Passion does not equal CEO?

My whole perspective on loving your job took a 360 degree spin after listening to an interview today. I was riding the shuttle to the parking lot from SJSU, not really paying attention to what was going on around me. And then, a sentence, spoken by an unknown man on the radio, struck me. (I suppose I had been listening subconsciously.) He said that passionate people do not make good business people.

Passionate people do not make good business people.

In that one sentence, he threw my whole concept of success out the window. I've always felt that you must find work doing something you love. And I applied that concept to the creation of businesses. However, this unknown man pointed out that working on something you love, does not mean being successful in the venture. To become successful, it is important to know the business side of things-the spreadsheets, networking, and people management.

Loving what you do can be a good thing, but it can also be bad, as you can end up closing your mind to other business opportunities. You would also tend to try to get investors and the like to fall in love with your product, rather than get them to see the financial benefits. And as cold as that might sound, people want to see the numbers!

He also said that personal energy was really a driving force for the success of many business folk. CEO's have a charming charismatic personality and enjoy their work. But passion is a far stretch.

It was then that the RJ announced the speaker's name: Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert and the author of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the story of my life.

I do think that it's important to enjoy what you do, and love it, but now I realize we must also be careful to not be over-passionate, and maintain a sense of reality.

Advice from Will Smith

Worth the read.


“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.

I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working. While the other guys’ eating, I’m working.

There’s no easy way around it. No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you’re not skilled. If you don’t study, if you don’t work really hard and dedicate yourself to being better every single day, you’ll never be able to communicate with people - with your artistry - the way that you want….

The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is: I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me; you might be smarter than me. But if we get on a treadmill together, there’s two things: you’re getting off first, or I’m gonna die.
It’s really that simple."

- Will Smith

Endless Opportunities

There is an opportunity for everything and anything you can think of. It amazes me how many opportunities are out there. If you're passionate enough about something, you can make it happen, no matter what it is. A new business concept, at least one that is new to me, is cheese sculpting. You can see what I'm talking about here.

A cheese sculpture by Sarah Kaufmann

Who ever thought that cheese sculpting could earn you enough to live comfortably? Another unique career is YouTube. People post videos on the site of anything they can imagine, and profit from the views! Some videos are really helpful, like those of Khan Academy.

If these people can find what they are truly passionate about, what's holding most of us back? I say we find our own version of a cheese sculpture and just go for it!

Gary Vaynerchuk talked more about becoming successful by doing something that you're passionate about. Give this a listen!