Belief can be powerful, but there's a few problems with it. Firstly, people aren't going to just believe in anything. Let's face it, very few "believe" in som

Belief can be powerful, but there's a few problems with it. Firstly, people aren't going to just believe in anything. Let's face it, very few "believe" in something like Coca-Cola. Does that mean no one should work for Coca-Cola? Of course people should. (ethic of business practices aside!) Some of the work I'm sure is interesting, and despite that millions of people enjoy Coke and many would be happy being associated with it. They might even be content working for them. I don't think it's necessary to have a belief or passion in a company to do good work for them and not hate your job. Belief is also fleeting because, if your company is successful, inevitably you will sabotage the things that made people passionate about it in the first place. Once you get corporate, stuck in your ways, and implement layers of aloof middle management, no one is going to care about your business from a personal level no matter how much company surveys will suggest the opposite. Belief is great, but you can't count on it forever. You might be able to extend that belief by being smart and not doing things that would show up in a Dilbert comic, but it's far more common that companies abandon the things that truly inspired their employees. Most businesses dilute responsibilities, get rid of most of the nonstandard perks, and fundamentally get lazy as they milk the cash cow. What's more valuable long term is respect and trust in subordinates. If you don't foster those things in your culture, you'll inevitably get 90% complacence and yes-men and 10% semi-disgruntled performers who do most of the work. So many employers don't want to hear what the experts they've hired have to say; they disrespect them by treating them the same as sales (and sometimes the sales dept becomes the most respected) and milking as much effort as they can, disregarding any sort of estimates someone like an engineer would make. If you don't have respect, not only will nobody care about your project, but no one will give a fuck about your project.