What makes you passionate?

I've been watching as many of the programmes in the BBC thread on poetry and reflecting that my passion for words was ignited by reading Keats.

At 14 with adolescent longings and no thought that I could write about my life, reading Keats startled me, terrified me and opened up a new world of words to me. Unlike modern teaching when children are encouraged to create for themselves, we sat in rows and listened.

It came back to me again last week when I went to a talk given by Rob Pittam from BBC ~Working Lunch~ and John Hemingway ex journalist and PR person.

The one thing they were agreed about in the fight for businesses to gain recognition and publicity was passion and it's what's lacking in many business websites. Rob described trying to get people to relax and just be themselves when they talked about their business rather than putting on their best clothes for tea in the parlour.

We get passion knocked out of us often when we enter the world of adulthood and work but if I think about the people who've drawn me to their products and services, it's those with passion I remember most. Like a young woman who ran Spanish clubs for children. She could hardly stand still she was so excited about what the classes could offer the children.

Sometimes when I get excited about things I start to babble which is embarrassing maybe but the words pour out of me as I try to communicate what I feel.

That's how we should write about our businesses. With such passion that even if people don't need our services, they remember the total commitment we have and the energy we create for what we love to do.