Without passion you don't have energy, without energy you have nothing.

Energy, on this view, isn't a trait you're born with or a resource you ration. It's something that passion produces. If you care deeply about what you're doing, effort stops feeling like a cost and starts feeling like momentum, and that momentum is what gets anything built. Without it, talent, money and good plans sit idle, which is why the quote says you have "nothing." It's a chain of three links: care, then drive, then results.

The idea belongs to a long tradition that treats enthusiasm as the engine of achievement, running from the Romantics through modern business and self-help writing. It also fits the public image Trump has cultivated as a dealmaker and showman, who stresses relentless drive and personal conviction. The attribution is mostly repeated in quote collections, so the exact wording is hard to verify, though the sentiment matches his style.

For a modern example, imagine someone who feels drained by a job they chose only for safety. Instead of trying to push harder, they could spend a few evenings a week on a project they truly care about, such as learning to code or starting a small bakery. Often the energy that shows up there spills back into the rest of their life.