I went to a ‘start your own business’ presentation this week – yes as a mystery shopper – but also to meet some people. (Please note I did openly tell the presenter my purpose and she loved it!)
The presentation was great – I love it when you get that reinforcement that what you are doing is good! However there was a message in the presentation I am not convinced about – that “it is better to be dispassionate about your business idea because you make better decisions when you are”. And this comes from a woman who has had many and varied, and large, successful businesses.
I have always been of the opinion that if you don’t love what you do – don’t do it because it’s all too hard. I know that many of you feel the same. While I agree you need to take the emotion out of decision making, passion persuades and gives you an edge over your competition.
I also think it comes down to how you define success. What your vision of your business is and what you want to achieve is personal. For many of us, that means spending time with family, having space to contribute to community, and doing what we love. You can define success by an extra $100 a week or a million dollar business if you want.
For me the quote from Tony Hsieh of Zappos rings true to me: “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.”
And “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” -Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. co-founder, chairman and CEO