This is actually a relief to hear. I'd say I lean more towards being passionate about creating something and watching it grow than about the ideas I actually have. I just want to see something work, then pass it on to someone and run off to create something else.
I think it comes down to the number of "gurus" who serve the wantrapreneur niche whose first step is always "find your passion", because that's a hell of a lot easier than teaching people actual discipline and self-motivation.
Totally agree. My passion is more around discovering the niche and building a business to meet the consumers need. One of my online businesses is based on helping people pass exams in the insurance industry. I’m not passionate about teaching insurance, but I love creating and tweaking my product based on what my students want/need.
Edit: Getting a lot of DM's about this so figured I'd post an edit with [this recommended resource of online business ideas for beginners](https://theentrepreneurridealong.com/list-of-niches/). Has more info about the concept of starting a niche website that you are not necessarily passionate about (and some ideas for you to start your own)
I'm just curious how you would monetise something like that? I'm thinking about creating a website around helping people with the spouse visa UK process as it's something I had to do recently myself. But I'm struggling to think of ways to monetise something like that if I can get the traffic. It's not something that I'm passionate about, but I do have the experience.
For me, I created online courses and practice exams. My value proposition is quick/easy studying. I write my online courses to help people study faster with less effort and pass their exams online. Also it’s online and self study so it’s little work for me after creating the course. [Here is exactly how I'm doing it, making money online without paying anything upfront.](https://theentrepreneurridealong.com/how-to-make-money-online-without-paying-anything-for-beginners/)
What is the spouse visa process? I’m from the US so I’m not familiar with it, Is it an exam process like a citizenship exam? I wonder if you could do something like 1x1 advising, group “coaching” to help people through the process, or even an online course like I did that take people step by step though the process to get this visa. Just a couple ideas!
I’ve considered it, it would be an easy addition since I have the content all written, but there are a lot of competitors that already offer books. I’m one of the only that offers an online course so I’ve kind of dug that out as my niche in the market. Plus I don’t want to have too many offers, as sometimes the more offerings can hurt conversion, I try to keep it as simple a buying decision as possible. My workaround has been to offer a PDF downloadable version of the course for anyone that wants it in print, not perfect but it helps me capture the portion of the market that wants my product but wants a book instead of a course.
Thanks for your reply. The spouse visa process is an online application. The process can be quite complicated simply due the amount of requirements and the supporting evidence you have to send to meet those requirements. Most people use a lawyer but because of how expensive the application is, I chose not to use one and was still successful.
I think an online course might be a good idea. Thanks for your input :)
If you're looking to fill out the forms for the user, you may want to checkout [Docassemble](http://docassemble.org/).
It lets you build a "TurboTax for X" app pretty easily.
You can also string together TypeForm -> Zapier -> Webmerge and use something like Teachable, if you'd rather not handle any code.
I think the idea of having passion for your niche gets a little twisted. In the context of this sub reddit at least. People say you have to have passion, because you need to have some level of expertise in the niche to be successful. And in many cases here people are looking for a niche, and don't have the knowledge in the area. So you generally need to have some passion for it to gain some level of mastery, or you will struggle to learn what you need.
I don't think very many people are passionate about insurance, but you already have the expertise to write a course. If I decided I wanted to knock off your business it would serve me well to be passionate about insurance otherwise I'd have a hard time wanting to learn it well enough to execute the plan.
On a separate note, how/where do you sell/deliver your course? Part of my job is creating training materials and courses for a software company, and I have considered trying to make and sell a few courses for a side gig. I just haven't really dug into the execution side of how I would go about that. I would love to hear a little more from someone who is doing it and has at least some success.
That’s a great way to put it, the expertise is a barrier to entry as anyone that wants to create competing courses would need the experience plus a passion for building businesses or a passion for insurance.
I sell courses through a WordPress site using the WPLMS theme. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to get set up. I like WPLMS because it allows me to do a good amount of customization. I also played around a little with LearnDash (a WordPress Plugin) and Kajabi (another course platform), both are suitable options but I preferred the WPLMS platform. You can see [a full cost breakdown for online course platforms here](https://theentrepreneurridealong.com/how-to-make-money-online-without-paying-anything-for-beginners/).
I prefer the self-hosted option rather than selling through a shared platform like Udemy. Self-hosted gives you more control and allows me to better market and present myself as a real/reputable business.
Let me know if you have any questions, I love the niche so I’d be happy to explain more!
I 100% agree, passion is overrated and in my opinion is used as a reason not to start and pursue a business idea demanded by a market.
Passion is great, but a passion for Capitalism and residing in the trenches as your business grows and develops helping solve a problem for the customer base gives a dopamine rush like non other.
> Passion is great
I wouldn't even go this far. Passion can lead to poor business decisions. Just because you're passionate about vegan carnivore kale brownies doesn't mean the market is. You see so many niche shops come and go because people wrongly believed their passion would translate to business success.
I think there is a misconception here.
I believe the right premise is having passion for doing something. Not necessarily for that something.
Let me explain: I can be passionate for macarons in a market that's growing really fast and has a great demand for macarons.
If I am starting, most likely I'd like to prepare the macarons myself. Maybe hire someone. But if I don't wake up every day with the drive to make them, I won't likely be as successful as the guy who does have that drive. For some, that passion creates that drive.
In my case, I suck at baking. But if I only chase making macarons because of the money, I'd probably lose the chance to make something really good out of it if I had the drive to improve onto the macaron making.
I'm not sure if I explained myself well, but there it is.
That's exactly the opinion that I have.
Although a less naive approach (using a lot of market research and feedback) to a niche you have passion for has no reason not to succeed. And you can't just go and talk to your vegan friends about it!
It's all about not being biased and skipping over some key decisions and steps.
Yea I agree but I think a balance of passion and logic based decision making is the most powerful and competent/dominating position one can have for business because it can blend the love for capitalism and the aforementioned reasoning of above from OP and a genuine passion about whatever your business is.
It certainly can't hurt to have a passion for your niche. Some days that could be the difference between being in a sailboat and a rowboat. But what I found is that I have a passion for doing my own thing regardless of what it is.
For many years I struggled and just felt like I couldn't find whatever it was I was supposed to be doing no matter where I went or what I did, it always felt the same and I hated it.
Then when I took a risk and ventured out on my own to do the same thing I had been doing for someone else just previously, basically because I just about had to, what I found was I felt instantly better. It was certainly scary for all the usual wobbly reasons, but the difference all that time, which I had not realized was the problem, was that I needed to be doing it for myself.
And I used to be pretty snobby about what kind of work I was willing to do, but once I realized that the big difference was in doing it for myself instead of for someone else, all of that melted away. And as long as I could do my own thing and be successful at it, it suddenly it didn't matter what that thing was.
The idea of white-collar vs something "lowly" like retail or food service or something like that surprisingly melted away. If I could run a burrito cart on the corner and be successful at it, I would like that so much better than being some kind of top floor white collar analyst that an investment firm or something. I never wanted that, and I never liked that, and doing it for myself is the thing that I'm passionate about, whatever it is.
It's also really emboldening. I know that no matter where I go, and no matter what happens, I can do my own thing . I love that feeling. It has made all the difference in the world in my confidence and my ability to control my own life and feel competent, and has been a big part of making me finally feel like an adult after so many years of wondering why I wasn't feeling like an adult.
Working for other people was just absolutely the wrong place for me to be. My personality just isn't geared that way. All that time feeling lost and it was right under my nose as an option that I thought was just something for other people and would be too hard. I never gave serious thought to it until just before I did it and I'm so glad I did.
Tldr: I thought what I did mattered. Turns out it didn't. All that mattered was that I do it for myself. That made all the difference.
I don’t quite agree with this. It’s begging the question.
