More than half of the people that read this article, dislike their work, yet will get up day after day and suffer through eight hours or more of work like there aren't any other options. While some unhappy workers muster up the courage to change careers, others opt to grin and bear it.
Many would be entrepreneurs fall into the same category, others choose to profit from their passion. When you find work that you enjoy, you will never have to work another day in your life. Let's take a look at how you can turn your passion into profit.
Our culture has a way of reeling us into work that we don't really enjoy. Think about it, most of us take jobs based on an acquired skill set that has more to do with how much money we are going to make, than how much we are going to enjoy the work. Our passions become secondary afterthoughts to our jobs and making money.
To help discover your passion, focus on determining the purpose of your passion. How will it help others? Will your product or service have a positive impact on others? Your passion combined with impacting others is a winning combination.
When you are passionate about what you do, you will give extraordinary effort to your work. You will persevere through adversity and you will strive for excellence, and it won't feel like work at all. Let's look at an example.
Michael Dolen is founder of CreditCardForum.com. Dolen is young, ambitious and successful entrepreneur who has a genuine love for people. Dolen used his passion, his love for people and created a leading social website for credit card comparison and discussion.
Each day thousands of visitors come to the site to talk credit cards, and for good reasons, Dolen is considered an authority, an expert in his field. Dolen is relentless in his pursuit of perfecting his product. Dolen works on his business because of his love for people, the profit is a byproduct of his passion.
Another important component to profiting from your passion is good old-fashioned business savvy. Do you know how to make money? Yes, your passion will be the foundation for what drives your business, but you will need to know how to invest and spend money wisely. Learn from those who are where you want to be.
I once had a business mentor who told me that I could not expand my business with my hands; it had to be done with my brains. You are only going to be able to put your hands on a certain number of issues each day. That means hiring good people, from financial and legal advisors to marketing personnel. I consider this the single most important piece of advice that I was ever given in business.
Be forewarned if you are a control freak, implementing this principle will likely be very difficult. Many people who think they are entrepreneurs, are really just worker bees. Entrepreneurs know how to take their vision and etch it in the hearts of their employees. Think of it this way. You're really not giving up control; you are enabling and empowering your business to grow.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle you will have to overcome in profiting from your passion is your very own fear of failure. Resist playing the “what if” game with yourself, instead focus on how you will accomplish your goals, and know that you will succeed.
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