In the world of startups, passion is considered the most important quality of founders. Coming from India where most business is software services, making money seemed like the primary goal. After coming to Silicon Valley, everyone was talking about passion. Every random act of writing code is coupled with passion.

Everyone is passionate, everyone loves their product — then why can’t everyone succeed? One answer: if the company failed, founders were not passionate enough. This sounds like pure bullshit. Passion is binary: either you are passionate or you are not.

Then I came across the lean startup. The principles reflect one simple fact — practicality. Pragmatism is probably the most desired skill. In startups it is important to focus on what is right more than on what you’re passionate about. It is extremely common to be passionate about the wrong idea. Lean startup methodologies teach us how to practically determine vital components.

However, pragmatism alone is not sufficient — it fails to be the fuel that drives a founder’s vision. Coupled with passion, pragmatism can make a huge impact.