The illusion of "Passion"

I loved Steve Jobs & still do. One of the best in the game. I read "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" in +2 & this chapter hooked me like fevicol which become a part of my life philosophy. It talks about lots of things, but passion has been hilighted here like never before. Well, why me, in fact millions of students have come across this chapter (his Stanford speech) & have been deeply influenced by this term.

Ironically, this epic speech has not only opened, but it has also blocked the road for millions. How ? Let's find out.

Although passion has been used multiple times in his speech, but he has never concretely defined it. That's why people have applied this term in several contexts without any ground understanding of its true meaning. 

Consider the case of Rahul : an imaginary kid, who is excited about entrepreneurship. He heard the story of Mark Zuckerberg & said "I found my passion". Next day, he played a friendly cricket tournament in school & said "I got my passion, its actually cricket. Entrepreneurship was just some temporary fling". Then he kept playing cricket & one day when the game becomes challenging he gave up & said "Cricket was just for fun. Actually I am an entrepreneur material". Adults are no exception. They have also the same mentality, but let's not talk about it just to avoid some embarrassement.

So what exactly is Passion ? 

At this point, let's introduce another term into our discussion "Interest".  Are they same ? Ofcourse not. But how to identify what is a interest & what is a passion? I would say, its a tricky topic, so let's not hurry.

Let's talk about Rahul once again. I guess you would agree with me that CRICKET was just an INTEREST for that kid. What about being an ENTREPRENEUR ?  

Was it an interest ? Yes, it was. Was it also a  passion ? We don't know. How come we don't know ? Let's find out. 

You saw that kid just changed his path from entrepreneurship to cricket. But how long did he survive there ? May be a couple of months untill the game got tougher. If It was his passion, he would have stuck with his game, no matter how difficult his circumstance became. But he didn't. Also, we can't comment of whether entrepreneurship is really his passion, because he is still in school.

So without wasting time let's define it. 

"Passion is Interest added with commitment". Most important part of the definition being the 2nd half.

In the earlier stage of a person, there can be 4 or 5 interests, but there can be only ONE passion. Yes, multi-passionate people exist, but only after they gain mastery over one passion & usually it happens in latter half of life. 

Talking about Steve Jobs, creating Apple was not just another interest for him like cooking a tasty dinner. It's something he was not only interested about, but was also  committed to make it a giant success. 

I know, at this point I might be sounding like some sort of motivational guru, which I absolutely hate. But getting some clarity was the ultimate target, which I guess I pretty much did. 

If you have anything to say, feel free to put it in comment box. Thank you.