Don’t Be Fooled by Your Business Passion

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban knows a thing or two about starting a business. Like so many of the well-known success stories, Cuban had a string of failed career choices before finally starting a business from scratch and later selling it making him an instant millionaire. Also like so many stories, he lived what might be called a life of poverty so he could invest what little money he had in to his business. There’s no doubt that Cuban had passion but is passion alone enough to start a business?

Not according to Cuban. Cuban wrote this article explaining why he thinks that it’s more important to follow your work instead of your passion but how does that advice help the budding entrepreneur?

Think of everything you’re passionate about. You’re likely passionate about your family as well as hobbies, maybe your religious faith, and countless other things but how many of those work as a business? Likely very few but of those, where do you gladly invest your precious time? None of us have enough time in our day but as the cliché goes, it’s not that we don’t have enough time to accomplish our goals—instead, it’s that we choose to invest our time in to activities we enjoy.

As Cuban says, when you spend time with something you become more skilled at it and as your skill improves so does your confidence and from there, true passion develops.

Future entrepreneur, you may be considering numerous opportunities. Maybe it’s a franchise or a partnership with a friend but what takes the most of your discretionary time? Remember that you’ll spend more time with your business than you will with your family as you work to grow and the only way to spend that kind of time is to love what you do.

Finally, what are your motives? Entrepreneurs who have startup aspirations for selfish reasons often fail because money and success don’t often come quickly. Entrepreneurs who have a passion for solving a problem and helping others will see better results because their motives are pure and their customers know that.

Bottom Line

Mark Cuban advises entrepreneurs to only pursue business opportunities where their passion is backed up by the investment of their valuable time. If you have a passion for skiing but don’t invest your time in to it, that’s not your future business. The business that will make you an entrepreneurial success is the one that is less about money and more about solving a problem and helping others. The money and success naturally follow these people.