So many people in business today are being told that they need to be passionate about their business if they want to succeed. Scarcely a day goes by without us being assailed by people passionate about digital media, telemarketing or some other business activity wishing to sell us their particular passion.

Personally I feel that the word ‘passionate’ is the most overused in business today and perhaps we need to find another one which sums up our enthusiasm for our business. Being yourself in business has become associated with declaring your passion for what you do but perhaps we need to examine ourselves before we try to tell everyone else where our ‘passion’ lies.

Being yourself in business is great as long as we are being our authentic self rather than the ‘self’ whom we think will appeal to the market place. Unless we understand ourselves and what really motivates and drives us then we may find our ‘passion’ directed in the wrong place and coming over as inauthentic and false to potential customers.

So perhaps a little humility is a good place to start in examining ourselves to see what really matters to us, what are the values we think of as important and what we would like to be known for in business. Being true to ourselves, authentic is what builds  a sustainable business so identifying our own core values and aligning our business approach to them will avoid the conflicts which occur often when businesses say they stand for one thing and then do something else.

Business passion tends fade but real values, business and personal values, values which are truly in tune with the day to day actions customers see, endure.

What do your customers see in your dealings with them, passion or real enduring sustainable personal values which translate into the way you manage your relationship with them for the long term?