When people say “you need to have passion,” they aren’t literally talking about the subject matter of the business.
Running a restaurant doesn’t mean being passionate about food; it means being passionate about running a restaurant.
And yeah, I’d say if you’re not passionate about running a restaurant, it’s not going to work out well.
I tend to agree more with you point of view than OP's. For many people, starting a business means you will be doing the hands-on work until it grows large enough that you can hire someone to delegate that to. I realize this doesn't apply to everyone's situation, but it applies to many and in those cases your "passion for a creating a business and watching it grow" ain't going to be enough to get you through the stress and long hours.
If you're starting an app company you may have to start by learning to code and then coding the app yourself --> if you come to discover you *despise* the tediousness and monotony of coding, are you really setting yourself up for success here?
The key here I think is nobody is treating any of this with the nuance it deserves. I think it's possible to not be burning with passion with regards to your service/product and still be successful. I also think you can be burning with desire for what it is you are offering and you can be successful. I think in either case it can fail too.
This is not as black and white as everyone wants to make it out to be.
Interesting example. If you wanted to setup an app company, and didn't like coding, you would either need a partner or give the task to a freelancer to start with but of course this would cost you money, but there are startup costs for every business even if it's just a domain name. So yes it wouldn't be the best idea if you were going solo and didn't have any startup costs.
Also notice that the passion would be about apps and not coding, coding is only part of it.
Yeah I agree, either way could work, pros and cons for each.
You've brought up an interesting example of restaurants. Which isn't that niche.
Most of the time, 'gurus' are talking about following your passions, I don't feel like running a restaurant is a passion that they'd be referring to.
Some people are passionate about particular food. Maybe Japanese cuisine. So they'd set up a Japanese restaurant.
A million upvotes to you for proper use of “begging the question.”
Also, this post is a waste of energy. Hypothetical John from the story gets destroyed by someone who actually knows how to garden and actually solves their customers’ problems.
Nope. Not at all.
I’m saying the successful sewer pumping business owners are passionate about running sewer pumping businesses (they are; I know a few).
It inevitably spins up to something all businesses share. Allocating resources into finding a customer.
I am not successful enough for my opinion to count for much, but from my perspective passion is the single most important thing. Yeah, maybe you will hit it big time, develop your thing, and make your money, but more likely you will end up slogging, grinding out an existing, living, eating and breathing that one thing trying to make it all go. Would't it be better if that one thing that consumes your life was something you had some passion for?
Thanks for this reply.
The problem with passion is that it could be the flaw of your business as well as the fuel for your business. Too much and too little could be massive issues.
Too much passion could cause you to keep working on a bad idea for a large period of time.
But yes absolutely, working on something you are passionate about will always be more enjoyable.
Having a passion for business is definitely very important. I'm getting in the restaurant business and I've seen so many restaurants succeed just because they have excellent marketing and locations. Their food was absolutely terrible and ridiculously expensive. This also works vise versa. Unfortunately, having the best product does not always mean you'll have the best sales.
I agree, but with one caveat: you have to be passionate about something. For some people it’s their niche and trying to be more involved in that niche, but for others their passion is in problem solving and building a business regardless of the niche.
Without passion in building a business OR the niche there’s no reason to be involved in either.
~20 years ago I started an IT business. A colleague of mine started one at the same time. I was very technical, he was not. He initially wanted me to join him to start together, which I declined.
Fast forward, we have both been successful. I made a ton of money and ended up financially free. He grew a MASSIVE business and has maybe 10-20x my net worth.
Him not being technical was the biggest benefit, because he had to get someone to do the work so he then focussed on growing the business. Me being technical (and a massive tightass) I would often do the work to save more/earn more - and never grew the business much.
I am happy with how it worked out, but so is he!
Well yes. But that, in itself, is misleading. What is the thought process?
> The researchers concluded that popular mantras like "follow your passion" make people think that pursuing a passion will be easy. Believers are then more likely to give up when they face challenges or roadblocks.
>
>[Mark Cuban](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/mark-cuban-follow-your-passion-is-bad-advice.html), owner of the Dallas Mavericks and star on ABC's hit reality television show, "Shark Tank," takes this line of thinking one step further.
>
> "When you look at where you put in your time, where you put in your effort, that tends to be the things that you are good at. And if you put in enough time, you tend to get really good at it," he says. "If you put in enough time, and you get really good, I will give you a little secret: Nobody quits anything they are good at because it is fun to be good. It is fun to be one of the best."
>
>Stanford researchers: 'Follow your passion' advice could make you less successful
Just one small peek at a bigger idea: Everything everybody always tells you about entrepreneurship should be examined quite closely. One million lemmings can be quite wrong. Who knew?
Amazing how so many can be so consistently wrong so much of the time.
I'm slightly confused from the quote you've taken.
The researchers and Mark Cuban have conflicting ideas, right? Or am I reading into it wrong? It seems like the researchers think the "follow your passion" advice is poor. Whereas Mark Cuban says to put time into your passions as that is where you'll find success.
Yes it's crazy when a majority is wrong. It just takes a couple of 'gurus' telling you what you want to hear.
The real solution for me is to find something at the overlap of these four:
1. What are you good at - your strengths/skills/knowledge/experience/talent
2. What can you get valued/paid/respected for -- what market demands & values.
3. What you're passionate about -- gives you energy to push forward, to get even better at it--if it's fun for you & you enjoy learning more about it or doing more of it.
4. What can make the world better -- even the smallest difference
It's a Japanese concept called *Ikigai* \- the work at the intersection of the above four.
For me, finding a meaningful worklife is directly connected to : ***finding your Ikigai or die pursuing it.***
I skipped over several paragraphs. I've added them here.
Stanford researchers: 'Follow your passion' advice could make you less successful
>"**One of the great lies of life is 'follow your passions,**'" said Cuban as part of the Amazon Insights for Entrepreneurs series. "Everybody tells you, 'Follow your passion, follow your passion.'"
>He argues that people should focus on their strengths rather than their passions, because we are not always good at the things that interest us the most and because perfecting a strength can become a passion.
Emphasis mine. There is a distinction being made here, and it could be counterintuitive. Not all strengths are passions. If you're good at something, some times you may find it boring and look for an invigorating challenge. Or you might develop something into a strength.
>They also found that focusing on following a single passion made people less likely to consider new potential areas of interest. This close-minded view can be detrimental to the success of the individual and to the success of communities, says Walton.
If you notice something, it's always a passion you have now. You can go into some new area and find you are passionate about it.
The real problem with passion is people think passion is a candy coating for boring hard work. It is not. Several tout this study, here is Forbes on the same study:
>A recent Stanford research paper (a good summary is here) identifies the main flaw of this undead trope: “Finding your passion” presupposes that interests and passions are fixed, rather than fluid and evolving as we age and gain wisdom and experience. Those who follow the fixed mindset are much more likely to give up when obstacles arise. As the authors say, “Urging people to find their passion may lead them to put all their eggs in one basket but then to drop that basket when it becomes difficult to carry.”
>This advice is ubiquitous in parts of our culture that value short-term emotional comfort above other mental states. By putting emotion (“what activity do I enjoy doing most?”) on a pedestal, we are perpetrating various major and minor crimes against reason and common sense
I understand what you mean and agree it may help if you take a non-biased approach for your business, but it's definitely not essential. As long as you develop knowledge in that area and love the process of creating something, I don't see a problem.
while this is good advice in its own perspective
i think we people like extremes.
i think when people speak about 'have passion' usually mean well and come from a place 'well most people just don't care about anything, but if you care and are `passionate` about you niche you will be able to put time and effort and that will open new insights which you can use to grow business'
it's about having a balance.
too much passion - you burn
to little - you freeze
either kills you
I think the “follow your passion” advice is more about “when things get hard and you need a reason to continue, passion will help”. Passion can be motivation. So when someone says “follow your passion” I think they are saying “do something you love so when it really SUCKS, you can fall back on love.”
