You have to be passionate to sell. You have to have conviction to sell what you sell. The problem happens when the passionate conviction takes over.

A good friend asked me to meet someone about a new business venture they were involved in. Reluctantly (I get a lot of these requests), I looked at his website, and did a little research and agreed.

We had a 30 minute phone conversation.

This person was passionate and convicted about his product and the opportunity and that was the problem. He couldn’t hear anything I was saying. He was closed off to anything coming out of my mouth.

His passion was awesome, he clearly believed in the market, his product and the endless opportunity that lay in front of him and that’s all he could see. He didn’t have any desire to learn, understand, challenge or grow his current view. He was locked and loaded.

Passion and conviction should help you learn, grow, and expand your ideas. They should drive your ability to get it done and get it done right. Passion and conviction are killer tools for execution. They make sure things get delivered.

However, when passion and conviction make you a preacher, the decline has begun.

If used to defend, cement, protect and justify an original idea, passionate conviction is no longer your friend, it’s your enemy.

Original ideas never work.