Should you follow your passion when you start a business? This question comes up frequently. I don’t think there is a simple answer.
The premise to the advice to follow your passion is that if you do so, you are likely to be more engaged in what you do, and “ultimately, you will find success”.
I agree with the first part of the premise: you’ll be more engaged if you’re doing what you’re passionate about. That is almost a given.
I don’t, however, agree with the second part of the premise: ultimately, you will find success. I’m not saying that you won’t find success using this approach. I’m just saying that your finding success is not a given when you travel down the road of following your passion. You don’t have to look much further than Hollywood or the minor leagues of any sport to prove that point. The same is true in business.
That said, there is some wiggle room to make this premise true every time. That wiggle room comes in how you define success. In following your passion for acting, is the only success becoming an A-list actor in Hollywood? When you follow your passion for your chosen sport, is the only success becoming a professional player? And if you follow your passion in business, is the only success if you build a multi-billion dollar company and end up on the Forbes list of richest people?
Before following your passion in pursuit of success, the key is to first define what success means to you! Just as people have different passions, they have different definitions of success. For one person, making enough money to pay their rent and cover their basic expenses would be seen as a success. For another person, they may not view the outcome as success unless it involves making millions of dollars. How do you define success? It’s important to bear in mind that when you develop your definition of success, it should not be all about money. Money is important, but it’s not everything! How about having time to pursue other interests? How about being able to make a positive impact on others? The list can go on and on of non-monetary rewards and benefits that are also an important part of being “successful”.
The way I look at starting a business or pretty much any other endeavor is that, yes, you should follow your passion and it will lead to success. It will take a while — it hardly ever happens right away — but success usually will be the outcome of following your passion, particularly if you’re measuring success against your own definition. What is your definition of success?
I have found that as I get further along in my entrepreneurial career and my life, my definition of success has become more complex. It used to be simple. My focus early on was largely on making as much money as possible. If I made a lot of money in my business, I felt like I was successful. In more recent years, though, while making money is still important, I care more about quality of life and having a positive impact on others. I only feel really successful when I make plenty of money, but am also able to do so while helping others and having enough time to enjoy life. It’s become more difficult for me to feel successful, I guess!
So, I believe that you should follow your passion, to the extent you know what it is — there’s probably more than one — but only if by following your passion, you think there’s a strong probability that it will lead you to reaching your definition of success. And as you do so, realize that your passion(s) is likely to change over time, as will your definition of success.
Don’t be lulled into the false dichotomy of follow your passion or do something that makes you miserable! The choices don’t need to be that extreme, and as I said, both your passions and definition of success will change over time. So, committing yourself to a strict definition of success and one passion that will be immutable over time, is almost certainly a recipe for disappointment.
When you start a new business or you start in any new endeavor, do your homework. Do as much research as you can to determine the likelihood that you’ll be able to meet your definition of success in that new venture! Following your passion is not an excuse to go blindly and uninformed into your endeavors. You must do your research and you must learn as you go. Being able to adapt in life and in business is key to success, no matter how you define it!
Go in with your definition of success and your eyes wide open based on rigorous research at the front end of your venture. Take all the basic steps before starting a business, whether or not you’re following your passion. Those steps are many, including answering the most basic question: will anyone be willing to buy what I want to sell at a price at which I can make a reasonable profit? Once you can answer that question, do a simple break-even analysis to determine how much you’d need to sell to cover your basic costs. Is the market big enough and can you command enough of it to break even? How long will that likely take? There are many more questions to be answered. These are just a couple of the most basic.
Follow your passion when you start your business, but do the research so you know what you’re getting into and have some sense of the likelihood that you’ll be able to meet your definition of success. You’ll be glad that you put that work in up front.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
