So a fair number of people advocate for making your passion your business. I think that's a bad idea, and I'll tell you why, but let's go the other direction first.
Do you even have to like what your business does?
Now, I'm not saying that you should start a cupcake shop when you don't even like cupcakes. I'm saying you don't have to live, breathe, and eat your business to be successful at it.
I know I'm going against some guru advice here, but I'm okay with that. That's because I think the entrepreneurial offers so much more than the very personal (and not necessarily helpful to others) goal of following and fulfilling a passion.
Entrepreneurship helps you:
- grow as a person
- offer jobs and purpose to others
- make money
How many jobs can check all three of those boxes? Entrepreneurship offers those boxes as a baseline.
Speaking for myself, MaidThis happened to be about cleaning homes. But it could have just as easily been painting or plumbing or locksmithing.
Seriously.
Because I love the business-building part of the journey. I'm agnostic as to what the business does, as long as I don't hate it or am morally opposed to it.
That doesn't mean liking what your business does is a handicap.
That brings us back to my original caution about making your passion your business. Why do I think that's a bad idea?
Because you'll find that building a business creates an identity that everyone knows about you.
That's Neel, he runs a remote local cleaning franchise company.
Your friends, your family, your employees, your colleagues, the people who you spend 90% of your life with will know you as this identity.
But no identity lasts forever, and when you decide to shed that skin, and your passion is your business, sometimes you end up exiting both at the same time, putting yourself into a crisis that could have been avoided if you had given yourself a bit of separation: giving yourself time and space to pursue a passion without having to monetize it.
Again, I know this is heresy to some gurus, but again, I'm okay with that.
I think balance and objectivity can be just as powerful as passion and fire to building a business, and that's why I don't believe you have to like what your business produces. You just need to like producing your business.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
This article was written by Neel from MaidThis Franchise, a remote-local franchise opportunity for people looking to escape the rate race and reach financial freedom. Learn more here.
