A couple of weeks ago, a social media consultant spent about 400 words explaining to his 2,800 Facebook friends why he is not going to write a particular book he has been thinking about, because he confesses he is not "passionate" about the subject.
"To do what I do as an author, I really need to become almost obsessed with the subject, and in terms of [this subject] … all I feel is interested—and that is not enough."
And how does he expect we feel, reading about a book on a subject that he was not passionate enough to write?
Well never mind. Because yesterday, the consultant announced that he now has found a project that hardens the nipples of his intellect! Ready? "How contextual marketing can build trust and efficiency between buyers and sellers."
I'm not much for predicting the future, but I'm pretty sure our descendants will scratch their heads at the kinds of things that early 21st century businesspeople told one another they were "passionate" about. It'll be referred to as the "passion fashion," and it will look every bit as laughable as the 1970s trucker craze seems to those of us who remember it at all.
I particularly dislike passionate gurus and mavens. They’re in love their topic, but above all, they’re in love with themselves. Bring back the truckers!
That’s a big 10-4, Golden Flash.
Allow me to thank you for injecting the phrase “hardening the nipples of his intellect” into my day, David. Splendid. Truly splendid.
It’s lines like that that I hate to write for free, Rueben.
A lesser wordsman would have been distracted by the rhyming potential of “intellect” and “erect” – but not so The Murr.