1990. A blue chip MNC and a wide-eyed management trainee, on her first job.
It was a year of cross functional training. Whilst in marketing, I worked on a new brand they were launching soon. It puzzled me no end that there would be such a buzz over the absorption capacity of the sanitary napkin they were testing out.
I could not understand their excitement when the electric blue ink they poured on the napkin faded to a dull mauve on absorption. I still recall the spontaneous cheers and applause.
What I didn’t realise then was that I was witnessing the birth of a future market leader.
If I could address the me of three decades ago, I would have told her that this was passion. Where people poured themselves into what they did. It is not about the object of the passion. It is about the passion itself that drives performance.
I discovered it a few years later. Where I used my passion for excellence as a driver for how I worked. Even if the work itself didn’t excite me much. Two decades further down, my passion for excellence has converged with passion for what I do, and I couldn’t be happier.
How does your passion manifest in your life and work?
