Where to Focus: Passion or Ability?

I just answered this question for the entrepreneur.com website, and I'm intrigued with the question itself, I wonder what you think is a good answer.

Here's the question (and let me say that the IP here belongs to entrepreneur.com, not to me, and I thank them for allowing this here) ...

"When starting a business should you focus more on what you love or what you are good at? I've started two moderately successful advertising companies with revenues of more than $250,000 in the past two years. However, I don't necessarily "love" advertising sales, I'm just pretty good at it. In the articles I read month after month, the truly successful people are doing what they love and doing the thing they would do even if they didn't need the money. That is where I feel my career track is off. If I ever made enough money, I would never, never sell another advertiser again! This makes me think that I should dig deep and find the thing that will get me out of bed at 5 a.m. every morning excited to start working. So my question is even though I'm good at sales and advertising, should I stick with it or find something that I'm passionate about? What's more important--passion or ability?"

What do you think is the right answer? Focus on what you love or what you're good at? I'd love to hear from you with this one. I think it's a very interesting question. I was taken aback, because I'm afraid I've always assumed what you love is going to be what you're good at, and this example seems to pose a different picture quite well.

For the record, here is my answer to that person:

Great question. I think I've always assumed a connection between what you like and what you're good at, but you have a good example here too.

You don't say what you do love to do. That matters in this case, doesn't it? Is what you love a business possibility? If you love carpentry or business planning or cooking Mediterranean cuisine that's one thing, and if you love long walks on the beach or playing golf that's another. Although even there, people teach golf and start golf equipment shops, but you get what I mean.

Don't you like anything related to the advertising business? If you started these two businesses, do you have to be the one to do the selling? What about maybe doing the creative or the accounting or some other part of an advertising business, some part that you do love? 

Everybody should be able to do what they love and get paid, but it doesn't seem to work out that way. There are only so many writers, artists, dancers, actors, and athletes with jobs. Then there are the teachers of writing, dancing, and acting, the coaches, and others who build businesses around what they love. And there are websites around what people like to do, and some of them make money.

So I apologize for not having a more definite answer. Thanks, you made me think about these things.

So that's what I answered, and I'm anxious to broaden this discussion. What do you think? Passion or ability? I hope you'll add a comment here.

-- Tim

Comments

[Teri]

Very interesting question/dilemma. And I suppose it's poor to answer a question with more questions, but I'm compelled to do so.

Do you 'live to work' or do you 'work to live?'

If you 'live to work,' then what you do for a living is probably so much a part of who you are that you won't find satisfaction unless you LOVE it (and being good at what you do won't be enough).

If you 'work to live,' than if you are good at what you do and it provides you with the 1) time, and/or 2) financial means, and/or 3)(fill in the blank here with whatever inspires you) to enjoy what you love elsewhere in your life, then being good at what you do professionally and believing in what you do can be very gratifying.

All of the above is, of course, purely my opinion.

Final comment -- this question reminds me of my favorite 'Dear Abby' article (from at least 30+ years ago). The writer was 'very good' in their profession but they always wanted to be in another profession. It would take 7 years to complete the education needed, so they were concerned about how old they would be in 7 years and wondered if Abby thought it made sense to do?

The answer was short and (again, my opinion) very sweet: "How old will you be in 7 years if you don't?"

Good luck with your dilemma...

[Alex]

To me it seems that it would be difficult to really be good at something without even a little bit of passion. Granted some people have innate ability in certain areas but in order to really flourish, you must have something driving you to improve, and to me that seems like passion. But I guess for some people money and success could be a motivating force and passion manifests itself through that. I definitely see the value in keeping your abilities and your passions separate, so you can still take solace in your interests without them having been mentally linked with the stress of operating a business and the like. But I don't think I could do something I wasn't passionate about.

[Cale Bruckner]

It's hard to make a living doing what you love. Why? Because introducing the green stuff into the relationship often leads to relationship problems.

Love blinds, often making it difficult to mix business with pleasure. I think this is why most people keep what they really love far, far, away from the JOB. NOTE: A lot of people claim to be doing what they love but it isn't often the case. Everybody wants it so it's natural for people to claim they have it - it's in our nature.

Most of the people (there are exceptions) I know that have turned loves/hobbies into businesses regret it. Why? They turned that special thing they really loved into a JOB - it isn't fun anymore, it's work. It's the thing that puts food on the table. That, usually, comes with stress and external pressure. Other people start messing around with the thing you loved.

My advice to the entrepreneur.com reader - keep doing what you're good at, become the best at it, and find a way to leverage that success so you can spend more time doing what you really love. That way, you keep the green stuff out of the relationship.

-- Cale Bruckner http://www.palmit.com

[davidjmedlock]

Good question. Here's what I decided a long time ago...

