Is there anyone out there who isn’t ‘passionate?’

There’s word abuse going on out there and it’s gettin’ ugly.

Besides being flagrant and redundant, overuse of the word ‘passionate’ is driving me crazy. Everyone’s ‘following their passion, expressing their passion, stating their passion, talking about their passion,’ and so on and so on and so on.

What ever happened to words and phrases like ‘zeal, ambition, following one’s star, applying one’s gifts, wanting to apply one’s accumulated skill sets, testing oneself in the marketplace, doing something they’ve always enjoyed doing and so on. While I admit ‘passion’ seems to encapsulate these intentions in one neat little package – tied with a bow – it’s tiresome to hear it so often.

Up until a few years ago, use of the word was limited to romance novels and a scattering of Human Resources types. But now, everyone’s in on the act. Even men, older men(!), one of which you will read about a few paragraphs from now, feel comfortable tossing the word about like so much confetti.

Everyone’s friend, Dictionary.com, defines passionate as: having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; fervid.

Well, that’s simple enough isn’t it? But what’s missing is a mention of competence, experience, knowledge, trustworthiness, ability to dispense wise counsel and proof thereof. Steven Covey stated in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, that whereas people were defined by their character up to the late 60s, by the 70s, one’s personality defined them. It’s been that way since.

The appeal to emotion is represented in this decade by the overuse of the ‘p’ word. Earlier today, while idly glossing over some 2nd degree links (contacts of people that I am officially connected to) on LinkedIn, I came across a financial services fellow who described himself as “passionate about working with people making over $100,000 a year.”

Well, Mr. So-and-so, who wouldn’t be passionate about that! Think of the commissions! (Ah, a moment of cynicism on my part). But would this guy be as passionate about working with someone making $60,000? And/or more passionate about a client pulling in $160,000? How much more?

The key question that isn’t addressed is the why part. Why is this man passionate about working with people making this amount of money?

If I was in his target market, (and who knows, I could be soon), I’d expect his pitch or tag line to reflect what he’s going to do for me, not how emotional he feels about his profession. Emotion isn’t going to provide for me during my retirement or put my kids through college – if I had any – competence and expertise will.