Passionate and competent - not incompatible

An interesting blog at Harvard Business Review.  Scott Anthony talking about the need to avoid confusing passion with competence. In the context of innovation and entrepreneurs he wrote:

"I look for "innovation bipolarity"...the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. Entrepreneurs should be able to argue passionately that their idea will change the world, and then, without skipping a beat, honestly assess the risks standing in the way of its success and describe what they are doing to mitigate them." 

Made me think that's not a bad maxim to apply to the creative process and idea generation.  Yes, a client wants us to argue passionately the rationale for our ideas, but we, account men and creatives alike, need to be able to look at what we're proposing and pre-empt the risks and the negatives and be ready to counter them.  And that means some pretty ferocious argument and debate with and amongst ourselves before our ideas even get out of the agency so we can be both passionate AND competent.

http://blogs.hbr.org/anthony/2012/02/dont_confuse_passion_with_comp.html