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Argument for Doing A Passion-Based Business?

D

DeletedUser0287

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Why not put your theory into test, create several businessess based on your passion. Then get a few other people and ask them to start a business based on their passion.

Also this thread is confusing , what is passion ? Is it just something you are seemingly obsessed with ?

It is what I am doing now. Although also working on getting a job to fund it. Somewhat capital intensive. Running on my savings won't last.
 
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Rawseed

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Instead, you can start a business that’s COMPLEMENTARY to your passion:
  • Sell guitar strings instead of playing them
  • Create a marketplace connecting teachers and students
  • Sell custom guitar cases/picks
  • Start an online guitar repair biz
  • Etc...
Take your passion and get TECHNICAL with it. This is where needs are found.

Great point @PizzaOnTheRoof.

Sounds like the crowdfeeding Demarco talks about in Unscripted . Or selling shovels to prospectors.

Instead of building a business around the passion, build a business around serving the people who share your passion.

Essentially, becoming passionate about making life easier, simpler, less painful, and more pleasurable for those who share your passion. Figure out how to increase their hopes and decrease their fears.

Being passionate about the activity should give you domain experience.

But, you need to become even more passionate about the people doing the activity than you are about the actual activity.
 
D

DeletedUser0287

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But that shouldn't matter if you're passionate right ?

I do not understand what you mean by "shouldn't matter?" All business ideas whether based on passion or business need gas to run. This passion business requires quite some money.

What are you doing right now ?

I have been doing everything possible in the business that requires only time. Like design and sourcing, and future products. The materials tend to have high MOQs. And applying to jobs non stop.
 
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Brian Suh

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I know the general view on this forum is to not choose passion because passion does not mean having a market need. In a sense, choosing a passion based business is selfish.

But I have been thinking a lot about this and actually think passion is 100% necessary.

Everyone knows that when you start a business many things go wrong or unexpected. This is a given. You have to go through these obstacles to build the business. Most people give up on some ventures because of the obstacles.

But I realized they are considered obstacles only to a person that is NOT passionate.

Obstacle in business shows up
Non-passionate business person: “Ughhh...just gotta get through this. This sucks. Another problem another day.”
Passionate business person: “I would keep doing this even if I didn’t get paid. It is like I’m not even working. I am getting paid to do my hobby.”

The passionate person doesn’t even register these as problems, but part of his/her hobby. What I realize is that the non passionate person eventually gives up because these obstacles happen daily before they even make cash.

This is where I have had a change of thought, passion is mandatory for business contrary to popular belief of this forum

Money-Chasing is a Symptom Of No Passion in Business.
In my early days of entrepreneurship, I was a money-chaser. Could not stop thinking about it. When I looked to this forum, people kept blaming my mindset. But there was actually no hard reason why? It was just arbitrary advice “Change your mindset, your mindset sucks, etc.” I finally realize now. If you are money chasing, it is because you are running a business without passion. If money chasing causes 100% failure and is caused by lack of passion. It means passion is necessary for business.

Re Analysis of Dog Sh*t Story
The story about a guy making money with a business surrounding dog sh*t. The previous analysis of this story was that passion follows AFTER. That once someone starts winning, passion follows. I find this to be a false analysis. To the normal person a dog sh*t is very unappealing. They assume that no right person would ever be passionate about such an unattractive business model. That’s where they are wrong. My analysis is that the business owner is actually highly passionate about dog sh*t and that is how they became successful. Lots of weird people out there passionate about crazy stuff. Like I said above, although business comes with numerous obstacles and that is how they go through.

Reanalysis of the guy that got his dream job of driving super cars and then hated his passion.
Another past thread about why not to follow your passion. Guy gets his dream job and then later hated his passion later. It was driving super cars. He apparently now hates it. The conclusion made in this story was to not follow your passion, because it will contaminate your passion. This is a false analysis. The guy did not lose his passion because he followed it, but because he was FORCED to do it against his WILL. Force is the problem, not following passion. Only choose passion when you are going to work for yourself.

TLDR;
1) Running a business without passion gives you the money chasing symptom which will cause you to ultimately fail.
2)Being forced to do your passion destroys passion, simply following passion does not.
3) You are on your way to success if you can say “I would still be doing this, even if I didn’t get paid. It is like I’m not even working”

Note: It was these false analysis of stories that contributed to my failures all these years. I have been denying my passion in every previous business and hating it.

