age of 10, Juan, who excelled in boxing and soccer, developed an interest in cars. He was so fascinated with them, that he volunteered at a local garage, bringing tools to the mechanics as needed. At age 11, he cranked up the motor of a car for the first time. It really excited him. I dare say it brought him great pleasure. From those early years on, it is difficult to say who was being driven, the car, Jaun, or both?
Allow me to steer away from the subject of cars and Juan, to my life experiences as they relate to passion. Looking back over my life there have been many interests. If I were to list all the subject areas that have captivated me at various times, they would encompass almost all of the academic disciplines. What can I say, I love to study and learn about everything. That said, my varied interests have arisen at different times, reached differing levels, and lasted for unequal periods of time. But, could I say I’ve had a great passion for them? Some? One?
In the past, when I looked at the life of someone like Jaun, someone who at an early age had an interest that ignited into a consuming passion that lasted a lifetime, I would lament not having found such a passion. And, thinking of it this way, I’d encourage my children to pursue their passion, all the while wishing I had one to pursue for life. However, is passion so exclusive as to be elusive of all but one solitary object of our devotion?
As I review my life, it has become clearer to me that I, in fact, have several persistent passions. Each, in their own differing aspects, bring me great pleasure. I’ll begin with one that over a 40 year period has at times felt mundane. Any guesses? Computer technologies. At the age of 17 I was playing a very basic computer game when an errant keystroke crashed it. I sat staring at lines and lines of programming code. I was fascinated to see what lay behind a fun little bowling game. The rest as they say is his-story.
Why did I not see this as a passion akin to Jaun’s? Because it doesn’t always bring me great pleasure. What does? Just this week a network printing issue plagued me and several others for a few days, and when I solved it, I felt great, momentary, pleasure. Do we mistakenly seek enduring pleasure in transient things, or mortal people? Do we lose our passion because of a temporary dearth of pleasure? Let it not be!
Other enduring passions in my life that bring great pleasure are; my lovely wife, then arriving in stages starting a year post-marriage, our fantastic four children (they are quite marvelous actually 😉 ), and their amazing spouses. I have discovered that when one passion temporarily subsides, and it’s attendant pleasures evaporate like early morning dew on a hot summer’s day, there are others that drive you through it’s desert bringing you to a pleasurable oasis. There have been times when my vocation has been void of vitality, but the delight and joy in my wife and children has given the much needed passion to stay on track (coming near the finish line of this blog and couldn’t resist the racing reference).
“Follow your heart, and nothing else.
And you can do this, oh babe, if you try.
All that I want for you my son, is to be satisfied.” – (Simple Man by Lynryd Skynryd)