TELL YOUR BOSS GOODBYE! TOP TEN TIPS FOR TURNING YOUR PASSION INTO PROFIT by Walt Goodridge
Tired of working for someone else? Looking to find a business idea that
really excites you? Or are you already in business but find it's
beginning to feel just like a job? Well, you may want to think about
looking someplace other than the opportunities section of your favorite
magazine for business ideas. The next million dollar idea might be
hiding in a most unlikely place: your own heart. A recent survey found
that entrepreneurs are increasingly starting businesses in search of
personal fulfillment and there's no better place to find it than in the
things that you love to do. Whether you're looking to launch your
business online or just around the corner, discovering what really moves
you, is a key part of success.
Here then, are a few tips and suggestions that just might help you turn
your hobby, talent, skill or passionate interest into a thriving
business that might free you from having to work for anybody else ever
again and give your life a meaning you never thought a business venture
could!
[The following is an excerpt from Turn Your Passion Into Profit:
Information, Inspiration and Ideas to Help You Make Money Doing What You
Love]
This book is for anyone who has ever dreamed of being free and in
control of their own life, to go to a movie in the middle of a weekday,
play golf on a Tuesday, pick the kids up for lunch, or just see what
it's like to make decisions about how they spend their days without
anyone's input. It's for anyone who feels enslaved by the situation
ninety-five percent of society finds itself in working for someone
else. It's for anyone who has ever thought that it was unnatural and
demeaning to be forced into confinement for 8 or more hours every day,
told when to eat, how to dress and how to speak. It's for
anyone who wants to break free from such a life-style of servitude in
order to start doing something that really inspires and fulfills them.
It's for people who are searching for their life's passion.
This book is also for the individual who may already be an
entrepreneur, and who may have found profit, but not passion.
This book is for the person who wants to make more money, or at least
have no limits on the amount he can make. It's for the champion who is
tired of playing a mediocre game just for security, benefits and someone
else's idea of "a lot of money." It's for the person who wants to create
success on his own terms.
This book is for the person who feels mentally unchallenged by what she
does day after day and wants to experience a bigger world of bigger
people, bigger places, and bigger ideas.
This book is for people who have started to ask questions. It's for
people who may have spent many years building someone else's dreams and
have started to wonder if that's all they were put here to do. It's for
people who are feeling the need to do more, be more, experience more and
leave a lasting legacy that's theirs and theirs alone. They want to make
their lives monuments to something other than a paycheck, to something
other than a profitable third quarter on someone else's year-end
statement. They want to make a difference in the world and have
therefore, started to ask themselves "What am I building? What am I
really doing here? Is this all there is?"
Your L.I.F.E. P.A.S.S.I.O.N.
The thing that is your passion and which will eventually find
expression as your passion business and provide you with the
satisfaction you seek, will be what I call your LIFE PASSION. Life
Passion doesn't mean that this is what you'll spend the rest of your
life doing. It simply means that it is one of many passions that has
significance in your life. It is "A" life passion not "THE" life's
passion. L.I.F.E. P.A.S.S.I.O.N. is an acronym you can use to remind
yourself of the qualities of your passion.
L-love Your passion will be something you love to do.
I-interest Your passion is usually something that interests you.
F-fulfilling Your passion gives you a sense of fulfillment.
E-empowering Your passion usually empowers and energizes you.
P-personal Your passion has personal significance to you and you alone.
A-abilities Your passion capitalizes on your assets, attributes and
abilities.
S- service Your passion will usually provide a service or fulfill a
need of
some kind for others.
S-spiritual Your passion and the pursuit of it represents some aspect of
your spiritual growth that you are here to experience.
I-inspiring Your passion is inspiring to you and therefore will inspire
others too.
O-obvious Your passion, once found, is usually something obvious to
you.
N-natural Your passion is often unstudied; and comes naturally to you.
FINDING THE RIGHT IDEA
There will be many ideas that come to you. What you will find as you
grow is that the most intimidating part of listening for ideas is not
the fear that you won't find one, but that there are so many that you
won't know which one to pursue. So all that's left is to offer you a few
filters through which to hear the ideas that come to you. So here are
a few tips on how to assess them.