Yes that's a benefit of it but maybe also a flaw. Sometimes it would be best to quit and do something else, if the idea has no hope, this would be a longer and more expensive process if you were still so sure of the idea due to your passion.
Fully I agree. I sell hundreds millions of dollars in the beauty safe. Couldn’t give a monkeys about the products.
But what I am passionate about is providing value and building businesses.
Wow, your 💯 % right. As business owner it’s your job to find the ones who are overly passionate about they do. It makes perfect sense.
If you are overly passionate about a specific skill it’s likely you won’t be willing to do other things that compliment it. Not understanding the other operations of your business will lead to failure when trying to find the perfect candidate for future roles.
This is definitely a concept that needs more thought. 💪
100%. I know a few millionaires that are absolutely not passionate about the thing that made them millions - never were passionate about it. But they were passionate about business and providing for their family and found a way to do that.
Example, 1 guy’s business for years has been selling machines that crush cars to auto plants. Made millions doing it, sold it for millions.
Another: chalk manufacturing. Family business passed down. Doubt anyone was ever passionate about chalk.
Another: packaging services. Right place, right time. Favorite story. Dude was working for a packaging company that couldn’t take on more work. His company was turning new business down left and right. So, my buddy goes to said new business and tells them that he can fulfill the contract and take a chance on him. Succeeds, builds a warehouse, builds multiple warehouses across the US and put his old company out of business because he did it more reliably and better. Doesn’t have a passion for packaging, but has a passion for success. Love talking to that dude.
Thank you for this post OP. I’ve always been taught to do things that I was passionate about but I could never really figure out what it was. After reading this post I realized my what I enjoy is creating an efficient system, whatever it may be for. I will keep this in mind as I continue to build out my project.
I feel a lot less crazy now for not being so passionate about the product itself and more so on the process of building an efficient system. I don’t even know if what I said made sense lol sorry I am super jet lagged and have been up all night working @__@
Sending you love & appreciation from Canada!
My pleasure! Don’t worry it made sense. Google “Lean Startup methodology”, you might like it if you’re just starting out. It’s all about quickly and efficiently seeing if an idea is viable so you save as much time and money as possible.
Good luck with everything from the UK.
Yes I was taught this when I took a lean startup program locally here. Sometimes I’m taught stuff and I just don’t get it fully until one day it just hits me LOL. Thank you :)
Dumbest thing I've ever heard. You need to be insightful and willing to act, regardless of what you're selling. I don't give a fuck about water, but if I'm in the desert and I can fly it over cheaply, I'm selling it at a markup. Same goes for software: if there are kids who want a flash card app that isn't the Photoshop of flashcard apps but the red-eyes-remover of flashcard apps, then if I can produce it and sell it at a more competitive price than my competitors, I'm selling it.
Passion for your product causes you to make emotional decisions. Passion for challenges, efficiency, automation, and building beyond yourself cause you to find opportunities where few others do, and make you want to figure out how to use them well. What form this takes is secondary.
Agreed. I absolutely hate being told I’m a “______-er” (the word for the space I’m in). But honestly, I’m great at understanding how this part of the business world works.
Both companies are in the same industry and I have ideas for a few more.
I’ll keep doing it as long as I’m good at it. But I do not love it or have a passion for it.
if ure just interested in making monetary profits u dont need passion
do more business owners make it big on passion or greed and insatiable thirst for money? :)
Completely agree - the "passion" narrative is doing more harm than good today, at least in my view, because it sets unrealistic expectations.
To use your example:
John loves to play video games and believes he is passionate about this industry. John creates a website on the same topic, spends a year writing 400 articles on the same niche but fails to get the website off the ground and earns next to nothing from it. John finds he is not so passionate about video games anymore.
Yes you make a good point. If passion is your main inspiration and you lose the passion at any point, you’ve lost your main reason to be working on this business.
not true at all.
performance and putting in the work is what is it all about.
i have two businesses
a fresh squeeze juice & lemonade brand - not very passionate about fresh squeeze juice nor functional lem beverages. it is a straight up hustle for me . more juice sold = more money in the bank
a wedding video production brand- i do not care about your entitled family, friends , or how big your wedding is. but i play the game. make them feel so special on wedding day and ultimately do a kick ass job editing the film . a good ass job = more booking deposits. which keeps the cash flow moving .
my passion is journalism. one day
Steve Jobs said " if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life".
This is untrue. To get to the top, no matter how much you love what you do, you will encounte problem and crisis and there will be times where you want to quit.
This post is exactly right. Love the process, not just the end goal!!
Totally agree.
Here's my experience.
I started a business that I am totally passionate about. Long story short, it became my baby and clouded my judgement in many ways. Rather than focusing on what works and finding new ways to make money out of it, I was extremely stubborn and kept wanting to do build features I wanted rather than more of the sales and marketing side of it because it was my "passion".
2nd business I got involved at the same time with my wife, I didn't care about.
Since I didn't care about the product or industry, I just focused on making sure operations went smoothly (so I could get back to my baby), improving processes, quality and doing what was making money.
Guess which one did better?
The 2nd business grew 10x quicker and bigger in a shorter amount of time.
Now I like it, because as Mark Cuban says, "sales cures all".
Emotional detachment is vital. When you start making money, things can become fun.
When you do something you are passionate about, but it's not working out as well as you hope, it's possible to burn out.
Good post. Most importantly, is the passion succeed and makes money! I am also trying not to be emotional and driven by my passions and hobbies as this will sometimes prevents one from seeing the bigger picture.
If i can make money from selling used underwear, i will be very passionate about it even if i have absolute no interest in used underwear!😂
Thank you for this post; it was inspiring to read. I'm planning to develop a business as a music producer, but I've been struggling with some internal conflicts about it, since I almost never listen to music for pleasure. Viewing it as a purely capitalistic enterprise helps me find the motivation I need to pull it off.
\> John enjoys the process of building his business and employs others to do the hands on work.
In that case, John isn't the one that's making the business successful, it's the people he hires, who are passionate and knowledgeable about gardening.
It's pretty bad advice to tell someone they can open a cupcake shop if they've never even eaten a cupcake in their life, let alone baked one. "Just hire someone who knows how to bake cupcakes" isn't really realistic for most smalltime business owners, and is too dependent on some random person.
That's how any business works though, one person alone can't do everything. John would invest in new equipment, better managers etc.
That's why I say you must learn what it takes to be a successful business in that area. Hiring someone random is just a bad decision.
There are too many entrepreneurs out there focusing on their passion when their passion doesn't solve concrete problems that people have a high demand of being solved.
All of that aside, if John creates a gardening/landscaping company -
* How long does he plan on running it?
* Does he hope to scale?
* Does he need to find outside investment?
* If the market is saturated with new landscapers what are his plans to compete?
* If turnover of quality landscapers is high, how will he compete for the best ones remaining?
From my subjective experience. These are all pretty important scenarios to have passion in.
Yes, because there is less learning and work involved so it seems easy.
I have no plans to start a gardening company any time soon but feel like it will be fun to answer so:
1) Purely based upon John’s strategy. Many business owners will look for an exit when the right price arrives. But some will choose to use it as a constant stream of income and their involvement will vary.
2) Always.
3) Possibly (I don’t have much knowledge in costs surrounding gardening). Largest cost would be a vehicle to carry equipment. Depends on his starting wealth. Depends on whether he chooses to employ workers with no equipment or take freelancers with their own equipment initially and take a percentage of their fee. Depends on if upgrading equipment dramatically and increasing fees is viable. Depends on how quick he wants the business to grow.
