It’s such a career-management cliché these days to talk
about “your passion”. (Around here in the Valley They Call Silicon, “passion”
is starting to be replaced by “superpowers”, as in “tell us about your
superpowers”, instead of “what’s your passion?” But it’s still the same kind of
buzzwordery.) And you get overwhelmed at networking events by people beetling
around jamming business cards into your hands and babbling about being
passionate about [insert cool tech du jour here].
It really starts to wear one out.
But listening yesterday morning to Marsha Barnes tell NPR’s
Rachel Martin about buying
a school bus so she could take her expertise on personal financial management
to wherever it’s needed (in the greater Charlotte, N.C., area), I was
infused with joy. Not only because she’s giving people information crucial to
their ability to live independently and well, but also because she so clearly loves what she’s doing.
I loved the part about her having to learn to drive the
bus…after she bought it. I love that she created a mobile office so that her
clients interact with her in a professional and private environment that customers
of the investment banks in downtown Charlotte would recognize. I love that she
can see this as a scalable model for any place where you can park a bus.
The woman is not telling us about her passion, she’s
living it, which is thoroughly evident in the energy, enthusiasm and joy that
fills her voice. And I’m grateful that this week in particular started out with
the inspiration of Marsha Barnes.
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