Whoever wrote:
‘follow your passion and success will follow' probably ran out of ink
before adding 'terms & conditions apply' – By @Lizmania
'Follow your
passion, and success will follow.'
That is by far one of the biggest lies I've ever heard
from entrepreneurial interchanges! And yes, you heard me right, Lie! Lie! Lie!
Now what exactly do I mean by that?
I for instance am passionate about music. I love music! I
live music. I breathe music! Everywhere I go, I sing, in a sense my life is
some sort of a musical and yes, this is to be taken in a literal sense! Now the
problem is that every time I open my mouth to sing, the people around me appear
to be experiencing some sort of discomfort. Their faces will disfigure, as if
they are tortured. Others will excuse themselves to rather be somewhere else.
One thing is for sure, as much as I love and have the
passion to sing, I do not have the ability to sing! If I were to decide to go
into studio and start recording an album, the only person who would probably
lay-buy my CD would be my ever so supportive mother no doubt.
It isn't always the case that when one follows their
passion, the consequence is success. Failure could result too, if perhaps one's
passion is not aligned with one's capability! You cannot blindly follow a
passion that you clearly do not have the 'talent' or 'gift' that could back it
up.
I feel that most entrepreneurial role models sell this
passion dream more and tend to forget about yet another important aspect of
entrepreneurship, which is opportunity! My take is, there are two ways to
approach entrepreneurship, one could be going the 'passion route' or the
'opportunity route'.
Now the latter is mostly discouraged by the top dogs
probably because when one is not passionate about something, they tend to not
give it their all. That statement is not false at all! But what if I were to
come forth and say, "I am passionate about entrepreneurship!"? Yup,
that's right, you do get people that have no special attachment to anything in
particular but are really passionate about entrepreneurship! Give them ANY kind
of an opportunity and they will give it their all and NAIL it!
Going back to my sad story about my lack of vocal talent,
let's forget about me for a second and talk about you. Say you are unemployed
and struggling to make ends meet. You’re passionate about fashion design but no
one can stand the sight of the clothes you make. But when you sing it makes the
hairs on the backs of people stand up! You have a voice exactly like Whitney
Houston, and as much as it's not your favourite thing in the world to do, when
you do it- people listen and they love it! Now struggling as you are, trying to
make ends meet, would you not be willing to explore this opportunity simply
because you have no passion for it? Wouldn't you be motivated enough about
making ends meet to a point where you'd be willing to consider it and
subsequently do it with a passion?
Dr Dre is believed to have made more money selling music
accessories than he ever made in his music career! Do you honestly think that
Dr Dre is passionate about ear phones? I doubt! To me this sounds like a man
who is passionate about hustling. We see this everyday, musician making more
money out of endorsements than their music careers. Honestly, I doubt Rihanna
is as passionate about Mac cosmetics as she is about being on stage!
Now please do not get me twisted here, I am NOT at all
implying that passion is not important. All I'm saying is, in the business world,
one shouldn’t be so obsessed with this passion concept that it blinds them of
opportunities that come their way! Much as 'terms and conditions' apply to
going the opportunity route, the same can be said of the passion route. If you are good at something that you are
passionate about, by all means follow your passion. And if you are not, it
doesn't mean you can't be a successful business owner.
PS: Just because I can't sing, it doesn't mean I can't go
into the music business and explore other musical avenues ;-)
Pic credit: Google
