Welcome Baywalk readers to the July edition of Creating Success Viewpoint on Baywalk.com. This month we "get in touch with our feelings." We hope you enjoy our look at the topic: "Without Passion"

Greetings. No, this month's topic is not about romance. However, when most people hear the word passion, the first thing they think about is relationships, a very special person. OK, I candy coated it, they think about romance. Can you give a good definition of passion???

Webster's Dictionary gives us the following definitions of passion:

1. compelling emotion.
2. strong amorous feeling; love.
3. strong sexual desire; lust.
4. a strong fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for something: a passion for music.
5. the object of one's passion.
6. an outburst of emotion.
7. violent anger.
8. the suffering of Christ on the cross or subsequent to the Last Supper.

Interesting that Webster's chose compelling emotion as their first definition to list. What is a compelling emotion? With my business hat on, I would most likely choose Webster's #4, a strong fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for something: a passion for music.

Have you figured out where I am headed in this article? That's right, Jeopardy players, the answer is "without passion." The question is, "what is wrong with business today?"

You've got it, no passion. No passion to make the company the best. No passion to make the product the best. No passion to do your best as an employee. No passion to be your best as a leader.

Remember the last time you were excited about your job? Remember the last time you felt like you were part of a team of great people? If you remember, it probably means that your current work environment has no passion.

What happened to passion? Well, last month we talked about MEGA MERGERS, and we decided that bigger was not necessarily better. As a matter of fact, most of the time bigger is not better. Bigger usually means that "people," not an individual, but the appreciation of people as a valuable resource, becomes lost in the MEGA Mentality.

What can "we" do about it?

"We," face an uphill battle, as today's business world seems to be empty of passion. My first thought is too much Wall Street and short term profits focus. Actually, that is more reaction than thought. My thought is that our society has lost something extremely valuable that carried our country through the first two hundred years of its history. I think back to the passion of our early explorers. I think of the passion on both sides of the civil war. I think of the passion of our World War I and II veterans and their families who applied themselves with a passion to stop the threat of the supremacist ideal.

I think of the passion of the men and women of our space program, as we tried to catch up with the Russians in the "race to space." I think of the passion of the war protesters of the sixties and early seventies that forced our country to get out of Vietnam. I think of the passion of our USA Olympic Hockey team when they won a gold medal. Think of the passion of the young children fighting against cancer in our hospitals. It is the tear in your eye when you hear our National Anthem.

Passion. We seem to be able to find passion in a lot of different actives and situations: but passion is on the "missing list" when we think of business.

Passion. It can start with you. Introduce or re-introduce yourself to passion.

It makes each day seem brighter. It makes living special. It makes going to work fun. It makes being your best special. It makes your employees a unique and rare asset. It makes your feel proud to deliver the best product or service to your customers.

Passion. I hope we can find it again. See you next month!