Garyvee is a huge advocate for choosing happiness. His intuition is very high, but that doesn’t mean he is always right.

Suggestion: Add a “P” to CENTS.

EDIT: Just had this new thought. It is not Chicken and Egg with passion and need. Both are required to be there when starting a business. Most say to only focus on market need, but like I explained that will also doom you to failure.
Chase the pain. Passion and pain are one of the same. Anybody who is highly passionate is usually doing something painful to others. But he embraces that pain. Think of a highly successful sports athlete. The business man staying up a day or two straight to get something done. The drug dealer dealing with BS. I am highly passionate about fitness and will be willing to die in the gym, get up again and gladly go at it again.

The kid skateboarding falls over and over again. It’s painful. He’s broken legs and wrists. Check his knees and they are scruffier to all hell. But he loves it. Aim for pain not pleasure.

I find great pleasure in eating food that tastes terrible as I know it will give me great health while others aim for eating pleasurable food which will kill them in the end. I love that I spend my time working. While others are partying. While they aim for short term pleasure, I will be gunning for a life well lived and long term fulfillment.
 

biophase

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Everyone knows that when you start a business many things go wrong or unexpected. This is a given. You have to go through these obstacles to build the business. Most people give up on some ventures because of the obstacles.

But I realized they are considered obstacles only to a person that is NOT passionate.

Obstacle in business shows up
Non-passionate business person: “Ughhh...just gotta get through this. This sucks. Another problem another day.”
Passionate business person: “I would keep doing this even if I didn’t get paid. It is like I’m not even working. I am getting paid to do my hobby.”

The passionate person doesn’t even register these as problems, but part of his/her hobby. What I realize is that the non passionate person eventually gives up because these obstacles happen daily before they even make cash.

This is where I have had a change of thought, passion is mandatory for business contrary to popular belief of this forum

Money-Chasing is a Symptom Of No Passion in Business.
In my early days of entrepreneurship, I was a money-chaser. Could not stop thinking about it. When I looked to this forum, people kept blaming my mindset. But there was actually no hard reason why? It was just arbitrary advice “Change your mindset, your mindset sucks, etc.” I finally realize now. If you are money chasing, it is because you are running a business without passion. If money chasing causes 100% failure and is caused by lack of passion. It means passion is necessary for business.

TLDR;
1) Running a business without passion gives you the money chasing symptom which will cause you to ultimately fail.
2)Being forced to do your passion destroys passion, simply following passion does not.
3) You are on your way to success if you can say “I would still be doing this, even if I didn’t get paid. It is like I’m not even working”

Note: It was these false analysis of stories that contributed to my failures all these years. I have been denying my passion in every previous business and hating it.

It's not passion... it's part of working hard.

Is it passion or drive? Many people have passion but don't do anything with it. You can be passionate about saving animals, but all you do is complain about animal abuse on Facebook. Drive, will make you do something about it.

I really believe that you are now using passion as an excuse as to why you failed previously. Money chasing may be part of it, but it wasn't the reason.

You still sound off, but you may be getting closer.
 
D

DeletedUser0287

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It's not passion... it's part of working hard.

Is it passion or drive? Many people have passion but don't do anything with it. You can be passionate about saving animals, but all you do is complain about animal abuse on Facebook. Drive, will make you do something about it.

I really believe that you are now using passion as an excuse as to why you failed previously. Money chasing may be part of it, but it wasn't the reason.

You still sound off, but you may be getting closer.

I guess its drive along with passion. Still hasn't felt like work at all.

Eh...not an excuse, but finding WHY I have failed. If you don't know why you failed, then you will keep failing. The diagnosis, in other words. I find lack of passion in my other ventures the sole reason of my failure, hence this thread. I had drive in my other ventures as well from my FTE, but like I said in earlier posts of this thread, it was through negative "I want to escape" as fast as possible. Aka rushing the process. Which would also add into the failure equation.

Passion/Drive/Need/Being Actually Good at what you do are all necessary.

If I just said to myself, "I'm full of excuses" it doesn't tell me the "WHY I have failed." Huge pet peeve of this forum that everything is generically labeled off as an "excuse".
 
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biophase

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I had drive in my other ventures as well from my FTE, but like I said in earlier posts of this thread, it was through negative "I want to escape" as fast as possible. Aka rushing the process. Which would also add into the failure equation.

