Are You Just Passionate About Being Passionate?
Just thinking over the last few days about what all my RSS Feeds were telling me. All the products that were just launched in the last 2-3 months in the lifestyle design, productivity, pro-blogging arena all shot at me with one common theme - do something you are passionate about.
Passion is cool. We all should have it somewhere.
The problem I see is that everyone is passionate about being passionate. Bloggers teaching people how to blog. People who quit their job telling other people how to quit their job. Internet Marketers teaching people how to make money online by selling them courses on how to make money online.
Maybe the people in other niche’s are too busy making money and changing lives in those niches to care about us, but it’s interesting. One thing I admire about Darren Rowse (even though I quit reading ProBlogger ages ago) is that he has a niche site that does better than most of this niche’s main site (on photography, a pretty crowded niche to begin with).
You guys know my story. I tried to dabble in the make money online niche and did okay (the product was actually pretty damn good). But I did it for the money. When I went back and started working in the music industry things started to get better, much better.
The next launch I do will be both to the business/entrepreneur niche and the music niche. It will be interesting, but I had a ton of fun in making it.
The next thing I do may be something completely different in some crazy ass niche, but I won’t stand for being passionate for passion’s sake. I have some core beliefs and a personal life purpose that can allow me to move into different markets and still be true to the core shit that I stand for. This core purpose helps guide me into projects that I really do care about, mostly because I care about the people I am working with and helping.
Let’s talk about this stuff for a minute if you’re down for it. If you are getting passionate for passion’s sake, or because some online dude said to get passionate and all you came up with is something like,
“I am passionate about making money and helping other’s make money and I am really passionate about it, but I have never done it but some blog said I can do it too, even though it isn’t my lifelong passion, just my passion this week, so let’s fucking rage on it,”
then I want you to think about what you are doing.
Thought kids?
-Greg
BTW - I start kickboxing class tonight and I am pretty stoked. Still trying to shed the pounds that I have digesting in the form of Bacardi and Coke all spring.
Photo by hexodus…
G-Ro! You hit it right on the head with this one. Passion is such a cliche buzzword these days that it’s become very easy to get lost in all of the clutter. While everyone can have their own definition as to what passion means to them, there is one common thread that cannot be ignored. That common thread is the separation of making money and doing what you love. If you tell me that your passion is making money, you’ve lost nearly all credibility on the subject. Money and love are completely different needs that we have and ideally we can all make money doing what we love, but the love of money should not be confused with “passion.” Passion gets you out of bed in the morning and drives you to get better, not richer. Passion is what will compel you to put in 10,000 hours on your craft.
In case everything I’m saying sounds like gibberish, I’ll use myself as an example. One way I personally measure my passion is asking myself when I get the most excited and money is not involved. Two answers I consistently got were getting happy about food, that is cooking it, eating it, letting others try it, etc. I realized that making others happy via food actually made me happy and was something I could do forever and not get paid. Another answer I got was music and more specifically hip-hop culture. I realized I was in love with the music, the lyrics, the messages, the fashion, etc. Hip hop has almost become the soundtrack to my life and I would listen to it whether I got paid to or not. It fuels me. Take these passions for food & hip hop together with my knack for management & strategy and it puts me in a perfect position to make money off of my passion with a clothing line and a brownie business. But what’s important to note is that I did not say, I want to make money what can I get passionate about? I took the time to study myself and what truly makes me happy and only then was it possible to find lifelong projects and people that I can share success with for the rest of my life.
Yo D,
Thanks for the comment man. I like the examples you gave. At the end of the day life is about experiences (that’s the message in the 4 hour work week that is often overlooked) and if you can deliver those experiences through your life and your business, then you are going to win this game of life. The money is just icing on the cake.
Looks like you found some businesses that do deliver those experiences and I’m glad to play a small part in one of them.
Damone and Greg,
Great points all around, and I completely agree with you. My general problem with much of the whole social media craze these days is that people get so caught up in buzzwords that don’t really have any meaning. Everyone’s trying to be a “social media expert” or “social media guru”, but they’re not really using that influence and knowledge to share anything of value.
That said, I think we need to be careful about letting our own feelings get in the way of judging how legitimate someone’s passions are. I don’t personally enjoy blogs about blogging or blogs about making money online, but I also don’t think those are bad passions to have. Yes, I agree that in general, a passion should have nothing to do with making money, but some people are genuinely driven by the idea of making money or genuinely driven by the concept of blogging in general, and I don’t necessarily begrudge them of that.
Just my $0.02
Keep up the good work!
Yo Drew,
Being driven to make money isn’t really a bad thing. I’m listening to this new Drake CD and he makes like 3-4 references to the only people that say money isn’t everything is the people that don’t have any. Not totally in agreeance with what he is saying in those lines, but it does have some truth in it. The passion though comes from the experience and the chase.
Some of these high level affiliate marketers have a passion for the chase, the high pressure advertising and knowing that they just rocked a campaign. Their passion may not be however for peddling acai-berry and thigh creams.
Love your $0.02, thanks for rocking with us.
Thought provoking post indeed - You bring up great points. I’m seeing this trend pop up around too. Personally I started my blog as a platform to communicate with like minded individuals that see business trends moving towards the online world (which I love, nothing better than the power of the internet). I was tired of understanding the latest business trends in college and having nobody else to talk about it with, so it was only natural for me to create a blog around a subject that is now known as “lifestyle design” or “lifestyle businesses” or “make money online”. I do have aspirations to be an influence in the space but instead of rehashing information such as “This is How You Make Money Online, Let me Teach You” (and then I make my money). I rather provide tools to enhance online business ventures…If I ever did move into the “make money online” niche to make money I would rather introduce my buyers to how they can make money online with a more creative sales pitch on my end, beats giving the generic sales pitch…”find a niche and get rich” (and then buyers are left hanging once they buy). People need to start being creative in this niche or you’re simply not going to last..also I rather lead by example..then learning and re-teaching what I haven’t done yet.
Great post my friend - have fun kickboxing!
Yo Tony,
Kickboxing was nuts. My legs are so damn sore.
I think a lot of us got into the lifestyle design niche because we wanted to talk about our experiences and thoughts and connect with others that had a similar vision. What happened is a lot of people are just talking in circles and regurgitating Tim Ferriss and whoever else is the flavor of the week. I’ve been called out for that before and it really hit home, like yo I’m nothing like Tim, but I like what he believes in.
The teaching others approach you have is awesome. I love giving specific examples, not theory. The biggest thing that I learned is to always create something where someone has to do everything in their power to find a pen and paper to write down something that you said. That is pure power when teaching.
As usual, thanks for rocking with us.
“You cannot make it as a wandering generality. You must become a meaningful specific.” — Zig Ziglar
Great post Greg!