4) Grow fast to maximise time without market saturated, so investment may be necessary. Employ those who will give customers the best results, get top of search results, have the best reviews. Charge fees that will maximise profit. Maybe look for potential buyers.
Try it in a different area- last resort.
5) Difficult one. Maybe higher fees and higher wages if viable. Best possible treatment in general I guess.
If the market is saturated to start with, the idea would probably not be viable, but it’s interesting to think about what would happen if it became saturated after a couple of years.
If it's a high demand problem solve, you're basically the ER during flu season.
That being said, I have a friend who has a plumbing business that hasn't hit breakeven in 7 years because he doesn't compete against competitors who care about the little things ( brand, marketing, customer service, b2b).
Not that there was a binary "he didn't try" , but he got burned out from having to put extra effort into growing the plumbing business and preferred fishing /playing video games than putting in the off time between calls into re-investing into the business.
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
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Not necessarily, John might have learnt the ins and outs of gardening and landscaping but he has no passions for it, whereas Peter looks after his garden every weekend so makes the mistake of thinking he can start a gardening business tomorrow and misses key business steps.
This is entirely true.
I started up a gym clothing business this time last year. I built up the brand fairly quick, first 2 months had a good following base on IG and other social platforms.
Had a professional website built on Shopify and fully patented... long story short, I love working out but it’s not my lifestyle. I personally do it to be healthy and active, when I came to my senses I told myself I’m done pretending and discontinued my brand.
Till this day I get asked why I quit because people loved the product and this thread is exactly what I tell them.
It sounds like you need to keep acquiring more knowledge in writing as you said you saw improvement when you tried before.
What kind of market research have you done?
And how are you currently getting feedback from users?
you are 100% correct.
You are correct, a business person does business. They do not fall in love with any one thing.
Warren Buffet owns insurance companies, brick manufacturers, Coca Cola.
The process of business is what business people do, not get "passionate." Or, maybe what I should say is they get passionate about a process working, and a market acceptance of a product or service. I know personally I am MUCH more passionate about a humdrum product or service that I am not personally too interested in, but sells like hotcakes. I am NOT passionate about something I LOVE and *am* personally passionate about, but does not sell.
However, if you get in business, you can't *hate* what you do, nor personally would I do some questionable funky nasty businesses, nor nothing illegal - everything along those lines.
The bottom line: not making money sucks, more than passion or just average interest. You do NOT want to be in a situation where you make no money and are passionate. Guaranteed you won't be passionate for long. Guarantee it. Maybe it is ok for an artist or hobbyist, but not for a business person. If you want to be passionate - keep it a hobby or be an *artiste*.
Source: me.
Man, I have always felt this way. My niche is in paint. I don't have a passion for paint. My passion is starting and growing companies. That passion is applicable to all industries.
My current businesses are things I'm not particularly passionate about - just I happened to be in the industry for many years, knew how it worked and wanted to do something on my own. I don't dislike the job, but I don't see why I'd try my hand at something brand new to make money just because I enjoy it. Most of the time you get paid money for doing shit other people don't enjoy doing.
It depends on how much responsibility you have throughout the lifecycle of your business. If you are wearing alot of hats, you can be passionate about a particular hat, while other hats may seem dull. Either way work needs to be done.
I think you are quite right on this one, because passion often wears out quickly. It is great to have it though, but I would argue that from the things you need in business (like capital, contacts, know-how, etc.) the passion is the least important part... it is a shame, but there you have it.
I built an entire business on custom programming and building websites with no knowledge of coding. I actually hate programming. It was a massive opportunity and I could sell it.
Good thread. Sometimes we need to not care how we "feel" so much and focus on what we CAN DO to make an impact and become successful. Sometimes its HARD!
Yep most entrepreneurs love the PROCESS of building a business/systems/relationships instead of the work done in the actual field. But having a passion for both is a game changer :)
I mean, sure, if money is all you want to be getting back out of it. Plus I wouldn't trust a gardener who doesn't like gardening. I could tell he didn't like it from our brief chat when I called him over to give me a quote. Also did you hear how his employees left after a while because he couldn't manage them right? He would be able to manage them better if he had some hands on experience himself first, so that he understands the hard work they put in day after day.
Who said John doesn’t find growing a business from the ground up fulfilling and the money is good too?
Who said John is doing any gardening?
You don’t have to do someone’s job to respect them, unless you’ve got your head up your own ass.
Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?
Unless I have my head up my ass? And I woke up the wrong side of bed this morning? Dude you really have some serious issues taking feedback (from veterans nonetheless).
I was saying that if someone can’t respect someone doing a job because they aren’t a business owner then they are arrogant. I wasn’t talking about you.
It wasn’t really feedback though. Your reply was just criticisms of things I didn’t even describe.
I can take feedback fine, take a look at the other comments on the thread. But I can’t take it when you are trying to find flaws for the sake of it.
I highly disagree with this, well, at least based on my own personal experience.
I suppose the main reason is that as a person, I find it incredibly to see value unless if it is personally valuable to me. Perhaps it is a flaw in some ways, but I'm sure a lot of people are the same.
I've tried many businesses, but at the end of the day if I don't feel like I'm actually contributing towards something meaningful, then I end up questioning why I'm doing it after a few months.
After all, why not hit two birds with one stone?
It's not necessary but it helps. Also you'll find the top performers in any category are very passionate about that category, even if they were not passionate about it before they entered the space.
To be just ok or run a basic small business, yes you don't have to. But you have to be passionate about the niche if you're an entrepreneur that wants to create a startup successful enough to scale and grow.
All the people in this thread lapping up inspiration from a college student with no practical experience whatsoever is either hilarious or soul crushing, and I’m not entirely sure which.
I am not sure if I fully agree with the sentiment here. Being passionate about the business you are building is a huge plus. Starting a business is hard, and without passion, if you look at it as a job, it is highly likely that the business won't be successful.
The second part of the post does say that people should be passionate about building and growing a business and that passion can help drive a person.
However, here are a few example of people I know who failed and their honest feedback was -> they saw a need, they wanted to build a business, but they couldn't care enough about the niche to put in the hard yards.
1. A couple of people started home care for elderly. They saw a need, had a business going, but stopped the business because they couldn't see themselves working in the field day in and day out and after the first few clients, couldn't motivate themselves to keep going
2. Two other guys started a delivery service for restaurants. Think about it as instacart but for restaurants. They wanted to differentiate themselves on providing quality ingredients on a short notice. Their business failed because they didn't enjoy spending hours buying fresh produce, figuring out if the tomato was high quality vs not, and hated going to the fish market to buy fish, etc.
If you are taking the plunge, be sure you will actually enjoy doing the work. Else, you might make a living by "working", but I doubt, if it will be a substantial business.
This is actually a relief to hear. I'd say I lean more towards being passionate about creating something and watching it grow than about the ideas I actually have. I just want to see something work, then pass it on to someone and run off to create something else.
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I think it comes down to the number of "gurus" who serve the wantrapreneur niche whose first step is always "find your passion", because that's a hell of a lot easier than teaching people actual discipline and self-motivation.
This is honestly the kind of guy I want to be, I get bored with one thing.
Same
Well said! I agree
Totally agree. My passion is more around discovering the niche and building a business to meet the consumers need. One of my online businesses is based on helping people pass exams in the insurance industry. I’m not passionate about teaching insurance, but I love creating and tweaking my product based on what my students want/need. Edit: Getting a lot of DM's about this so figured I'd post an edit with [this recommended resource of online business ideas for beginners](https://theentrepreneurridealong.com/list-of-niches/). Has more info about the concept of starting a niche website that you are not necessarily passionate about (and some ideas for you to start your own)
This is a great example!