Passion/Drive/Need/Being Actually Good at what you do are all necessary.

If I just said to myself, "I'm full of excuses" it doesn't tell me the "WHY I have failed." Huge pet peeve of this forum that everything is generically labeled off as an "excuse".

So are you saying that if you kept up your drive in your previous business ventures that you would be successful now?

Or that you rushed the process and chose the wrong business, which is why your business failed.
 

Kevin88660

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Trend and need come first.

I think passion matters that it is not something you hate. Don't do something you hate even there is a market for it. This is how I balance between the two schools of thoughts.
 
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Chris25

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It depends on the person if you ask me. Some people are very logical about business and the way they think in general, and then there are ones who think in a more abstract or creative way.

The ones that are more on the logical side, can see the business for what it is, and find their role without being too passionate about the subject. They feel good from the act of getting things done, then getting even more done.

Creative people, on the other hand, need to find a way to insert a piece of themselves into the business, a bigger meaning than just work. They need passion to get the creative juices going.

Both ways or anything in between can be a success or a fail. This is where the skills you posses and are willing to learn as an individual come into play. Creative people can use some logical thinking and the other way around.

For example, I've been known to go only into projects and everyday things, only If I find passion there. This has caused me to quit jobs even when I was dead broke, to miss out on opportunities for networking, and ultimately caused me to lag in progress on my passion projects.

That is why in the past year I've done a lot of personal work towards bringing a more logical perspective in the things I do, and combining that with my need for being creative.

I think that anyone who finds themselves weighing significantly more on one side should do something to improve the balance. It might be hard at first, but it definately pays off in the long term.
 
D

DeletedUser0287

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So are you saying that if you kept up your drive in your previous business ventures that you would be successful now?

Ehh..most likely still would have failed. Primary cause was money chasing due to lack of passion. But another reason I tended to bail on ideas because it started getting expensive and at the time did not accept the reality that remarkable (what is necessary nowadays) is expensive. Like right now, this venture is like 10x more expensive than I ever expected. But still going with it because it is a passion play and don't mind spending the money. I can justify the cost because even if I was wealthy as hell, I would be doing this. With this passion play, it still has a very high potential to add value.

Also, was never really "proud" of the products I ever made and felt somewhat slightly embarrassed bringing to market. Could not afford to make them better. I knew what needed to be done, but didn't want to pay. Vision and Funds mismatch.

Or that you rushed the process and chose the wrong business, which is why your business failed.

Yes, this contributed as well. Severely rushing progress. I only cared about escaping and getting the quickest return. Well all these ventures were physical products. So not wrong business, but wrong product. Even though, my intention was not to make a Non-remarkable product. The end result always ended up being mediocre. Because they were Me too products, the margins sucked as well.

If my current products work, margins are very healthy and I won't be bleeding. Also won't need to sell that much. 8x profit possible on nearly every product I make.

Passion solves a lot of the problems I had.
 

MILIANARD134

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So, I think, you suffer from something a lot of passionate people have. (And I love passionate people). Let's dig in, you're blinded by the passion. Why MJ is stating "don't follow your passion". Because passion is something you emotionally attached. And you know what ? You can't be objective. I work in the music industry, and there are a lot of rappers who come to the studio singing their text, then telling me, i'm so passionate.
Dude I don't care if you are passionate or not, i don't even care if u like ur job. You are a bad rapper. And then they don't understand, they get their head smashed when they heard the truth.

So yeah, following blindly your passion can be destructive. Because it's like "your baby".
I like the part when Mj talk about the process and the gym. Do you think most of people like the gym? Do you think most of people like be seen when they start and they don't lift big ? Heck no! But they do it, because they need to do it if they want 6 pack or muscle.
You just need to do, executing over emotion, because i tell you, every day can't be a perfect day with this "whoo whoo" in your head when you wake up and you want to kick a$$. Sometimes you wake up and you just want to sleep again and have sex with your gf. But when you wake up and do the work even when you don't want. That's when you a real badass.
 
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Xeon

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While I can understand the idea behind the whole "don't chase your passion", I still feel ***AT LEAST SOME AMOUNT*** of passion is necessary. Even for MJ himself, when he first got into programming, he was passionate about it (the craft of programming / IT), and then with the right angle and opportunity (Limos website), he made it.

