Passion is a secondary virtue!

Once, in the middle of a discussion with some entrepreneurs I was teaching, a participant asked me a question I had somehow never considered. "What if the thing you're passionate about you're just not good at?" she asked.  Hmmmmm. Strangely, the possibility of some-one not being good at something they're passionate about had never crossed my mind. But almost as soon as I started to think about it, my mind went back to an acquaintance of mine. For as long as I can remember, she had wanted to be nothing but a fashion designer....yet up to this day she stinks at it! And that's the honest to goodness truth.

I find I am slowly coming to see the danger of becoming lost in one's passion. Over the years I have been a firm believer in the philosophy that if we are led by our passions we are bound to meet upon success. And I am sure that that this been true for thousands of persons in the past. Yet there are those who wonder everyday at just what their passion is. These are the ones not obsessed with any particular desire, not 'held hostage' by a dream, the ones who feel no fire burning deep within, those who instead wake up everyday and live life as it comes. These helped me understand that while our passions may fuel our energies, understanding and leveraging our mission and purpose are far more fundamental to experiencing the abundant life.

Lately I have been thinking, too, of another danger that lay in teaching entrepreneurs to pursue their passions. Too often I have seen technically competent and skillfully gifted artisans, passionate about their craft, get so lost in pursuing their passion that the strategic skills necessary to assure business success never get pursued or developed, resulting in businesses going belly-up!. Unfortunately, while the entrepreneur relentlessly chases his passion inventing or improving a  product or service, this precious investment of time and resources does not yield the fruit he or she expects to reap. You see, the thing with using passion as your life's primary energy or force is that while it may make you happy it may not have the added satisfaction of being of benefit to others. That's when life really begins to expand. 

Are you surprised, therefore, that these days when I engage entrepreneurs I am not as quick to encourage them to chase their passions? Instead, I tell them to find a problem worth solving, a solution around which demand can be created....soothe an ache or, more importantly, kill a pain. Of course, it would be great if somewhere along the line the two meet and the entrepreneur finds that his passion is in fact that solution the market is asking for.That would be like hitting the entrepreneurial jackpot for sure. But all too often this is not the case and he/she finds that "never the twain shall meet." His passion brings him joy but adds no value to the market....no value to the lives of others. "Do what you love," they say, "and you'll never work a day in your life." That may be true. But I hope you're beginning to see the likely impact on your bottom line if there are not enough other people who love what you love.

 So what do you do with your passion in all of this? Pursue it! Cultivate it where it doesn't yet exist, but be sure to put it in perspective.  Understand that your passion may give you pleasure but it may not lead to success. Understand that your passion may cause you to focus only on YOU and therefore may not bring you the significance your heart craves. But for those of you who may still be wondering what your passion is,,,do not despair;  if no big dream wakes you up in the middle of the night, if your heart doesn't pound against your chest at the mention of a word....you are not alone. Become intentional, instead, about finding a problem to solve...one that will impact the lives of many; one that will make you simultaneously a servant and a leader. Understand that your passion is a secondary virtue....instead, know your mission and serve with purpose! In the words of the great business philosopher, Jim Rohn, "We all need to belong to something bigger than ourselves."