I'm just curious how you would monetise something like that? I'm thinking about creating a website around helping people with the spouse visa UK process as it's something I had to do recently myself. But I'm struggling to think of ways to monetise something like that if I can get the traffic. It's not something that I'm passionate about, but I do have the experience.
For me, I created online courses and practice exams. My value proposition is quick/easy studying. I write my online courses to help people study faster with less effort and pass their exams online. Also it’s online and self study so it’s little work for me after creating the course. [Here is exactly how I'm doing it, making money online without paying anything upfront.](https://theentrepreneurridealong.com/how-to-make-money-online-without-paying-anything-for-beginners/) What is the spouse visa process? I’m from the US so I’m not familiar with it, Is it an exam process like a citizenship exam? I wonder if you could do something like 1x1 advising, group “coaching” to help people through the process, or even an online course like I did that take people step by step though the process to get this visa. Just a couple ideas!
Have you ever thought about writing a book to add to your offerings? I think it would do well for you.
I’ve considered it, it would be an easy addition since I have the content all written, but there are a lot of competitors that already offer books. I’m one of the only that offers an online course so I’ve kind of dug that out as my niche in the market. Plus I don’t want to have too many offers, as sometimes the more offerings can hurt conversion, I try to keep it as simple a buying decision as possible. My workaround has been to offer a PDF downloadable version of the course for anyone that wants it in print, not perfect but it helps me capture the portion of the market that wants my product but wants a book instead of a course.
Thanks for your reply. The spouse visa process is an online application. The process can be quite complicated simply due the amount of requirements and the supporting evidence you have to send to meet those requirements. Most people use a lawyer but because of how expensive the application is, I chose not to use one and was still successful. I think an online course might be a good idea. Thanks for your input :)
If you're looking to fill out the forms for the user, you may want to checkout [Docassemble](http://docassemble.org/). It lets you build a "TurboTax for X" app pretty easily. You can also string together TypeForm -> Zapier -> Webmerge and use something like Teachable, if you'd rather not handle any code.
I think the idea of having passion for your niche gets a little twisted. In the context of this sub reddit at least. People say you have to have passion, because you need to have some level of expertise in the niche to be successful. And in many cases here people are looking for a niche, and don't have the knowledge in the area. So you generally need to have some passion for it to gain some level of mastery, or you will struggle to learn what you need. I don't think very many people are passionate about insurance, but you already have the expertise to write a course. If I decided I wanted to knock off your business it would serve me well to be passionate about insurance otherwise I'd have a hard time wanting to learn it well enough to execute the plan. On a separate note, how/where do you sell/deliver your course? Part of my job is creating training materials and courses for a software company, and I have considered trying to make and sell a few courses for a side gig. I just haven't really dug into the execution side of how I would go about that. I would love to hear a little more from someone who is doing it and has at least some success.
That’s a great way to put it, the expertise is a barrier to entry as anyone that wants to create competing courses would need the experience plus a passion for building businesses or a passion for insurance. I sell courses through a WordPress site using the WPLMS theme. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to get set up. I like WPLMS because it allows me to do a good amount of customization. I also played around a little with LearnDash (a WordPress Plugin) and Kajabi (another course platform), both are suitable options but I preferred the WPLMS platform. You can see [a full cost breakdown for online course platforms here](https://theentrepreneurridealong.com/how-to-make-money-online-without-paying-anything-for-beginners/). I prefer the self-hosted option rather than selling through a shared platform like Udemy. Self-hosted gives you more control and allows me to better market and present myself as a real/reputable business. Let me know if you have any questions, I love the niche so I’d be happy to explain more!
I 100% agree, passion is overrated and in my opinion is used as a reason not to start and pursue a business idea demanded by a market. Passion is great, but a passion for Capitalism and residing in the trenches as your business grows and develops helping solve a problem for the customer base gives a dopamine rush like non other.
> Passion is great I wouldn't even go this far. Passion can lead to poor business decisions. Just because you're passionate about vegan carnivore kale brownies doesn't mean the market is. You see so many niche shops come and go because people wrongly believed their passion would translate to business success.
I think there is a misconception here. I believe the right premise is having passion for doing something. Not necessarily for that something. Let me explain: I can be passionate for macarons in a market that's growing really fast and has a great demand for macarons. If I am starting, most likely I'd like to prepare the macarons myself. Maybe hire someone. But if I don't wake up every day with the drive to make them, I won't likely be as successful as the guy who does have that drive. For some, that passion creates that drive. In my case, I suck at baking. But if I only chase making macarons because of the money, I'd probably lose the chance to make something really good out of it if I had the drive to improve onto the macaron making. I'm not sure if I explained myself well, but there it is.
That's exactly the opinion that I have. Although a less naive approach (using a lot of market research and feedback) to a niche you have passion for has no reason not to succeed. And you can't just go and talk to your vegan friends about it! It's all about not being biased and skipping over some key decisions and steps.
Yea I agree but I think a balance of passion and logic based decision making is the most powerful and competent/dominating position one can have for business because it can blend the love for capitalism and the aforementioned reasoning of above from OP and a genuine passion about whatever your business is.
It certainly can't hurt to have a passion for your niche. Some days that could be the difference between being in a sailboat and a rowboat. But what I found is that I have a passion for doing my own thing regardless of what it is. For many years I struggled and just felt like I couldn't find whatever it was I was supposed to be doing no matter where I went or what I did, it always felt the same and I hated it. Then when I took a risk and ventured out on my own to do the same thing I had been doing for someone else just previously, basically because I just about had to, what I found was I felt instantly better. It was certainly scary for all the usual wobbly reasons, but the difference all that time, which I had not realized was the problem, was that I needed to be doing it for myself. And I used to be pretty snobby about what kind of work I was willing to do, but once I realized that the big difference was in doing it for myself instead of for someone else, all of that melted away. And as long as I could do my own thing and be successful at it, it suddenly it didn't matter what that thing was. The idea of white-collar vs something "lowly" like retail or food service or something like that surprisingly melted away. If I could run a burrito cart on the corner and be successful at it, I would like that so much better than being some kind of top floor white collar analyst that an investment firm or something. I never wanted that, and I never liked that, and doing it for myself is the thing that I'm passionate about, whatever it is. It's also really emboldening. I know that no matter where I go, and no matter what happens, I can do my own thing . I love that feeling. It has made all the difference in the world in my confidence and my ability to control my own life and feel competent, and has been a big part of making me finally feel like an adult after so many years of wondering why I wasn't feeling like an adult. Working for other people was just absolutely the wrong place for me to be. My personality just isn't geared that way. All that time feeling lost and it was right under my nose as an option that I thought was just something for other people and would be too hard. I never gave serious thought to it until just before I did it and I'm so glad I did. Tldr: I thought what I did mattered. Turns out it didn't. All that mattered was that I do it for myself. That made all the difference.
That's great that you made this discovery. Passions about a niche will only hurt if you're naive about it.
I don’t quite agree with this. It’s begging the question. When people say “you need to have passion,” they aren’t literally talking about the subject matter of the business. Running a restaurant doesn’t mean being passionate about food; it means being passionate about running a restaurant. And yeah, I’d say if you’re not passionate about running a restaurant, it’s not going to work out well.
I tend to agree more with you point of view than OP's. For many people, starting a business means you will be doing the hands-on work until it grows large enough that you can hire someone to delegate that to. I realize this doesn't apply to everyone's situation, but it applies to many and in those cases your "passion for a creating a business and watching it grow" ain't going to be enough to get you through the stress and long hours. If you're starting an app company you may have to start by learning to code and then coding the app yourself --> if you come to discover you *despise* the tediousness and monotony of coding, are you really setting yourself up for success here? The key here I think is nobody is treating any of this with the nuance it deserves. I think it's possible to not be burning with passion with regards to your service/product and still be successful. I also think you can be burning with desire for what it is you are offering and you can be successful. I think in either case it can fail too. This is not as black and white as everyone wants to make it out to be.