The time spent in the desert of desertion can take years, passion can make that a lot more painless (and depending on your passion level, you might not even realize you're in the desert).

If you've zero passion for a business but it pays good, at the end of the day, in terms of the self-fulfilment aspect, you're still not that much different than a 9-6 office worker who's in it just to pay the bills.
The similarity : you're both soulless.

Find your passion, make it work.
Alternatively, find a business you can succeed in, then apply aspects of your passion to that as an icing on the cake to make it meaningful (e.g: selling tyres to truck companies and apply your passion (talking to people/graphic design/your passion-related skills).
 
D

DeletedUser0287

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So, I think, you suffer from something a lot of passionate people have. (And I love passionate people). Let's dig in, you're blinded by the passion. Why MJ is stating "don't follow your passion". Because passion is something you emotionally attached. And you know what ? You can't be objective. I work in the music industry, and there are a lot of rappers who come to the studio singing their text, then telling me, i'm so passionate.
Dude I don't care if you are passionate or not, i don't even care if u like ur job. You are a bad rapper. And then they don't understand, they get their head smashed when they heard the truth.

Looked at the previous thread and it seems that when people follow their passion it is assumed there is #1 market need and #2 they are good at it. My argument was that passion is needed as #3 in addition to #1 and #2. Without passion, I hate process. With passion, I like it and can grind endlessly. Part of the passion is built through outcome of developing my product.

For most people, they assume if they follow #3 that #1 and #2 follow. What I am getting at is that since many people wrongly make this assumption, the forum disregards #3 altogether as a necessity.

See my previous quote

I think you can be both objective and and passionate. I have covered the variable of "being good" at what you do. Like you said, if you suck at what you do, that is 100% failure rate even with passion. Being good at what you do is mandatory just as much as passion. In my case, it is developing a good product. I do not fear the truth, so even though I am passionate about my work I can still tell what I made was crap or not.

So yeah, following blindly your passion can be destructive. Because it's like "your baby".
I like the part when Mj talk about the process and the gym. Do you think most of people like the gym? Do you think most of people like be seen when they start and they don't lift big ? Heck no! But they do it, because they need to do it if they want 6 pack or muscle.
You just need to do, executing over emotion, because i tell you, every day can't be a perfect day with this "whoo whoo" in your head when you wake up and you want to kick a$$. Sometimes you wake up and you just want to sleep again and have sex with your gf. But when you wake up and do the work even when you don't want. That's when you a real badass.

Why do I always get the impression that going to the gym is generally taken as not fun? Am I literally the only person that enjoys going the gym. Actually, mad at myself that I can't go more often. When I exercise, I don't feel pain and stress. It is therapeutic to me. The blood flowing through my body feels good.
 

Kevin88660

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Why do I always get the impression that going to the gym is generally taken as not fun? Am I literally the only person that enjoys going the gym. Actually, mad at myself that I can't go more often. When I exercise, I don't feel pain and stress. It is therapeutic to me. The blood flowing through my body feels good.

I am with Cal Newport on this. People eventually grow to like what they excel. People eventually will grow to hate what they suck in. A passion based business that bring in money will eventually make the owner hate it. And I seldom heard people who say they hate their money machine. Human being are essentially driven by a strong sense of utilitarianism.

I get some people love gym. These people are in shape in the first place. And there are some people who love to binge eat. If you have a problem in life and trying to fix it, following the passion is a bad idea. Just like overweight people like potato chips and hate going to the gym.

I like playing sports. But for the past two years I have replaced it with gym entirely. Since I figure out that I am not going to make money from sports and gym can be much more effective in building the exact physique to show off. I am kind of an extreme utilitarian.
 
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maverick

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Might as well change the title to 'argument for doing nothing'
 

FierceRacoon

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I think the problem with passion-based business can be a confusion as to what you want more. That is, do you want to be engaging in a certain activity more frequently, do you want to get good at it, or do you want a certain lifestyle? Or a mix of all of those?

If you want to be the best (substitute - chess player, martial artist, musician) possible, then teaching others or running a martial arts studio does not directly improve your skill. While it may be energetically preferable to an unrelated "day job", that's not necessarily true. I have seen how e.g. running a yoga studio or a ballroom dance studio consumes so much of one's time and energy that there isn't much left for personal improvement, and then one could make more progress with an unrelated job to pay the bills.

