WW 253: Why Turning Your Passion into a Business Can Be Bad Advice - Solo Show

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A Quick Recap from this episode

For this first episode of the new year, I’m sharing about something that might make you scratch your head and say “I wasn’t expecting that.” I want to break down why I believe that turning your passion into a business can be bad advice. I think so many people feel at odds with this topic because we want to turn the thing we love to do into a business. I’m not telling you not to love what you do, but I want to share how it can become an unhealthy area for you to put the pressure on the thing that makes you money to have to be your passion.

Here’s my suggestion: replace turning your passion into your business with building a business where you can follow your fascination.

Following my fascination has been a sort of life motto for me, and even though I’ve still messed up and tried to force things, but I always come back to “what am I really interested in building a business around?” And it’s around doing something that fascinates me but not necessarily something I have a passion for.

So let’s break this down. Building a business is all about solving a problem. You’re solving problems for the customer. If you’re looking to build a coaching business, find a problem and a solution that fascinates you and find the niche that needs that solution that fascinates you.

But sometimes you have to take your heart out of it for a minute. You can be fascinated by a market or a niche and that may not necessarily be your passion in life. And that’s okay. You’re allowed to have a business that isn’t the biggest passion you have. Putting the pressure on your business to be your passion OR on your passion to be monetized becomes unhealthy and can become soul-sucking.

This obsession that our society and our culture has with monetizing everything is unhealthy. On one hand, if you’re looking to make more money and there’s a genuine need for something you could offer that you already love to do, that’s great, but on the other hand, being an entrepreneur can become all-encompassing and not allowing yourself to have a separate life and hobbies from your business isn’t healthy.

But regardless of the importance that you need to have that life and have those hobbies that separate you from your work, and the constant feeling to need or want to make money, because I know that can be a really key thing, when especially you're new in your business, turning your passion into a business can also be a big money and time suck from an actual business model perspective.

When you Google the word “passion,” the first definition that comes up is “a strong and barely controllable emotion.” Think about that, is that something that you want to build your business on - a strong and barely controllable emotion? Probably not. And passions tend to come and go, whereas the enjoyment and impact and fascination you have with your business and the problem you solve may not fade as easily.

So this rhetoric of building a business from your passion and “loving what you do so you don't ever feel like you work” can also be unhealthy for business owners who feel like they're working hard, especially when you're early on in your business and you have to do a lot of that groundwork to build the traction and gain that momentum. Even after that there are points where you may not enjoy parts or aspects of that work.

You need to be realistic and honest about what it takes to build a business, and that’s why I believe that so many people invest in themselves to build a business, but then it's not as easy as everyone makes it out to be. So many people are pushing for that, only to find themselves in that state where they don't even feel like they're passionate anymore, because sometimes business is just business.

So that's it and I just wanted to welcome you into the new year with some advice that I hope will pull some weight off of your shoulders. I'm not saying that your work doesn't get to be fun. I'm not saying that you need to struggle the whole time. Focus on serving a fascinating market of individuals who you just love to serve, and you can build a business off of that. I hope you go out and find something fascinating to build your business on or find a fascinating solution for your clients or serve fascinating clients.

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