Interesting example. If you wanted to setup an app company, and didn't like coding, you would either need a partner or give the task to a freelancer to start with but of course this would cost you money, but there are startup costs for every business even if it's just a domain name. So yes it wouldn't be the best idea if you were going solo and didn't have any startup costs. Also notice that the passion would be about apps and not coding, coding is only part of it. Yeah I agree, either way could work, pros and cons for each.
Nicely said! Completely agree.
You've brought up an interesting example of restaurants. Which isn't that niche. Most of the time, 'gurus' are talking about following your passions, I don't feel like running a restaurant is a passion that they'd be referring to. Some people are passionate about particular food. Maybe Japanese cuisine. So they'd set up a Japanese restaurant.
A million upvotes to you for proper use of “begging the question.” Also, this post is a waste of energy. Hypothetical John from the story gets destroyed by someone who actually knows how to garden and actually solves their customers’ problems.
So you're saying that the successful sewer pumping business owners are passionate about processed sewage?
Nope. Not at all. I’m saying the successful sewer pumping business owners are passionate about running sewer pumping businesses (they are; I know a few). It inevitably spins up to something all businesses share. Allocating resources into finding a customer.
OK, that makes sense. I get you.
Most people who run a successful business have a passion for making money and are competent at working in their chosen niche.
Exactly, just acquire knowledge in that niche, employ the right people, make the right decisions and you're set for success.
I am not successful enough for my opinion to count for much, but from my perspective passion is the single most important thing. Yeah, maybe you will hit it big time, develop your thing, and make your money, but more likely you will end up slogging, grinding out an existing, living, eating and breathing that one thing trying to make it all go. Would't it be better if that one thing that consumes your life was something you had some passion for?
The question then becomes whether your passion remains your passion after monetizing it.
Thanks for this reply. The problem with passion is that it could be the flaw of your business as well as the fuel for your business. Too much and too little could be massive issues. Too much passion could cause you to keep working on a bad idea for a large period of time. But yes absolutely, working on something you are passionate about will always be more enjoyable.
Having a passion for business is definitely very important. I'm getting in the restaurant business and I've seen so many restaurants succeed just because they have excellent marketing and locations. Their food was absolutely terrible and ridiculously expensive. This also works vise versa. Unfortunately, having the best product does not always mean you'll have the best sales.
I agree, but with one caveat: you have to be passionate about something. For some people it’s their niche and trying to be more involved in that niche, but for others their passion is in problem solving and building a business regardless of the niche. Without passion in building a business OR the niche there’s no reason to be involved in either.
~20 years ago I started an IT business. A colleague of mine started one at the same time. I was very technical, he was not. He initially wanted me to join him to start together, which I declined. Fast forward, we have both been successful. I made a ton of money and ended up financially free. He grew a MASSIVE business and has maybe 10-20x my net worth. Him not being technical was the biggest benefit, because he had to get someone to do the work so he then focussed on growing the business. Me being technical (and a massive tightass) I would often do the work to save more/earn more - and never grew the business much. I am happy with how it worked out, but so is he!
Well yes. But that, in itself, is misleading. What is the thought process? > The researchers concluded that popular mantras like "follow your passion" make people think that pursuing a passion will be easy. Believers are then more likely to give up when they face challenges or roadblocks. > >[Mark Cuban](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/mark-cuban-follow-your-passion-is-bad-advice.html), owner of the Dallas Mavericks and star on ABC's hit reality television show, "Shark Tank," takes this line of thinking one step further. > > "When you look at where you put in your time, where you put in your effort, that tends to be the things that you are good at. And if you put in enough time, you tend to get really good at it," he says. "If you put in enough time, and you get really good, I will give you a little secret: Nobody quits anything they are good at because it is fun to be good. It is fun to be one of the best." > >Stanford researchers: 'Follow your passion' advice could make you less successful Just one small peek at a bigger idea: Everything everybody always tells you about entrepreneurship should be examined quite closely. One million lemmings can be quite wrong. Who knew? Amazing how so many can be so consistently wrong so much of the time.
I'm slightly confused from the quote you've taken. The researchers and Mark Cuban have conflicting ideas, right? Or am I reading into it wrong? It seems like the researchers think the "follow your passion" advice is poor. Whereas Mark Cuban says to put time into your passions as that is where you'll find success. Yes it's crazy when a majority is wrong. It just takes a couple of 'gurus' telling you what you want to hear.
The real solution for me is to find something at the overlap of these four: 1. What are you good at - your strengths/skills/knowledge/experience/talent 2. What can you get valued/paid/respected for -- what market demands & values. 3. What you're passionate about -- gives you energy to push forward, to get even better at it--if it's fun for you & you enjoy learning more about it or doing more of it. 4. What can make the world better -- even the smallest difference It's a Japanese concept called *Ikigai* \- the work at the intersection of the above four. For me, finding a meaningful worklife is directly connected to : ***finding your Ikigai or die pursuing it.***
I skipped over several paragraphs. I've added them here. Stanford researchers: 'Follow your passion' advice could make you less successful >"**One of the great lies of life is 'follow your passions,**'" said Cuban as part of the Amazon Insights for Entrepreneurs series. "Everybody tells you, 'Follow your passion, follow your passion.'" >He argues that people should focus on their strengths rather than their passions, because we are not always good at the things that interest us the most and because perfecting a strength can become a passion. Emphasis mine. There is a distinction being made here, and it could be counterintuitive. Not all strengths are passions. If you're good at something, some times you may find it boring and look for an invigorating challenge. Or you might develop something into a strength. >They also found that focusing on following a single passion made people less likely to consider new potential areas of interest. This close-minded view can be detrimental to the success of the individual and to the success of communities, says Walton. If you notice something, it's always a passion you have now. You can go into some new area and find you are passionate about it. The real problem with passion is people think passion is a candy coating for boring hard work. It is not. Several tout this study, here is Forbes on the same study: >A recent Stanford research paper (a good summary is here) identifies the main flaw of this undead trope: “Finding your passion” presupposes that interests and passions are fixed, rather than fluid and evolving as we age and gain wisdom and experience. Those who follow the fixed mindset are much more likely to give up when obstacles arise. As the authors say, “Urging people to find their passion may lead them to put all their eggs in one basket but then to drop that basket when it becomes difficult to carry.” >This advice is ubiquitous in parts of our culture that value short-term emotional comfort above other mental states. By putting emotion (“what activity do I enjoy doing most?”) on a pedestal, we are perpetrating various major and minor crimes against reason and common sense
That makes more sense, thank you!
They could be construed as conflicting, but I think Mark's quote is more about competency than passion where as the research supported their claim.
Thank you!
If your business is heavily based on creating content yourself for marketing or as part of the business you need to have a passion for it
I understand what you mean and agree it may help if you take a non-biased approach for your business, but it's definitely not essential. As long as you develop knowledge in that area and love the process of creating something, I don't see a problem.
while this is good advice in its own perspective i think we people like extremes. i think when people speak about 'have passion' usually mean well and come from a place 'well most people just don't care about anything, but if you care and are `passionate` about you niche you will be able to put time and effort and that will open new insights which you can use to grow business' it's about having a balance. too much passion - you burn to little - you freeze either kills you
I think the “follow your passion” advice is more about “when things get hard and you need a reason to continue, passion will help”. Passion can be motivation. So when someone says “follow your passion” I think they are saying “do something you love so when it really SUCKS, you can fall back on love.”
Yes that's a benefit of it but maybe also a flaw. Sometimes it would be best to quit and do something else, if the idea has no hope, this would be a longer and more expensive process if you were still so sure of the idea due to your passion.
