If you start a new business today, you stand a reasonably good chance of surviving for two years. But after two years, success rates drop. According to the Small Business Administration, only 44% of new businesses make it to their fourth year. But these numbers shouldn’t discourage you if your business is also your passion.
How do you find your true passion? Bill Strickland, author of Make the Impossible Possible offers some clues, writing: “Passions are irresistible.… If you’re paying attention to your life at all, the things you are passionate about won’t leave you alone. They’re the ideas, hopes, and possibilities your mind naturally gravitates to, the things you would focus your time and attention on for no other reason than that doing them feels right.” Strickland believes that only by following your passion will you unlock your deepest potential. “I never saw a meaningful life that wasn’t based on passion. And I never saw a life full of passion that wasn’t, in some important way, extraordinary.”
When you choose to open a business or franchise simply because your neighbor is doing well at it, you increase the likelihood of failure. When you enter a career because your brother-in-law made a lot of money in it last year, you increase the odds of living an unsatisfied life. And when you choose a college major solely to satisfy your parents, you raise the risk of becoming bored instead of energized by your classes.
Photo by versalogic.
cassy on September 26th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
What the article says were true. You can’t really be successful in any field if you dont have the passion in doing it. You can’t create a very nice idea if you just emitate others passion.
Be your self!
Fadjar on September 30th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Yes I Agree..passion is soul of the all activity. Without it, all the activity just for activity..no meaning and no value..
Johnny Oneiric on October 1st, 2008 at 9:39 am
Agreed! After a dozen years of accepting what’s offered me, I’m in a nice safe well-paying career that bores me to tears. Every day is an ordeal, though I get little accomplished. I just don’t care about the work that I do.
I’ve begun the process of re-connecting with my true talents and passions. This time I’m going to design a career that fires me up. And then, whatever that career is, I’m going to go out and make it mine!
I’m documenting this journey on my blog, you’re welcome to drop by and see how I’m doing.