If you want money and some amount of the desired activity (chess, martial arts, music), again, the activity may not be the best way towards the money. So long as maintaining a strong skill level is not a priority, again, consider an unrelated business, and if it is a priority, consider if a passion-based business is then feasible. Perhaps you don't want to be the CEO of a passion-based business, but can be a key employee with a potential upside?

In other words, if you have a clear goal involving your passion and your financials, a passion-based business is not necessarily the best solution for any conceivable goal. It can be, ironically, a form of settling in ALL directions. For example, you open a martial arts studio and
* you don't get enough time and energy to really improve your skill level, yet
* you don't make that much money either.

It is a sort of settling, whereas it feels like you are doing more martial arts and making money on your own — in this example — but it may not provide complete fulfillment in either domain.
 

Matt Hunt

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I agree, and this is something I'm realizing now, too. When I don't enjoy what I'm doing, I avoid doing it. It's the reason my last business failed, and why I haven't gotten anywhere with my new business. I don't enjoy it, so I put off the work, and put it off, and eventually just stop altogether.

I think there are so many variables and everyone is so different. Some people may be able to push through when doing something they don't particularly enjoy, but I think most people will find they have a limit. They may be able to do so for a week, a month, maybe a year, but if they don't see results in that time, they give up.

For me, I think loving what I'm doing is an absolute necessity. I've tried so many things, not just businesses, but also jobs, that I didn't really enjoy, so I ultimately did not succeed at them. I have a YouTube channel which I enjoy a TON, and have no problem continuing to work on, even though it's just now starting to make a little money.

As far as that goes, there are several others in that niche who have reached full-time status with their YouTube channels, doing what they love. Is it going to be a multi-million dollar business that they can sell? No. But they're doing what they love and making a living at it.

YouTuber Graham Stephan, who talks about personal finance, investing, etc, just posted a video where he showed that he was making $100k/mo on ad revenue from his channel. And he started this channel for fun, he didn't even expect that he'd be making money from it, and now it's his biggest source of income.

You can absolutely fill a need. Education is a need. Heck, entertainment is a need. He won't have a business he can sell for $50 million, but imagine how quickly he's building his wealth by investing $100k/mo!

Anyway, I think the path to a successful and enjoyable life is to each his own. MJ talks about building your wealth first so you can pursue your passion project, but what if you can skip years and years building a business you aren't passionate about, and make a good living from your passion project in the first place? There ARE a lot of people out there doing just that.
 
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D

DeletedUser0287

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I agree, and this is something I'm realizing now, too. When I don't enjoy what I'm doing, I avoid doing it. It's the reason my last business failed, and why I haven't gotten anywhere with my new business. I don't enjoy it, so I put off the work, and put it off, and eventually just stop altogether.

I think there are so many variables and everyone is so different. Some people may be able to push through when doing something they don't particularly enjoy, but I think most people will find they have a limit. They may be able to do so for a week, a month, maybe a year, but if they don't see results in that time, they give up.

For me, I think loving what I'm doing is an absolute necessity. I've tried so many things, not just businesses, but also jobs, that I didn't really enjoy, so I ultimately did not succeed at them. I have a YouTube channel which I enjoy a TON, and have no problem continuing to work on, even though it's just now starting to make a little money.

As far as that goes, there are several others in that niche who have reached full-time status with their YouTube channels, doing what they love. Is it going to be a multi-million dollar business that they can sell? No. But they're doing what they love and making a living at it.

YouTuber Graham Stephan, who talks about personal finance, investing, etc, just posted a video where he showed that he was making $100k/mo on ad revenue from his channel. And he started this channel for fun, he didn't even expect that he'd be making money from it, and now it's his biggest source of income.

You can absolutely fill a need. Education is a need. Heck, entertainment is a need. He won't have a business he can sell for $50 million, but imagine how quickly he's building his wealth by investing $100k/mo!

Anyway, I think the path to a successful and enjoyable life is to each his own. MJ talks about building your wealth first so you can pursue your passion project, but what if you can skip years and years building a business you aren't passionate about, and make a good living from your passion project in the first place? There ARE a lot of people out there doing just that.

Exactly my thoughts and experience now. I feel pretty much unstoppable now with passion. Never tired and eager to run this passion business. I pushed through negatively for 3 years. It just wasn't right.

