People start businesses for all kinds of reasons. Those that succeed support passion with pragmatism. A difficult balance to maintain over time. And one that eventually requires a choice.
Passion is fueled by a vision of better. Better service, better product, better way, better world. Visions that have changed the world. Locally and globally.
But passion, unfettered, creates unnecessary risk and long-term consequences. Many of which, unchecked, are difficult to differentiate from the recklessness of self-indulgence.
Pragmatism is equally personal. A variable scale based on confidence and circumstance. After all, to fight City Hall one needs both the will and the reason.
Most business owners set the bar for pragmatic decisions dangerously low. Confronted by an obstacle, they resort too often to the easy and the obvious. And claim the best interests of the business as their justification.
Great companies, however, are built on transparent hopes and clear visions.
Clarity that gives them both the framework and the passion to overcome short-term threats.
And which makes picking the easier path the reckless choice.