I love to play guitar, write and record music. I originally considered becoming a recording engineer or otherwise working in the music business because that's what I loved.

But, I quickly realized several things:

1) it's a competitive industry. Even though I love doing those things, I have no desire to compete with others for jobs in that industry. It would take the joy out of it for me.

2) It's a hobby for me. A release from every day stress. If I were to make it my job, it would no longer be a release from every day stress, but a major source of stress. (Project deadlines, difficult clients, being underpaid, etc.)

So, I decided to become a web developer. Here's the thing: I love being a web developer, I'm good enough at it to have a successful career and it pays the bills very well. If I had all the money in the world, I'd probably never write another line of code. But, the trade off was that even though I like programming, I don't love it so much that I would miss it if it became a chore and I decided to cut it out of my life... (Not sure if that last bit made sense.)

Basically, I think you should try to find a middle ground: Do something that you like but could live without. That way you can enjoy the work that you have to do, keep the things you *love* all for yourself and don't worry about ruining the things you love with the pressures of making a living from them...

[DelRay Davis]

The only way in which I could be called an authority on this topic is the fact that I truly love what I do.

I would say that the importance lies in doing what you love to do. I have a reason behind this. In doing what you enjoy, there is no forcing your progression. I keep informed in my field and increase my skills at my job not because I feel pressure to do so, but because it is a topic that interests me on a continuous basis. It is as the person who posed this question says...what gets me out of bed in the morning.

I think that people normally enjoy what they are good at for specifically this reason, they get more practice at it.

[Beth Anne]

Interesting question. I think sometimes you can be blindsided by what you love. For example:

Several years ago I started my own business because I thought it was what I wanted to do and would "love". I was not passionate about the product I was making and selling. It evolved from an idea my husband had, so we almost felt compelled to bring it to market. So we did, and well...while to the profits coming in were ok, I was very unhappy. I was working alone and dealing with customers in an industry that was filled with gruff buyers and unforgiving retailers.

While doing this I was offered a job at a small software company, an industry I knew nothing about. 3 years later, I really can say I love what I do. For me it is not about being "in love" with the product, service or industry you are in, it is about the people you work with everyday, the culture you are surrounded by, and the feeling you get from being successful in what you are doing.

[Tim Berry]

Thanks all, I love the comments. For several of you who don't think it's possible, I will say that I'm at least one case of building a company around what I love to do.

Palo Alto Software exists in part because I loved business planning and programming, both, and the early days of this business gave me a way to bring those two loves together and make a living at it. I got to do what I love without feeling guilty about it. I made enough money to buy shoes for the kids too.

Alright, Alex, I admit that as it grew it included a lot of work that wasn't fun, the organizational stuff, insurance, sweating the cash flow ... and as that stuff came up I did it because I still loved the core part of it and it was worth working for.

And then if you keep it up, eventually it gets big enough that other people to the parts you don't like, and you keep the parts that you do like. For example now, since we promoted the new management team, I get to do exactly the parts that I love.

And yes, Cale, what I loved was a bit more business relevant than the guitar (love that too), so maybe I'm just lucky. Still, re luck, it does seem that the harder I work the luckier I get.

-- Tim

[Stefan Töpfer]

Tim, I'm sitting here at 06:00 hrs on a Saturday and write to you.

I love the internet, I have done since the late '80, in 1995 I started running a company called Nacamar, then one of the biggest ISPs in Europe which I sold in August 1999 ( before the big bang) and since then I do not need to work anymore.

In 2000 I got back to my initial idea to help small business - having been a small business guy all my life myself - with internet technology, the great equalizer.

Why am I doing that, in short passion. My wife and some friends call it a sickness - but it is passion, the only thing that motivates my. I get up at 04:00 and start working, I blog, work on the new website, answer emails, do online customer support at least for one hour a day ( just talking to Ruben at the moment) and so on.

For me this is an easy question - the answer Passion - the money will come. You can see some of my other believes and mottos in my post from last week - http://www.sme-blog.com/?p=325

ST

[asdf]

There is an interesting issue (at least to me) with regards to the what-you-are-good-at part of the whole thing. As I did a lot of things in many different areas in my life I have been told frequently by people that I should keep doing what I'm good at. Thing is, I don't think that they actually know what I'm good at. Sometimes, we have to admit that even we don't know if we are good or not. So, how could they know?

[Sabrina]

I think at the end of the day -- if you don't love what you do, then you will get tired, bored or distracted. You may be good at something -- but that is not enough to sustain the level of intensity needed to be truly successful. You must LOVE it. You must WANT to check in on your business whether you are on vacation, or just at home over the weekend. If you are one of those TGIF people -- then you definitely do NOT love what you do.