Don't Follow Your Passion; Develop It
There are countless successful celebrities who will tell you to “follow your passion”. I’m certain you’ve seen speeches by famous people at Ivy League commencement ceremonies that bestow the virtues of following your passions. Simply put, this is terrible advice. In this post we're going to address that passion for your product or industry doesn't need to exist at the beginning, but will develop as you keep working on your startup.
I know. It sounds weird. But think about it this way: if you can only do things you're passionate about, then why aren't you a pro athlete, movie star, or best selling musician?! It's terrible advice to go after those types of careers because there is such a small chance of success. The term “struggling actor” exists for a reason; a handful of actors make the majority of the money. It’s not that you can’t do it, it’s just that it’s highly unlikely.
The simple truth is you can develop your passion. How? Find something that you’re good at, then spend a lot of time becoming great at it.
It’s important to be practical. Make sure that what you focus on is both something useful and in-demand, that way you can make a living at it. It also helps if people generally think it's difficult, or that people generally don’t want to do it. A good example there is comes from the Startup Different hosts: Software development for Chris and sales for Dave. As Chris spent more time becoming great at software development he became passionate about it - the journey of becoming great developed Chris’ passion for software development.
For me, it was very similar; I saw that I was good at sales through my time as a business manager for my college newspaper. Generally speaking, people think that sales is tough and isn’t appealing, but I knew that I was good and could become great at it. I made the investment of time into becoming great and subsequently became passionate about how sales should be done.
Together, Chris and I spent the 10,000 hours and developed passion.
Working hard develops passion!
We now consider ourselves passionate about software development, sales, and entrepreneurship. But it didn’t happen overnight - we worked at it. The “working at it” was what made us passionate. Frankly, you don't need to be super passionate about the industry or product that you're working on for your startup. But committing to it will make you passionate about it over time. They weren’t passionate about public safety initially, but it became a tremendous focus over time with the success of AppArmor.
Don't turn away ideas because you're not passionate about them. Passion will come. Sure, you can be choosey with what you want to innovate on, but understand that even if you don’t care at first, you probably will later.
Like many skills, passion is something you have to work at. Chris and Dave talk about this in their latest episode.
Until next time!
-The Startup Different Team