I have studied more successes and it seems that the most successful business owners are the spitting image of their ideal customer. Aka, they are the ideal customer and with that emotional/passionate investment develop truly best products because it is for themselves as well. Although many see this emotional investment in products a bad thing.

Another popular view is that you don't have to be a customer of your own product to be successful. But, do you really think a guy without a beard developing beard products will actually produce a good product? From my experience, hell no.

It was Seth Godin's Purple Cow book that really changed my perspective in this. Majority of successful people are Pro Passion. Others that are not pro passion like MJ, include Mark Cuban.

What I've learned is to actually go straight to passionate project, but you must be grounded in reality.

Damnnnn, I watch Graham Stephen. Did not know he was pulling in that much from his channel. Yeah Youtube is pretty much people cashing out hard on their passions.
 

Matt Hunt

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I started Purple Cow, but never got very far. I'm gonna have to read through it further!

I really think everyone has to do what is best for THEM! Like GaryVee says, you have to be self-aware. And I'd argue that the people who build a business around something they aren't passionate about, allegedly, are actually passionate about the process of building a business.

I know a guy that owns several successful businesses. They aren't related in any way, it's a totally random collection of things. His thing is, "if the numbers work, I'm interested." He has said that building businesses is fun for him. Like he doesn't even take vacations. For people like that, the niche doesn't really matter. Their passion is business.

Not the case for me. But yeah, you can definitely find a need in whatever niche you're passionate about. Probably more likely to find a need there, actually, since you're involved with it. This was really my original plan with my YouTube channel. The purpose of the channel is really just to build an audience. Then, create a product related to that niche, and if I have 50k subscribers at that point, then I have 50k people I can market the product to for free!
 

MILIANARD134

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So let's describe my point of view about gym :rofl: @MoreValue.
I love do the work at gym, I mean, I love the chest day and doing the cardio, and I love doing sport in general. But most of the day, I'm lazy because my job usually start at 10, and I go to the gym at 6. And you know what ? I'm not driven by pleasure, I'm driven by "If i don't go to the gym today: First I will see my self in a mirror and say i'm a shit because I don't respect my objectives. Second : I will not get the body that I dream.

My first business wasn't passion driven, I was hoping the bandwagon on shopify and selling gothic clothes in dropshipping. I really don't like this universe, but there was a huge opportunity. I was feeling like a scam because I think the product were crap, and my clients weren't the typical folks I hangout with.
I quit after 6 month. But at this time, I don't needed money. I was comfortable. Do you understand my point ? When you have an FTE, and the only thing you can do is do the sh*t, you have no choice, no escape.

Probably you were a money chaser, like I think, most of us did at the start. But imagine, you need urgently to fill your bank account, not to buy a F*cking new iPhone or a F*cking new TV. Just to eat, sleep, and pay the bills. Do you think passion is something you will consider? Heck no.

Your exemple about the you tubers is great. Some of them are really passioned, but imagine if they stay at 100 subscribers? They would hate youtube.

Just think twice about the FTE dude. I think passion is a privilege, and if you have no fking option, passion is a fairy tale.

Anyway I like your idea, but I think in reality yeah,it's a little bit more practical.
 
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Kevin88660

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What about people who have no passion other than being “recognized as successful”?
 
D

DeletedUser0287

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So let's describe my point of view about gym :rofl: @MoreValue.
I love do the work at gym, I mean, I love the chest day and doing the cardio, and I love doing sport in general. But most of the day, I'm lazy because my job usually start at 10, and I go to the gym at 6. And you know what ? I'm not driven by pleasure, I'm driven by "If i don't go to the gym today: First I will see my self in a mirror and say i'm a shit because I don't respect my objectives. Second : I will not get the body that I dream.
Then you love the result more than the process

My first business wasn't passion driven, I was hoping the bandwagon on shopify and selling gothic clothes in dropshipping. I really don't like this universe, but there was a huge opportunity. I was feeling like a scam because I think the product were crap, and my clients weren't the typical folks I hangout with.
I quit after 6 month. But at this time, I don't needed money. I was comfortable. Do you understand my point ? When you have an FTE, and the only thing you can do is do the sh*t, you have no choice, no escape.

Passionless business are just money motivated. People just suck it up till they make cash or sell out. They don't last like you have experienced.

