If this statement is true, why are there so many broke people that are passionate about what they do? Is the statement “Do what you love and the money will follow” false?
Based on my experience…YES! However, that’s not the whole story. Let me explain.
Passion is absolutely necessary for your business or your investments. Without it, you’ll never do what it takes to be successful.
Without it, you won’t master your craft.
Without it, you’ll give up when the going gets tough.
However, passion alone doesn’t pay your bills. Those collectors and creditors will keep calling.
You can’t say to them, “Can I pay you with my passion? It’s huge! I’m so excited for what I’m about to accomplish and for the people I can serve!”
Could you imagine their response to that? Maybe I should try that sometime 😉
So, how does this statement work? I like to rephrase the statement like this:
Do what you love that others love you doing, and THEN the money will follow!
You only get paid for providing value that others want. No one really cares about your passion. They care that you are passionately serving them in a way that they value.
I had a client a few years ago that was REALLY passionate about families playing model trains together. He wanted it to replace Playstations, Wii’s, etc. However, families still wanted to play with their Wii’s.
Fortunately, he caught on to this before investing tens of thousands of dollars into a new business. He is still passionate about the trains, but he doesn’t make a huge business out of it. That’s the difference!
If all of us only did what we were passionate about, we would likely be spending time with our families, vacationing, watching TV, or just staring out into the distance only disturbed by the occasional “Squirrel!”
Now that I think about it – some plasma donation centers advertise getting paid to watch a movie while they suck the plasma out of your body. So maybe it works sometimes 😉
So can we just merely do what we love and the money will follow? NO!
However, if we have the right mindset, skill sets, and market that wants what we have, then the answer is “YES!”
What’s your opinion?