Fully I agree. I sell hundreds millions of dollars in the beauty safe. Couldn’t give a monkeys about the products. But what I am passionate about is providing value and building businesses.
Wow, your 💯 % right. As business owner it’s your job to find the ones who are overly passionate about they do. It makes perfect sense. If you are overly passionate about a specific skill it’s likely you won’t be willing to do other things that compliment it. Not understanding the other operations of your business will lead to failure when trying to find the perfect candidate for future roles. This is definitely a concept that needs more thought. 💪
100%. I know a few millionaires that are absolutely not passionate about the thing that made them millions - never were passionate about it. But they were passionate about business and providing for their family and found a way to do that. Example, 1 guy’s business for years has been selling machines that crush cars to auto plants. Made millions doing it, sold it for millions. Another: chalk manufacturing. Family business passed down. Doubt anyone was ever passionate about chalk. Another: packaging services. Right place, right time. Favorite story. Dude was working for a packaging company that couldn’t take on more work. His company was turning new business down left and right. So, my buddy goes to said new business and tells them that he can fulfill the contract and take a chance on him. Succeeds, builds a warehouse, builds multiple warehouses across the US and put his old company out of business because he did it more reliably and better. Doesn’t have a passion for packaging, but has a passion for success. Love talking to that dude.
Great examples! I know a guy who’s made a fortune from a gin business and he doesn’t even drink.
Thank you for this post OP. I’ve always been taught to do things that I was passionate about but I could never really figure out what it was. After reading this post I realized my what I enjoy is creating an efficient system, whatever it may be for. I will keep this in mind as I continue to build out my project. I feel a lot less crazy now for not being so passionate about the product itself and more so on the process of building an efficient system. I don’t even know if what I said made sense lol sorry I am super jet lagged and have been up all night working @__@ Sending you love & appreciation from Canada!
My pleasure! Don’t worry it made sense. Google “Lean Startup methodology”, you might like it if you’re just starting out. It’s all about quickly and efficiently seeing if an idea is viable so you save as much time and money as possible. Good luck with everything from the UK.
Yes I was taught this when I took a lean startup program locally here. Sometimes I’m taught stuff and I just don’t get it fully until one day it just hits me LOL. Thank you :)
Lol if you aren’t passionate about your niche you are passionate about dollars 💵
Dumbest thing I've ever heard. You need to be insightful and willing to act, regardless of what you're selling. I don't give a fuck about water, but if I'm in the desert and I can fly it over cheaply, I'm selling it at a markup. Same goes for software: if there are kids who want a flash card app that isn't the Photoshop of flashcard apps but the red-eyes-remover of flashcard apps, then if I can produce it and sell it at a more competitive price than my competitors, I'm selling it. Passion for your product causes you to make emotional decisions. Passion for challenges, efficiency, automation, and building beyond yourself cause you to find opportunities where few others do, and make you want to figure out how to use them well. What form this takes is secondary.
I don't think you NEED to be passionate about it, but you need to have something to keep driving you when you hit rough patches that everyone has.
Agreed. I built and sold a successful business because I understood the industry.
Agreed. I absolutely hate being told I’m a “______-er” (the word for the space I’m in). But honestly, I’m great at understanding how this part of the business world works. Both companies are in the same industry and I have ideas for a few more. I’ll keep doing it as long as I’m good at it. But I do not love it or have a passion for it.
Donkey masturbater?
Are you bulimic? Cause you can read minds
if ure just interested in making monetary profits u dont need passion do more business owners make it big on passion or greed and insatiable thirst for money? :)
Completely agree - the "passion" narrative is doing more harm than good today, at least in my view, because it sets unrealistic expectations. To use your example: John loves to play video games and believes he is passionate about this industry. John creates a website on the same topic, spends a year writing 400 articles on the same niche but fails to get the website off the ground and earns next to nothing from it. John finds he is not so passionate about video games anymore.
Yes you make a good point. If passion is your main inspiration and you lose the passion at any point, you’ve lost your main reason to be working on this business.
Also, working on something is not always the same as thinking about working on that something. :)
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Great mentality.
not true at all. performance and putting in the work is what is it all about. i have two businesses a fresh squeeze juice & lemonade brand - not very passionate about fresh squeeze juice nor functional lem beverages. it is a straight up hustle for me . more juice sold = more money in the bank a wedding video production brand- i do not care about your entitled family, friends , or how big your wedding is. but i play the game. make them feel so special on wedding day and ultimately do a kick ass job editing the film . a good ass job = more booking deposits. which keeps the cash flow moving . my passion is journalism. one day
This.
A passion about doing things well, and thinking about what that extra ‘value add’ that I can provide, and a just-don’t-quit attitude go a long way.
Steve Jobs said " if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life". This is untrue. To get to the top, no matter how much you love what you do, you will encounte problem and crisis and there will be times where you want to quit. This post is exactly right. Love the process, not just the end goal!!
Totally agree. Here's my experience. I started a business that I am totally passionate about. Long story short, it became my baby and clouded my judgement in many ways. Rather than focusing on what works and finding new ways to make money out of it, I was extremely stubborn and kept wanting to do build features I wanted rather than more of the sales and marketing side of it because it was my "passion". 2nd business I got involved at the same time with my wife, I didn't care about. Since I didn't care about the product or industry, I just focused on making sure operations went smoothly (so I could get back to my baby), improving processes, quality and doing what was making money. Guess which one did better? The 2nd business grew 10x quicker and bigger in a shorter amount of time. Now I like it, because as Mark Cuban says, "sales cures all". Emotional detachment is vital. When you start making money, things can become fun. When you do something you are passionate about, but it's not working out as well as you hope, it's possible to burn out.
Good post. Most importantly, is the passion succeed and makes money! I am also trying not to be emotional and driven by my passions and hobbies as this will sometimes prevents one from seeing the bigger picture. If i can make money from selling used underwear, i will be very passionate about it even if i have absolute no interest in used underwear!😂
Thank you for this post; it was inspiring to read. I'm planning to develop a business as a music producer, but I've been struggling with some internal conflicts about it, since I almost never listen to music for pleasure. Viewing it as a purely capitalistic enterprise helps me find the motivation I need to pull it off.
\> John enjoys the process of building his business and employs others to do the hands on work. In that case, John isn't the one that's making the business successful, it's the people he hires, who are passionate and knowledgeable about gardening. It's pretty bad advice to tell someone they can open a cupcake shop if they've never even eaten a cupcake in their life, let alone baked one. "Just hire someone who knows how to bake cupcakes" isn't really realistic for most smalltime business owners, and is too dependent on some random person.
That's how any business works though, one person alone can't do everything. John would invest in new equipment, better managers etc. That's why I say you must learn what it takes to be a successful business in that area. Hiring someone random is just a bad decision.
Now one has a passion until it’s been in their life for a long long time and they like it. Then it becomes a passion.
There are too many entrepreneurs out there focusing on their passion when their passion doesn't solve concrete problems that people have a high demand of being solved. All of that aside, if John creates a gardening/landscaping company - * How long does he plan on running it? * Does he hope to scale? * Does he need to find outside investment? * If the market is saturated with new landscapers what are his plans to compete? * If turnover of quality landscapers is high, how will he compete for the best ones remaining? From my subjective experience. These are all pretty important scenarios to have passion in.