Probably you were a money chaser, like I think, most of us did at the start. But imagine, you need urgently to fill your bank account, not to buy a F*cking new iPhone or a F*cking new TV. Just to eat, sleep, and pay the bills. Do you think passion is something you will consider? Heck no.

Your exemple about the you tubers is great. Some of them are really passioned, but imagine if they stay at 100 subscribers? They would hate youtube.

Just think twice about the FTE dude. I think passion is a privilege, and if you have no fking option, passion is a fairy tale.

Anyway I like your idea, but I think in reality yeah,it's a little bit more practical.

Yes, I was a money chaser. Not anymore though. At a point where you need to urgently fill bank account, then yeah you can't consider passion. You just need to do whatever.

Already had an FTE, it a pretty much had to do whatever that made money. Since my view is that passion is necessary to create a truly long term business. Business itself is a privilege. I believe I made a thread in the past that covered this. But yeah, the result of that thread was that people could not accept the reality. People always want to believe the BS "rags from riches" story. That it is just mindset. Which is BS. That business in itself requires a great deal of time and resources (Obviously the privileged has tons of this).

To give even more perspective, I saved up some money to make the jump out of my job and have been unemployed for months. Developing a really great product. But funds are drying up. And now, I have to work jobs I am not passionate about at all to continue the growth of the business. Passion and business are really a privilege that I wish I realized sooner, although this forum wants you think otherwise. Immediately making the jump to full time entrepreneurship is a pure luxury because a cash cushion is necessary. Living on zero expenses is impossible anywhere in the world.
 

Josephseal

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I agree with everything you are saying here being unprecedented access. I would rather have the cost of living like crap to bootstrap than to pay interest on a loan. That’s how people really screw up.



That’s not what I mean by analogy. What I meant was that just saying “your mindset is the problem” doesn’t help at all due to how general it is. Like I said above. My symptom that is now gone was “money chasing.” The cause of the symptom was focusing on non passionate business.

If a doctor, just says “You are sick” just like you say “your mindset is broken” it doesn’t do anything. After I hear this, “why am I sick?” “What is causing the sickness?”



Well the gym example I can relate to 100%. I am a loyal gym goer. I like the so-called “pain.” The stretch and the squeeze of the muscle feels good. Which is why I have lasted in the gym for idk 7 years now and will probably never stop. A person that enjoys process gets through all of it. Technically they are going through pain and struggle, but enjoy it. Same with my business right now.

Guess how many times, things went wrong with the product development? Too many times, I couldn’t even count. But I kept going at it and will never stop. Like I said in posts above, I did not view these as obstacles due to passion. A typical person that is not passionate, would not do what I was doing and give up. But there were a few times I did get frustrated, but still carried on because I wanted to see a finished product.

Me looking forward to this business, there is going to be 10x the number of problems (Forecasting Pain), even though I don’t view it that way. But guess what? I am still going to do it.

I am very curious on what you opinion is on Gary Vee then? His view on entrepreneurship is completely opposite of yours.
I go to the gym myself 5 days a week and push myself every chance I get, but. I hate going to the gym, I'm not passionate about it, I go because I want to be in shape of course, but the gym for me is a mental process. I learn the art of doing the hard thing even though I'm not passionate about it ( and I don't ever put in a half-a$$ work-out, can't happen or I would break mt own principle of never quit) the gym fro me creates mental toughness. David Goggins considered to be the toughest athletes on the planet and is an Ultra-Marathoner and he hates to run! He does it to toughen his mind for the hard things life can bring.
I've had three businesses that started out as hobbies, things I love to do, which lead me to jump right in and fizzled out, like the others said, just because I was passionate does mean I brought value to the market.
I've spent 40 years becoming an overnight success for the company I work for now, the funny thing is I didn't even want the job, I took the job because the other candidates weren't the right people at the time for expansion and I knew I was. I enjoy what I do very much and you could say I'm passionate, but that didn't show up until I saw my commitment translate into other's succeeding and becoming great team leaders and that took about three years of a$$ busting to build sustainable systems, overcome countless fire drills and a thousand hours of table talk meetings. Passion IMHO doesn't translate into financial success, cut the cord. Now, adaptability, fortitude, commitment, humility, calibrated expectations, and self -awareness is mammal food. When I talk to my father (in his 80's) when you mention the word passion, he thinks your using a word meant for intimacy in the feminine sense, these old warriors did the work, no whining and when failure showed up they learned from it and turned the page because they knew they couldn't stay there bitching about it (Okay they did do a lot of bitching) overthink the failure or quit, quitting was never an option, calibrated changes were the only option.