1. Don't Limit Yourself to Just One For All Time
As was pointed out before, the passion you decide to pursue may be one
of many that you indulge throughout your lifetime. Don't feel that any
decision you make today is written in stone, or that you are obligated
to pursue this single passion for the rest of your life.
2. Don't Limit Yourself To Currently-held Jobs, But Use Them As Clues
Did you take the job at the record store as a way to be close to the
music industry? Is your current gig as host, maitre d' or waitress
masking your own passion for starting your own restaurant. Use these
jobs as clues to your true passion. Consider them "fact-finding"
missions to get the experience you need to take the next step.
3. Beware the Aptitude Trap
I was good in Math and Science, so my high school guidance counselor in
school sent me off in the direction of my aptitudes. I ended up in a
job I hated, doing something I was trained to do, but which provided me
no enjoyment. Don't get caught in the trap of following your aptitudes.
As you read through this book, you'll come across people who are doing
things that you could be doing. Sure, you say, I know enough about real
estate to help people buy a house. But, keep in mind that your goal is
to follow your passion, not just your proficiency. The title of this
book is NOT "Turn Your Competency Into Profit."
4. Create Your Own
While it's possible to make money selling someone else's product, my
advice to the passion seeker is to focus on creating something of your
own. There's greater personal fulfillment as well as more profit in
being first in the creative totem pole. It's said that you only have to
be 10% different from the competition to be perceived as radically
innovative. Of course, it's hard to quantify a 10% difference between
two slices of pizza. But the point is that many seemingly new products
are simply the repackaging of things that exist. It's easier than you
think to create your own product.
5. Beware the Gold Rush
Beware the "lemming effect" of rushing headlong off the side of the
cliff simply because everyone else is doing it. There are many new
frontiers of business and "flavor of the month" concepts and products
that may be lucrative, but have no chance of offering any sustainable
interest or passion.
6. Look Closely At Things You Already Do
Like Kermit Pembreton, who at age 16, capitalized on the fact that he
already loved to talk about pro sports, and set up a custom tour package
for a single fan, and ended up making $1000 from that one person
visiting from out of town. He grew his love of sports into Sports
Services of America helping prestigious corporations improve their image
by linking with sports figures who would then endorse products or make
special appearances. Often, your passion is something indirectly related
to something you're already doing.
7. Finding Your Passion in the Traditional and Nontraditional
Since there are as many passions and ways to express it as there are
people in the world, many passions don't fit neatly into the boxes of
traditional job descriptions that exist in the corporate environment.
However radical your idea is, however, it helps if you can fit it into a
larger category. These categories include Writing, Teaching,
Consulting, Entertaining, Making Crafts, Designing, Inventing, Cooking,
Creating a food Product, Social Work. If it can fit into one of those
broad categories, you can then search for the information necessary for
you to create a business around it.
At the same time, not everyone who discovers their passion will find
expression of it by jumping out into entrepreneurial waters. As was said
in Chapter 1, being an entrepreneur is not a prerequisite for living a
life of passion. Many people find passionate fulfillment within the
parameters of structured, traditional employment, as long as they are
doing something they love. Neither of these courses is better than the
other.
8. If The Need Doesn't Exist, Create It
Sometimes effective selling is about finding a need and filling it. At
other times you'll need to create the need, and force people to ask
themselves "how could I have survived this long without this?" Who would
have guessed that we all needed to have doves released at our weddings?
But it's now something I'll consider for mine!
9. Go with your gut
If it feels good in your gut, go with it.
10. Don't tell the world right away
Keep the energy of your new idea within the incubator of your mind.
Give it time to grow in the energy of your commitment before you
introduce it to the world and the possible ridicule, judgement and
speculation of well- intentioned, but small-minded visionaries.
About the Author
Walt Goodridge is author of 8 books including Turn Your Passion Into
Profit. You can subscribe to his Passion Seekers email newsletter and
receive tips, information and advice to help you turn your passion into
profit by visiting www.TURNyourPASSIONintoPROFIT.com, or emailing him at
walt@waltgoodridge.com
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