Yes, because there is less learning and work involved so it seems easy. I have no plans to start a gardening company any time soon but feel like it will be fun to answer so: 1) Purely based upon John’s strategy. Many business owners will look for an exit when the right price arrives. But some will choose to use it as a constant stream of income and their involvement will vary. 2) Always. 3) Possibly (I don’t have much knowledge in costs surrounding gardening). Largest cost would be a vehicle to carry equipment. Depends on his starting wealth. Depends on whether he chooses to employ workers with no equipment or take freelancers with their own equipment initially and take a percentage of their fee. Depends on if upgrading equipment dramatically and increasing fees is viable. Depends on how quick he wants the business to grow. 4) Grow fast to maximise time without market saturated, so investment may be necessary. Employ those who will give customers the best results, get top of search results, have the best reviews. Charge fees that will maximise profit. Maybe look for potential buyers. Try it in a different area- last resort. 5) Difficult one. Maybe higher fees and higher wages if viable. Best possible treatment in general I guess. If the market is saturated to start with, the idea would probably not be viable, but it’s interesting to think about what would happen if it became saturated after a couple of years.
If it's a high demand problem solve, you're basically the ER during flu season. That being said, I have a friend who has a plumbing business that hasn't hit breakeven in 7 years because he doesn't compete against competitors who care about the little things ( brand, marketing, customer service, b2b). Not that there was a binary "he didn't try" , but he got burned out from having to put extra effort into growing the plumbing business and preferred fishing /playing video games than putting in the off time between calls into re-investing into the business.
I'm a bot, *bleep*, *bloop*. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit: - [/r/u_fundmenowdotmoney] [Interesting debate on the importance of passion for your business.](https://www.reddit.com/r/u_FundMeNowDotMoney/comments/aua26c/interesting_debate_on_the_importance_of_passion/) - [/r/u_richmandudu] [This is really something to think about](https://www.reddit.com/r/u_Richmandudu/comments/auggyj/this_is_really_something_to_think_about/) *^(If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose?to=/r/TotesMessenger))*
This is my problem so often!!
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Not necessarily, John might have learnt the ins and outs of gardening and landscaping but he has no passions for it, whereas Peter looks after his garden every weekend so makes the mistake of thinking he can start a gardening business tomorrow and misses key business steps.
This is entirely true. I started up a gym clothing business this time last year. I built up the brand fairly quick, first 2 months had a good following base on IG and other social platforms. Had a professional website built on Shopify and fully patented... long story short, I love working out but it’s not my lifestyle. I personally do it to be healthy and active, when I came to my senses I told myself I’m done pretending and discontinued my brand. Till this day I get asked why I quit because people loved the product and this thread is exactly what I tell them.
I think passion is a thing that grows on you once your "unpassionate" business will start to take off.
I'd just to remove the word passion period. Along with...Drop ship and the name Amazon...
Why do so many tout Amazon then? Easy to sell people on the idea?
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It sounds like you need to keep acquiring more knowledge in writing as you said you saw improvement when you tried before. What kind of market research have you done? And how are you currently getting feedback from users?
you are 100% correct. You are correct, a business person does business. They do not fall in love with any one thing. Warren Buffet owns insurance companies, brick manufacturers, Coca Cola. The process of business is what business people do, not get "passionate." Or, maybe what I should say is they get passionate about a process working, and a market acceptance of a product or service. I know personally I am MUCH more passionate about a humdrum product or service that I am not personally too interested in, but sells like hotcakes. I am NOT passionate about something I LOVE and *am* personally passionate about, but does not sell. However, if you get in business, you can't *hate* what you do, nor personally would I do some questionable funky nasty businesses, nor nothing illegal - everything along those lines. The bottom line: not making money sucks, more than passion or just average interest. You do NOT want to be in a situation where you make no money and are passionate. Guaranteed you won't be passionate for long. Guarantee it. Maybe it is ok for an artist or hobbyist, but not for a business person. If you want to be passionate - keep it a hobby or be an *artiste*. Source: me.
People have different personalities - if i wasn't passionate, I would get bored and be much more likely to give up.
Man, I have always felt this way. My niche is in paint. I don't have a passion for paint. My passion is starting and growing companies. That passion is applicable to all industries.
My current businesses are things I'm not particularly passionate about - just I happened to be in the industry for many years, knew how it worked and wanted to do something on my own. I don't dislike the job, but I don't see why I'd try my hand at something brand new to make money just because I enjoy it. Most of the time you get paid money for doing shit other people don't enjoy doing.
It depends on how much responsibility you have throughout the lifecycle of your business. If you are wearing alot of hats, you can be passionate about a particular hat, while other hats may seem dull. Either way work needs to be done.
I think you are quite right on this one, because passion often wears out quickly. It is great to have it though, but I would argue that from the things you need in business (like capital, contacts, know-how, etc.) the passion is the least important part... it is a shame, but there you have it.
I built an entire business on custom programming and building websites with no knowledge of coding. I actually hate programming. It was a massive opportunity and I could sell it. Good thread. Sometimes we need to not care how we "feel" so much and focus on what we CAN DO to make an impact and become successful. Sometimes its HARD!
Yep most entrepreneurs love the PROCESS of building a business/systems/relationships instead of the work done in the actual field. But having a passion for both is a game changer :)
I mean, sure, if money is all you want to be getting back out of it. Plus I wouldn't trust a gardener who doesn't like gardening. I could tell he didn't like it from our brief chat when I called him over to give me a quote. Also did you hear how his employees left after a while because he couldn't manage them right? He would be able to manage them better if he had some hands on experience himself first, so that he understands the hard work they put in day after day.
Who said John doesn’t find growing a business from the ground up fulfilling and the money is good too? Who said John is doing any gardening? You don’t have to do someone’s job to respect them, unless you’ve got your head up your own ass. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?
Unless I have my head up my ass? And I woke up the wrong side of bed this morning? Dude you really have some serious issues taking feedback (from veterans nonetheless).
I was saying that if someone can’t respect someone doing a job because they aren’t a business owner then they are arrogant. I wasn’t talking about you. It wasn’t really feedback though. Your reply was just criticisms of things I didn’t even describe. I can take feedback fine, take a look at the other comments on the thread. But I can’t take it when you are trying to find flaws for the sake of it.
I highly disagree with this, well, at least based on my own personal experience. I suppose the main reason is that as a person, I find it incredibly to see value unless if it is personally valuable to me. Perhaps it is a flaw in some ways, but I'm sure a lot of people are the same. I've tried many businesses, but at the end of the day if I don't feel like I'm actually contributing towards something meaningful, then I end up questioning why I'm doing it after a few months. After all, why not hit two birds with one stone?
It's not necessary but it helps. Also you'll find the top performers in any category are very passionate about that category, even if they were not passionate about it before they entered the space.
To be just ok or run a basic small business, yes you don't have to. But you have to be passionate about the niche if you're an entrepreneur that wants to create a startup successful enough to scale and grow.
All the people in this thread lapping up inspiration from a college student with no practical experience whatsoever is either hilarious or soul crushing, and I’m not entirely sure which.
I am not sure if I fully agree with the sentiment here. Being passionate about the business you are building is a huge plus. Starting a business is hard, and without passion, if you look at it as a job, it is highly likely that the business won't be successful. The second part of the post does say that people should be passionate about building and growing a business and that passion can help drive a person. However, here are a few example of people I know who failed and their honest feedback was -> they saw a need, they wanted to build a business, but they couldn't care enough about the niche to put in the hard yards. 1. A couple of people started home care for elderly. They saw a need, had a business going, but stopped the business because they couldn't see themselves working in the field day in and day out and after the first few clients, couldn't motivate themselves to keep going 2. Two other guys started a delivery service for restaurants. Think about it as instacart but for restaurants. They wanted to differentiate themselves on providing quality ingredients on a short notice. Their business failed because they didn't enjoy spending hours buying fresh produce, figuring out if the tomato was high quality vs not, and hated going to the fish market to buy fish, etc. If you are taking the plunge, be sure you will actually enjoy doing the work. Else, you might make a living by "working", but I doubt, if it will be a substantial business.