So lemme guess, if all of the world's top businessmen, from Elon Musk to Warren Buffet to Jeff Bezos tells you to hop off a cliff on one foot, you'd do it without questioning it simply because they - these world's top businessmen - said to do it? Many business people say to do a lot of things, yet, when scrutinizing how they built their wealth it's another story. Passion, isn't 100% a horrible thing - no it isn't, but, Passion is not usually the only principle these businesspeople would have used to get ahead in success. The problem we have isn't that they say passion guarantees millions, the problem is that alone isn't enough. However, who am I to say, after all - do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life!
Yessssss, you said it - virtual hug sent your way!
100% Agree with you here MJ.
@kelvinfernandezm , you make a valid point, but only from the "slowlane" perspective of things. If you indeed have read the Fastlane - every year for the past three years, if I read that correctly - then it seems you've had a blind spot for one of the most important principles of the Fastlane.
No, MJ, it isn't. There is absolutely NO logic at all to your argument. What you're saying is a non sequitur.
What I'm saying is that the vast majority (if not all) of the world's self-made billionnaires became super rich by following their passions and connecting them to profitable business projects which met previously-unmet (or poorly met) human needs (although in Tesla's case, there was absolutely NO need for electric cars - gas- and diesel-powered ones were doing just fine and most people thought, and still think, that electric cars are just an expensive boondoogle).
The vast majority of these self-made men openly say so (a few do not), and contrary to what some people have said on this thread, those billionnaires have NO interest in misleading people, bc they are far, far more successful than anyone listening to them will ever be.
And they're not just Bezos and Buffett, they're also Jobs (RIP), Gates, Musk, VP, Zuckerberg, Paphitis, etc. etc. etc.
Being passionate about what one is doing IS necessary for a very important reason, already evoked by Steve Jobs : building and running a business is very hard, so much so that most people will quit when the times are hard. Only the truly passionate (indeed, obsessed) ones will stay and keep fighting no matter what happens - because for them, it's not just about money or meeting "the market's needs", it's about something much more important - their deepest passion and what they believe to be their purpose in life.
A truly correct analogy in this case would be to compare a businessman lacking passion for his business to a soldier who lacks the motivation to fight. He might have up-to-date precise information about the enemy and the weapons to defeat him, but if he lacks the willingness to fight, he will not fight. Period. As Napoleon has said, the moral factor is even more important than physical factors.
As for your analogy to someone being booed off stage and then rejected by the local church, etc., Mark Cuban is instructive here. Cuban says (as does Trump) that one should NEVER give up, no matter how often one is rejected, because you don't have to be right all of the time, only once in your life.
There's actually a somewhat similar, real-life story about a female Canadian singer. As a girl, she sang in the church choir and then her family send her recordings to some agents, hoping that their daughter would get a chance to perform before one of them. No response. So they called one of those agents and DEMANDED a hearing. She performed well, and now she's one of the world's most famous singers. I'm talking, of course, about Celine Dion.
Jack Ma (the founder of Alibaba) was rejected many times by the Chinese police, by department stores, and 10 times by Harvard (yes, ten times!). Myself, I've been rejected by the vast majority of the French universities I've applied to. But I've been admitted to a few others, and voila, in September, I'm going to France to study
Your story, as told in your own book, MJ, is even more instructive : by your own admission, all of your early (Chicago-era) business ventures failed or made miserable profits. Yet, you kept trying, and eventually, you succeeded. And I don't believe for a second that you acted solely to meet some business need, irrespective of your passions. It's clear from all your writings that you have an enormous passion for cars and for running businesses.
Anyone trying to succeed in any venture in life will fail/be rejected many times before finally succeeding. It's the passionate, motivated person who will eventually succeed. Others will quit. It's as simple as that.
What I'm saying is that the vast majority (if not all) of the world's self-made billionnaires became super rich by following their passions and connecting them to profitable business projects which met previously-unmet (or poorly met) human needs (although in Tesla's case, there was absolutely NO need for electric cars - gas- and diesel-powered ones were doing just fine and most people thought, and still think, that electric cars are just an expensive boondoogle).
The vast majority of these self-made men openly say so (a few do not), and contrary to what some people have said on this thread, those billionnaires have NO interest in misleading people, bc they are far, far more successful than anyone listening to them will ever be.
And they're not just Bezos and Buffett, they're also Jobs (RIP), Gates, Musk, VP, Zuckerberg, Paphitis, etc. etc. etc.
Being passionate about what one is doing IS necessary for a very important reason, already evoked by Steve Jobs : building and running a business is very hard, so much so that most people will quit when the times are hard. Only the truly passionate (indeed, obsessed) ones will stay and keep fighting no matter what happens - because for them, it's not just about money or meeting "the market's needs", it's about something much more important - their deepest passion and what they believe to be their purpose in life.
A truly correct analogy in this case would be to compare a businessman lacking passion for his business to a soldier who lacks the motivation to fight. He might have up-to-date precise information about the enemy and the weapons to defeat him, but if he lacks the willingness to fight, he will not fight. Period. As Napoleon has said, the moral factor is even more important than physical factors.
As for your analogy to someone being booed off stage and then rejected by the local church, etc., Mark Cuban is instructive here. Cuban says (as does Trump) that one should NEVER give up, no matter how often one is rejected, because you don't have to be right all of the time, only once in your life.
There's actually a somewhat similar, real-life story about a female Canadian singer. As a girl, she sang in the church choir and then her family send her recordings to some agents, hoping that their daughter would get a chance to perform before one of them. No response. So they called one of those agents and DEMANDED a hearing. She performed well, and now she's one of the world's most famous singers. I'm talking, of course, about Celine Dion.
Jack Ma (the founder of Alibaba) was rejected many times by the Chinese police, by department stores, and 10 times by Harvard (yes, ten times!). Myself, I've been rejected by the vast majority of the French universities I've applied to. But I've been admitted to a few others, and voila, in September, I'm going to France to study
Your story, as told in your own book, MJ, is even more instructive : by your own admission, all of your early (Chicago-era) business ventures failed or made miserable profits. Yet, you kept trying, and eventually, you succeeded. And I don't believe for a second that you acted solely to meet some business need, irrespective of your passions. It's clear from all your writings that you have an enormous passion for cars and for running businesses.
Anyone trying to succeed in any venture in life will fail/be rejected many times before finally succeeding. It's the passionate, motivated person who will eventually succeed. Others will quit. It's as simple as that.
The house is on fire. And no amount of passion water can douse it out.
Yes, very funny. It feels so great to have lived a failure-free life yourself, eh ?
No, MJ, passion does not come from winning. Satisfaction does. Passion is what motivates you and propels you to win in the first place.
Actually, I'm 28 (will be 29 later this year).
I don't think I've "found the secret to world domination in a classroom and on a blog" and never claimed that I did. I'm just saying what I believe to be true based on my own life experience (up to this point) and those of many others - those I know personally and successful people whom I know either personally or (in those billionnaires' case) only from the Net.
What I've been saying throughout this thread is that the either/or choice we are being given here (either follow your passions or market needs) is a false one. One must, I believe, find out where those two intersect. And that's what I intend to do for myself. In other words, which of my passions and skills can I turn into a money printer ? For which ones is there strong demand ?
You, and everyone else, may Isagree totally with me, and that's perfectly fine with me.
Actually, I'm 28 (will be 29 later this year).
Reminds me of Dan Pena who at one time brawled at his seminar: 'If love did the job, you all wouldn't be here!"
Your example ignores that you could've pursued your passion as a guitarist all you wanted afterwards.
Will do.
Join Fastlane Insiders.
