Just about every business article you read these days says something like, “The only way to succeed is to do something you love, something you can’t go more than an hour without thinking or talking about.” It’s not bad advice. Not at all. It’s absolutely true in fact. But it does require clarification.
There are people that are incredibly passionate about specific things, and they work hard to turn their passions into businesses. That’s awesome. You’ll find that the most successful cattle farmers are deeply passionate about cows, and the most successful shoe salesmen are deeply passionate about sneakers, loafers and boots. I’ve even heard of people that have turned their passion for Pokémon into successful businesses. It’s so, so cool! Today it is easier than at any time in history to monetise our passions. It’s such a blessing to be an entrepreneur, established or aspiring, today.
There’s another kind of entrepreneurial passion though. It’s when an entrepreneur is passionate about entrepreneurship. When they’re deeply passionate about business. These entrepreneurs love the process of building businesses. They love everything about building something of significant value, regardless of the industry or market the business is in. Being this kind of entrepreneur is absolutely fine.
You don’t need to be super passionate about any one thing in particular. If you are, that’s great. If you aren’t, that’s great too.
I used to be really stressed out that I wasn’t really passionate about a specific product, service, idea or market. I thought it must mean that I’m not really an entrepreneur. But then I realised that that’s perfectly okay.
You see, I’m passionate about building businesses. I love creating something from nothing. I get out of bed in the morning excited about identifying opportunities, coming up with solutions to problems, and then executing a plan that builds a sustainable business of true value. It doesn’t matter to me what industry it’s in. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s potato peelers or derivatives. If there’s a gap, I’m passionate about filling it.
An entrepreneur that is passionate about a specific thing or a certain niche, is no more an entrepreneur than I am. And vice versa. They love a specific product or service and a specific business. I just love business. The thing is, it doesn’t matter which type of entrepreneur you are, just embrace it. You should absolutely do what you love, life is too short to do otherwise, but if what you love is not one specific thing, that’s okay. Don’t feel like you’re not a real entrepreneur because you don’t have one specific product or service in mind for your business.
We’ve been made to feel less worthy of success than people that know exactly what kind of business they want to start, but that’s wrong and complete nonsense.
At the end of the day, all that matters is whether or not the business you build is valuable enough that people will pay you for your product or service. Build a business around a product or service that you’re crazy about, or build a business because you’re crazy about building a business. Either way, all that matters is that you pursue what you are most passionate about.
Do what you love and build something of value, regardless of what form that may take.
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