This chapter starts by offering you two options. Option one: you spend the next ten years of your life working on something you couldn’t care less about. Option two: you spend the next ten years working on something you’re passionate about.
Which option seems better to you?
Option two is the obvious choice. That’s why we’ll focus on the following:
1.Helping you discover what your passion is
2.Convincing you that it’s possible to build a business around your passion
3.Giving you examples of how people have done it
THE POWER OF PASSION
Building a business around something you have a deep passion for will be one of the main reasons you’ll succeed. It’s what will get you through the tough times, past the roadblocks, and over the barriers. Passion gives you superhuman strength and unlimited energy.
Here’s what Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple, says about passion in an emotionally impactful YouTube video:
People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you are doing, and it’s totally true. The reason is because [business] is so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard, and you have to do it over a sustained period of time, so if you don’t love it and you are not having fun doing it, you’re going to give up. That’s what happens to most people, actually. If you really look at the ones that ended up being successful, in the eyes of society, and the ones that didn’t, oftentimes the ones that are successful loved what they did. They could persevere when it got really tough, and the ones that didn’t love it quit, because they are sane. Who would want to put up with this stuff if you don’t love it? It’s a lot of hard work, and it’s a lot of worrying constantly, and if you don’t love it, you’re going to fail. [youtu.be/PznJqxon4zE]
Peter Diamandis, author of Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, when asked what advice he wishes he had been given when he was starting out, said:
Be clear about your passion and don’t settle for anything else. Don’t do something for the money, or to make your parents or your teachers happy. Pursue a start-up business because it’s your personal passion, your highest aspiration. If you do something you are passionate about, you will work harder than ever before and outshine anyone. Doing anything big and bold is difficult, and if you’re not totally in love with what you’re doing, you’ll give up before you succeed.
If you research the source of the word passion, you’ll learn that the Latin root is “suffering.” Passionate people suffer for their cause. A passion, purpose, or cause typically stems from a wound, tough experience, void, or need. The reason I love helping entrepreneurs run better businesses is because I was thrown into the fire of saving my dad’s business. The reason I’m writing this book is because once I was an entrepreneur-in-the-making and felt lost.
In his article “A Single Individual Driven by a Purpose Can Change the World,” Diamandis also writes:
I often get asked for a single piece of advice to make an entrepreneur succeed. While there is no surefire route to success, I believe a necessary component of success for every entrepreneur is having a Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP). A purpose that drives you to wake up in the morning. Something you repeat in your head while you eat, shower, and before you go to sleep. Every successful person and organization has an MTP. An MTP must be something that inspires and challenges you. It must be aimed not just at the mind, but also the heart. It has to be declared with confidence and sincerity. It can’t be a narrow goal, or even technology specific. And above all, it has to be uniquely yours.
THE SEARCH FOR YOUR PASSION
Now let’s talk about how to find your passion. There have been many variations of this concept. Over time, passion has also been described as your purpose, cause, calling, your why, your obsession or mission.
Right now, passion is a popular term for this topic. In its simplest form, you’re figuring out the dent you want to put in the universe—be it a huge dent or a little one. It’s irrelevant what word you use, as long as it gets your blood pumping. In the words of my friend Burke Miller, the author of A Sacred Trust: The Four Disciplines of Conscious Leadership, “Your purpose is a confluence of what you are built for, and what you stand for.”
Another way of saying it is that you’ve got to figure out your reason for being, why you exist. You might already know it, which would be great, but if not, that’s okay. You have plenty of time. What follows will hopefully give you a light bulb moment.
It’s important that you don’t let anyone discourage you. Your passion is going to come from you and only you. If you share your calling with someone who is not impressed, ignore their reaction. Your passion is not going to excite everyone. The passion of one client of mine was light bulbs, of all things, and he built his company into one of the largest light bulb distributors in the country.
Mary Kay built an empire to “provide women with unlimited opportunity.” Walt Disney wanted “to make people happy.” EOS Worldwide’s purpose is “to help entrepreneurs live their ideal lives.” Nike’s is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Some questions to help you find your passion might be: What did you love to do when you were a kid, teen, or young adult? What do you love to do now? On what topics do your friends ask your advice? What gives you energy while thinking about it or doing it? What are your hobbies? Which of your talents or skills are you most proud of?
While helping many people discover what drives them, I’ve found their passions tend to fall into one of four broad categories:
1.Helping and serving the customer or client
2.Building an amazing company
3.Solving problems and innovating
4.Winning: being the best or the biggest
See which of those four broad categories you’re drawn to. Not so much the words, but the category. This will help you narrow the field. You’ll then use your own words to help make that passion your own.
Another helpful tool to help you create clarity around finding your passion is Dr. Gary Sanchez’s “9 WHYS.” Gary is the author of Move Forward Faster and believes your passion comes from knowing your WHY, HOW, and WHAT. He says that when WHAT you do is in line with WHY you do it and HOW you want to express it, you’ll have passion for what you do. And passion is the fuel that gives you the energy to pursue your dreams.
Focusing on the WHY part of the equation, here are Gary’s 9 WHYS. He believes all people have one of them. To discover your WHY, go to whyinstitute.com and use the free WHY app, which takes about four minutes. Here are the 9 WHYS.
1.To Contribute to a greater cause, to add value
2.To create relationships based on Trust
3.To Make Sense out of complex things
4.To find a Better Way and share it
5.To do things the Right Way
6.To Challenge the status quo with new thinking
7.To seek Mastery and understanding
8.To create Clarity
9.To Simplify
Keep in mind that you should use these suggestions as guides. There’s no one answer that fits every entrepreneur.
Next, try a great thought exercise that might also help you identify your passion. It takes about thirty minutes and has three steps.
Step 1. List your top three successes.
Step 2. List your top three failures.
Step 3. Based on the answers to the above questions, what has life prepared you for?
The answer in the third step might shed some light on finding your calling. It helped me a great deal.
SUMMARY
As Steve Jobs put it, “The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
That brings you a little closer, I hope, to finding your passion. Please take a few minutes to write your insights and list any passions you can think of. Also, consider doing the thirty-minute exercise.
WORKSHEET
The Thirty-Minute Three-Step Exercise
Step 1. List your top three successes:
Step 2. List your top three failures:
Step 3. Based on the answers to the above questions, what has life prepared you for?
What action can you take in the next seven days to discover your passion?
You can download all worksheets and tools at e-leap.com.