Whoops ...too long, going to have a cigar, best !
 
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Johnny boy

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My opinion:

Passion is often too narrow and shallow when people describe it in terms of a career.

“I have a passion for baseball”

Things like that. General, superficial things.

Me personally, I have a passion for using my brain to solve business problems. I love businesses. I love calling the shots. I can take that passion and apply it to a lot of different industries. I have a scattered brain that THRIVES on total uncertainty and a complete lack of constraints. I’m the type of guy who would cheat on tests not because I even wanted a high grade, but because my brain can’t help but to find a way to “get around” something. It’s what I’m addicted to. Coming up with solutions to problems with creativity and a little bit of charisma and the willingness to take on risk to do so. And nowhere else is it more fun than in business. The money is just the icing on the cake that makes me smile a little harder because it’s proof my idea worked.

People that have a lack of self awareness often come up with the bullshit “I have a passion for cupcakes so therefore I should start a cupcake shop”. Nope, that’s not your passion. You just like eating them. Maybe you like making them too. Do you like marketing your business, negotiating with suppliers, and testing ad campaigns to get people in the store? No? Then you’ll hate the cupcake biz.

Do I have a passion for lawn care?

Jesus F-ing Christ NO I do not.

But am I the happiest person in the world right now? You bet. At least top 50.

I’m the happiest person around because I love my life, how my brain works, where I am in life right now, the things I’ve done that got me here, where I’m going. It’s everything. It’s holistic. I’m just happy. And it’s very much because I have a passion for what I do. I solve business problems. That’s my passion. I do it mostly for myself but that’s not enough for me.

I can’t tell you how pumped I get when people ask me business questions. It’s my favorite hobby by far. If I sat in a room and talked about someone else’s business and how to solve their business problems, I would be excited and pumped full of energy for 12 hours straight and not want to leave. I do it for free but I sometimes charge for consulting in certain situations. (It’s a secret that I’d be doing it for free anyways) I can’t tell you how pumped I get when somebody messages me on here asking for advice on something and we get to talk business. Hell, I’ll even try to convince my own employees to quit and start their own business after they work for me for a couple months. Doesn’t even matter if it’s in lawn care, I know they can’t compete with me, but I’ll help them with any business just because I love solving the problems so much.

So yes, passion is real. I am growing a passion business. Not because I like mowing lawns, but I like the root actions that make up what a business owner actually does, which is solving problems with creativity and taking on risk and having a lack of constraints. Business is my art form. It’s more multidimensional than any other art form, because it consists of many more variables than any other art form. It is the purest reflection of the values of the people who make the decisions within that business. It is the most honest art form because it is ruled by the choices of the free market. It is competitive since everyone wants money, so it only rewards the best. There are millions of choices to make in a business, unlike a painting or sculpture, which exist with a limited number of variables and are judged subjectively. Business doesn’t live in a make believe world. It is the truth and cannot run away from it. It revolves around people since it takes a person to allocate resources and a person to decide to do business with that company. That’s why I love it so much. It’s real. It matters. It says “F*ck you” to excuses and delusions. It’s everything I believe in. And it’s something you can actually win. I love keeping score. I love winning. And I love not being able to win unless you really deserve it. I’m going to keep playing this game until I die. Because that’s all I’m ever doing, playing a fun game.
 

luniac

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so long story short, we're all passionate here, passionate about freedom!
 

LittleWolfie

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I really believe that you are now using passion as an excuse as to why you failed previously.

I find it really interesting, that all of the successful pro-passion people I have heard from all are quite clear that their passion business was the 2nd,3rd or even 5th succesful business they had.
 
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Josephseal

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I find it really interesting, that all of the successful pro-passion people I have heard from all are quite clear that their passion business was the 2nd,3rd or even 5th succesful business they had.
I would agree with your statement and the reason for me would be life experience, as time passes some not all people will ruminate and sift through the chaff and re-shuffle the deck. Life experience can change your perspective if you're learning any life lessons. For me, my core values/principles have only gone through minor calibrations/enhancements, but the meaning/purpose has changed for me, that's where more golden gumballs have shown up.
 

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