Follow Your Passion or Pursue The Profit?

A question that circulates the Internet Marketing frequently, especially when discussing which niche to target is:

Should I follow my passion or pursue the profits?

The basis of question represents one of the greatest social memes that we have in society and is especially the case in western society.

My short answer is to follow your passion and the profits will follow on with the only caveat being that your passion is something that people are actually willing to spend their money on. I am a believer that you will not be able to sustain action for a period long enough if you do not have the intense passion necessary.

However, it’s worth digging deeper to examine why this question arises in our thinking and what asking this question does to our minds. The first thing asking this question does is it places a limitation on our thinking because the question forces you to think in a dichotomous way. The key word in the question is “or” as the word “or” forces you to make a choice between one thing or another with the question implying that there isn’t even a possibility of “and” which of courses shuts off the mind to that possibility entirely.

A more empowering question to give you a result that will help you move forward is “How can my passion provide value to a market of similarly passionate buyers?” You may wish to start by writing this question at the top of your notebook and writing down all possible answers. Perhaps you could use mind mapping software with the question in the middle of the mind map.

The Hedgehog Concept

In his book ‘From Good to Great’, Jim Collins famously did a study of numerous Fortune 500 companies analysing what the difference was between the good companies and the great companies. One of the concepts that came from the book was ‘The Hedgehog Concept’ which addresses three fundamental questions.

By no means am I the author or creator of this concept, however I am a beneficiary and am sharing what I have learned. In Internet Marketing circles, Mike Filsaime has spoken of this concept on stage on many occasions and Gideon Shalwick has also shared The Hedgehog Concept on his blog.

The concept address three fundamental questions:

Put simply, what can you do that you’re excellent at, passionate about that is profitable?

The Concept of Flow

I think passion is born from your purpose. If you can work on something for hours on end and the only reward is the reward of actually doing the activity itself, then you’ll feel as if you’re in flow. If you haven’t read ‘Flow’ which is a book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, then I’d encourage you to read it. It reveals that we are always in a state of either flow or ebb in our lives. When we are in flow, time seems to pass quickly and when we’re in ebb time passes really slowly. When you’re doing something you’re really passionate about, then it doesn’t feel like effort at all.

Persistence is something that comes totally naturally if you’re passionate about what you’re doing with an all consuming obsession and burning desire. Persistence often sounds tough for most people, however it’s merely discipline in action. Discipline is easy when it’s born from passion and is definitely a trait you should embrace.

Find out what you’re passionate about. This is often where you invest a lot of your time, energy and thoughts. It doesn’t feel like a “waste” of time when you’re doing it.

If it’s a business venture of some kind you’re considering, make sure you’re the right kind of person to execute the idea you have in mind. For a while I did property investing which I wasn’t very passionate about because I wasn’t the right person to do negotiating, etc. I found my path doing internet marketing and personal development which is more natural for me.

If you’re wondering what your strengths are as an entrepreneur, I would strongly suggest you take Roger Hamilton’s Wealth Dynamics entrepreneurial profiling test. It will cost you $100 to do, however it will save lots of time and money overall because you won’t keep getting pulled from one thing to another because you haven’t truly decided on your path. The caveat is that you have to listen to the result that the test gives you rather than be stubborn and say “I want to be this profile though” which some people do after taking the test.

For those of you who have never heard of Wealth Dynamics and want to learn more about it, I have explained the Wealth Dynamics Entrepreneurial Profiling system in more detail at that post.

To Your Online Success,

The Profit Share

The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)