Make Your Passion Your Business!

Seventy percent of all workers hate their jobs. So says a recent Gallup poll. Job dissatisfaction not only causes absenteeism and employee turnover, but also contributes to lost productivity. Enjoying what you do can make the difference between merely getting by in business and excelling in it. The greatest satisfaction, and the highest income, accrues to those who pursue their passions. Here is how to find yours.

First, make a chronological list of several peak moments in your life. Begin by recalling a particularly happy time before you started school. Then, note a peak experience that occurred during your elementary school years. The next could have happened while you were in high school. Then, think of one when you were a young adult. You get the idea.

Now, think back and ask yourself, "What made this moment so special to me?" Was it the attention paid to you? Perhaps it was your feeling of accomplishment. Or, maybe it was the exhilaration of the experience itself. Whatever made each of these moments special to you then is what drives you, often unconsciously, today. That is what makes you able and suitable to do what you ought to be doing for your living. It is what drives you when you exceed even your own expectations.

Next, consider what you do well that others do not. Perhaps, you have a feel for what makes a great picture. Maybe you are a powerful encourager or team leader. On the other hand, you may be great with cars, or an expert sailor. What you do most effortlessly is also a signpost to your passion.

Now, consider what you could create with your talent. My friend, Barry Shainbaum, is an accomplished photographer who recently released his book, "Hope and Heroes." Barry takes powerful pictures that others gladly buy for their homes. Through the lens of his camera, Barry not only found his way out of bipolar disease, but also got to meet and photograph some of the most accomplished men and women of our time. My wife, a people-oriented woman has a passion for aesthetic pursuits, a talent for which she displayed early in life. During her many stays in hospital, in appreciation for their care, she draws caricatures of the staff, then, gives them artwork, which they proudly hang prominently in their homes. She has also sold many of her paintings and drawings over the years. Art thieves so admired some of them, they deftly removed all of her pieces from a collector’s home.

An uncle had a passion for selling ideas. A visionary, he turned his passion into a career. Hired as a “copyboy,” he worked his way up to become Vice-President of Marketing for the largest retail chain in the Southern United States at that time, Maison Blanc in New Orleans, Louisiana.

You also have some special skill, interest, or some “thing” you can do better than anyone you know can do it. If you have not done so already, you can turn that talent into a service or product for which others will gladly pay you.
Get a handle on your passions. Spend little, if any time, improving your weaknesses. Building on your strengths is more profitable. And surely, business ought to be profitable! “Your weaknesses,” my friends Chris and Janet Attwood point out, “are the things you weren't meant to do. They are the things somebody else is supposed to do." No one can be all things to all people. So, get a handle on your strengths--athletics, leadership, aesthetics, construction work, cooking, encouraging others, and so forth. There lies your passion.
What you cannot do well, give to others. Do what you do best. Hire, or partner with, others who do what they do better than you can do it. Let everything else go. Focus like a laser-beam on your passion. Love what you do and you will never work a day in your life!