How passion will power your radio career

To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work
Sister Mary Lauretta

Recent research has proved that people across Britain are passionate about radio – in fact they love it. Why? It makes Britain happier.

While it’s important to value the passion and energies of our audiences and customers – it’s also important to value the passion closer to home. When meeting others in radio and the creative business, one thing that always leaps out is the passion, dedication and commitment that people have for their work, craft and artform.

The Radio Academy Summer Quiz saw 150 from across the industry give up a Monday evening for a fun and enjoyable fundraising event, raising money for the Radio Academy charity – although the ability to take bragging rights of BBC Radio 2 was also a pull.  People from across commercial, independent and the BBC gave up their evening to spend the night with colleagues and peers and get involved in a celebration of their industry – and help raise funds for the recognition, promotion and development of the charity to support it.

The amount of times there’s people still in radio studios at the end of the night editing ‘that killer interview’ or coming in over the weekend to make sure the meeting is all sorted for Monday morning – we’ve all done it!

Steve Jobs is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our generation. His background from a young age wasn’t a plain journey. He left school at a young age with no exams or grades under his belt. Through hard work and passion for his craft – Apple was born .. and the rest is history. In a famous quote Jobs says  ‘Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do’.

The other day I was in a meeting for my day job presenting a fantastic radio solution and the person at the agency commented positively on my “passion”. It took me by surprise. This isn’t something I’ve ever heard of before as a descriptor. It got me thinking, to only realise that the radio business is definitely an area where the people are passionate about the jobs. I think there’s such a high demand to join the industry (and for some keep their jobs) – that being passionate is a way of getting that foot in the door and keeping top of mind with management. People are generally excited about the industry within and this in turn spurs on creativity, great ideas and ground-breaking solutions.

When I’ve interviewed for roles in the past and the interviewee didn’t show any passion – I didn’t even bother looking through their CV’s. You can buy an effects package for Pro Tools – but you can’t buy passion. Passion isn’t textbook; it comes naturally.

Passion. The most exciting attribute that fortunately many people in creative radio have – it’s infectious, contagious and exciting and helps breed success.

Image – http://www.cottonable.com/