It’s been a growing experience for me. In the past I admittedly have let my passion overrule my good sense and I’ve regretted it every time. This has mostly been work related. Not with friendships, thank goodness.

It’s a time for passon AND patience.

In my maturity, I can compartmentalize people and although I’m not a fan, that comment resonates with me almost daily in my interactions. Excellent post. glad we crossed paths.

It seems if active listening is apart of passionate exchange, then possibly the relating will continue to grow after a disagreement, political season, etc.

And then again too, I wonder if another aspect of thought leadership is taking one’s passion for ideas seriously yet not necessarily one’s self.

I found your blog, Aaron, through Twitter, and I followed your link through Twitter. A fluke for this month, actually, because I am largely disengaging myself from Twitter during the election season. The atmosphere is toxic just before/during/after a presidential debate. It seems there is room for only one political opinion there, and, while I know there are people I follow of all political persuasions, the more conservative types are completely silent during debates.

For full disclosure, I’m a lifelong California Republican who will soon re-register as an independent and supports Barack Obama. How’s that for covering most of the bases? And yet I feel totally alienated by the level of intolerance and unadulterated HATRED I find on Twitter during a Big Campaign Moment. Funny that I should take personally the viciousness that is only halfway aimed at me, but there you go.

And when the election is over, will I make nice and have harmless Twitter (or blog) conversations with those Twitterers/bloggers? I’ll try. I guess that would be coming out of my corner.

Thanks again for a very relevant and thought-provoking post,

Laurie @ Foolery
“Poking People With a Stick Since 1965″

No matter what happens after Nov. 4th, I still got a lot of things on my queue at Netflix and plenty to watch on my DVR.

On a serious note, as someone who has spent more time working on her internal network of blogs and community building relationships, we have a small amount of flaming that does happen, but that is really rare. And I think I might have said this before, but I believe that is because I work in a world of transparency, where your name is your brand and your blog, your wiki contributions, are all connected to you.

We want conversation and different points of view, but not to the sake of feelings getting hurt and trampling on people to get to the top. Your street cred, content, and contributions are what makes you.

Since my presence on the “internet” was mostly all about music promotion in the past. I did seem to get insults and false accusations thrown on me in my industry circles, but all that fades when you consistently produce quality work and no one remembers the BS that bunches your panties for 5 minutes.

Now that I am focusing on getting the information out about Government 2.0 and our use of Social Media, I haven’t found anyone who has made me riled up enough to get upset. Sure, I have seen erroneous information put out by someone I could even call a colleague. I would rather put out the corrections through other means (i.e. trusted media outlets), even if my name wasn’t attached.

My personal opinion, if something makes you heated. Walk away from your computer, put down your blackberry. Its best to come back to it with no emotion and just put out the facts. I think people will trust you on the fact you are passionate, but not letting your emotions drip on your keyboard.

I maybe naive, but I am just speaking from my experience.

My beliefs insult you. Your beliefs insult me. Wars start. For real. Actual wars of this stuff for millions upon millions of years.

You’re right. My post was not dialogue. However the comments did turn into it. So out of my screams did come some good.

Your posts sometimes are not dialogue. And you’ve admitted to that much in this post. Your words have insulted me more than once, yet I understand and attempt to listen to where your passion comes from. The entire relationship with you tends to trump that screaming banshee passion for me, but…that’s me.

There’s work in keeping those relationships, to be sure. But I’ve found it to be worth it.

About the election- I had felt that I could move on from all of this bitterness at the right after the general election, but if someone comes into office who has declared my point of view un-American, it will become difficult to continue to BE an American.

For me? I prefer not to be a “Thought Leader” – I actually find the term offensive… as it sort of reeks to me of gurus and sheeple. But I prefer the concept of “Action Leader” – showing people how to turn their thoughts, beliefs and passions into actions.

This election has caused deep divisions amongst many people. But I’ve opted to look at it as solely part of the many faceted aspects we must deal with as friends.

I will not let my relationships with my friends be impacted by it negatively. Because even though I might disagree with their conclusions or actions, I do understand that their passionate side is part of what I love about them… and will not hold that against them.

Just kidding, buddy… it was a nice post, actually, for examining, and kicking off, a bigger conversation. I think anything in which one engages really comes down to “what kind of result do I THINK I’m aiming for?” and comparing it to, “what kind of result did I actually get?” and then, if there’s a discrepency, “why do I keep getting A when I think I should be getting B”

As for Erin, love conquers all, baby…

Sam
ps. Aaron, for your info, I found this post via Steve Garfield’s Twitter tweet and I’m subscribing… cheers!

Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to like that tone and respect it as (dare I say it) “maverick”.

I think the true innovators are the ones who build community, who earn respect for showing respect, who listen to opposing views without being ready to pounce at the slightest sign of weakness, and who get that “no nonsense” is far too simplistic a notion when you are dealing with people invested in their “nonsense.”

I think people who can engage in thoughtful debate stand out far, far more than the “no BS” types.

Your passion is admirable. Destroy relationships in the process, if you’d like. I’m out of my corner as well.

Obviously, you are only one target of this post so don’t take it too personally. You’re not the only one.

And seriously, sorry if my post offended. I don’t know what else to say other than I think dialogue is necessary but I can’t have it with a wall. And the ones I’m having with others i offended have been great.

“Thought leaders are the ones who know how to tap into passion to accelerate their goals, but know when to tap the brake and fall back on relationships to enhance their goals.”

See, that’s interesting. Because in the blogosphere or whatever you want to call this corner we’re in these days, the “leaders” don’t need the relationship with you. You may need it with them. Let me make a slight edit and tell me what y’all think of this proposition:

“Thought leaders know how to harness the passion of others and forge relationships with them to accelerate a goal. But if they tap the brake on their own passion once the result is achieved, the other one may not be able to ‘fall back’on the relationship because it was unequal at the core, though the shared passion may have been equal once.”

But once you scream and name call, then what happens? Do you reach out or do you sit in your corner while the other side sits in their’s?

I don’t know. Do you?

Not everything is nice, or calm, or happy. And then comes the fall out.

For instance, as Karoli points out, this current election cycle has everyone screaming and namecalling. But once you scream and name call, then what happens? Do you reach out or do you sit in your corner while the other side sits in their’s?

I’ve been called some very nasty things in the past 24-48 hours (not the mention the past 8 months) yet I continue to come out of my corner. And I think that’s where the real passion comes in. When level heads prevail and discussions are had, I can concede wrong and agree to disagree, because the passion also brings compassion.

I think the bigger risk isn’t the passion, but those with passion who refuse to leave their corner.

Thanks for a thoughtful read,

Laurie @ Foolery

I’ll be the first to admit that unchecked passion has given me some of the greatest successes of my life but, at the same time, some of the worst failures too. The problem is that in both cases, I damaged (or even destroyed) a few relationships along the way. Not good.

Great reminder.