What gets you so excited you can’t wait to begin working on it today?
Think about it while you read the rest of this post.
In 1997, I got married. It was barely two weeks later that my wife and I had our first serious argument. The reason? I kept my computer turned on, working late into the night, while she wanted to sleep and couldn’t stand the flickering monitor screen disturbing her.
Fourteen years later, we’re still married and occasionally argue about things. The most frequent cause remains the same… I still work late into the night on my information marketing business!
What makes it worth doing for so many years? Through many acrimonious fights? At much personal hardship?
In a word – PASSION.
I love writing. I love the thought of my words touching many lives. I love that the profit from my labors helps little children live. Because I love this so much, I’m up early in the morning, eager to write and stay awake late into the night, grabbing every opportunity to write.
In fact, this very column you’re reading came about from my love for being an infopreneur. I contacted Yaro Starak to ask if he would like to publish an article I had planned about content curation. He replied that Entrepreneur’s Journey was looking for more regular contributions from writers who could publish a weekly column.
My first instinct was to say “No,” but then I realized this would give me a rare chance to keep writing one column every week for a full year, and have it read by a large audience of entrepreneurs and Internet marketers and online business owners…the very audience I’ve been reaching out to help over the years.
Passion won through and this article you’re reading came about!
Your passion may be different. Indeed, it would be rare to find two people who share exactly the same passions. But the reality is that everyone is passionate about something.
You probably are already aware of the things you’re passionate about. Or maybe you haven’t yet discovered it.
When you identify your passion and align it with whatever you’re doing, a magical synergy happens that will effortlessly carry you to rarefied heights. Work becomes joyous and pleasurable. Hours fly by, unnoticed. Tiredness and fatigue take the backseat as you power your way to greater achievements.
Yes, working on something you have passion for can be very rewarding. So how do you tap into this powerhouse of energy lying dormant inside you and harness it to your business and career?
It may happen quite by accident and you’re lucky if it does. However, you can also approach your “passion research” as a structured process. I’m going to share that method with you here.
Everybody – including YOU – has something they love. Something they know very well and enjoy doing. Something that’s a hobby or a favorite pursuit.
Maybe it’s a technical skill like computer programming. Maybe it’s an emotional issue like raising children with special needs. Maybe it’s a day-to-day activity like cooking or gardening. Maybe it’s something esoteric and exotic like searching for signs of alien intelligence. Or a hobby like traveling, knitting, racing or yachting.
Regardless of what, you are passionate about something.
The good news, as an online business owner and entrepreneur, is that you can build an information empire around any topic or issue that you enjoy and love, that you like reading, talking and writing about.
You don’t have to be an expert. You don’t even have to know much about your topic. You just have to be enthusiastic about it.
Once you identify such a topic, your passion conveys itself to your audience. It sucks them into your vortex, gets them involved, and converts them into your loyal fans. In time, this audience will evolve into a community with a spirit and ethos of its own – that revolves around your passion.
So, let’s begin the exploratory adventure of finding your real passions. Ready? Great. Let’s go.
Before beginning, I want you to repeat this sentence out loud – three times:
“Everything that happened in my life is worth money.”
Now go on and say it out loud. Three times. Done? Do you believe it? Well, you soon will!
Make sure you will not be disturbed for a reasonable length of time (maybe 30 minutes, or an hour). Sit down with a few sheets of paper and a pencil or pen.
On the first sheet of paper, make a list of your most important experiences, memories and skills. Start from early childhood and follow the events of your life sequentially.
What have you done?What successes and failures did you experience?Which ones taught you valuable lessons?Anything that made an impact on your life could potentially be the one which hides your true passion within it.
For example, let’s say you watched a film star smoking cigarettes, and it led you to take up smoking as a teenager, until today you’re a chain smoker with bad lungs.
Would that make you want to stop this happening to other kids? Would you care enough to tell adults who smoke in front of children to do things differently? Maybe. If you felt particularly strong emotions about your current health, you may even be passionate about this mission.
So make your list. Add everything to it that you remember as significant life events. In school and college, or later at a job or career. In your family, your community, and in society. As a son or daughter, a sibling, a parent, a grand-parent.
To make it easier to bring these to memory, you can break down your past experience by decade. For each phase in your life, ask yourself the following questions:
What do you consider your best skills, talents and learning experiences?What specific things did you learn and become expert at?What were your greatest failures that you later learned to overcome?What are the lessons that you now consider most precious?These questions are designed to get your brain charged and to jump-start your thinking. As you pick up steam, you’ll find your list growing bigger, faster. Take as long as you need to make your list. Then, when you’re finished, go through each item and ask yourself these 5 questions:
1. Does this topic interest and excite you?
2. Can you create useful content about this topic?
3. Do you know a lot about this topic?
4. Are you eager to share your knowledge and experience with others?
5. By sharing this, will you help many people?
At the end of this short, simple exercise, you’ll have a very short list – maybe only one thing remains on it. And it will be what you are passionate about!
It will be something you’ll wake up with the lark (early in the morning) for and that you’ll stay awake with the owl (late into the night) with… because you love doing it, reading, talking and writing about it, sharing it with the world.
When you find a way to tie that in with your business, you’ll enjoy everything you do along your entrepreneurial journey… for a long, long time to come.
But this doesn’t mean you can simply rush out and launch a business around your passion. There’s one more step to take before making that decision, and we’ll address it in another report soon.
What do you think about linking passion to your business and entrepreneur ventures? Share your thoughts and feedback about the “passion research” process in the comments below.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Download and read my ‘Passion Manifesto’ on ChangeThis.com – click here.
Dr Mani
Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian is an author, webmaster, publisher, writer, Internet infopreneur, social entrepreneur and pediatric heart surgeon. He uses his Internet infopreneur business to fund heart surgery for under-privileged children. Creating and selling info-products and teaching others how to do it has led him on an exciting entrepreneurial journey - one that has healed 75 little hearts, with many more to follow. He has been named as one of Seth Godin's '99 Purple Cows' for innovative and remarkable marketing, and FAST COMPANY magazine has featured his purpose-driven approach to online business.
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