So you are trying to figure out what business to start and you’re stuck. You’ve been hearing that if you want to become a successful entrepreneur, you should be passionate about your business. That’s good advice.

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” -Oprah Winfrey

You need something to push you through the difficult times, failures and hard work that entrepreneurship promises. Passion will do the trick.

But sometimes that’s a problem because you just don’t know what you are passionate about.

How do I know what business to start if I don’t know my passion?

Babies aren’t born with a sticker on their butt that says what their passion is. We have to figure it out for ourselves. Our school system doesn’t even try to help kids find their passion. The worst part is that many people go through their entire lives without any real passion.

But you want to quit your job. You want to start a business so you can Quit Working. You don’t have years and years to go meditate in a forrest while you figure out your passion. You’re in the right place.

Here’s some quick advice. To finally determine what business to start that you will be passionate about, look at a few things:

1. What do I love doing?

What do I love to do? We’ve been conditioned to believe that work sucks, so what we love is the last thing we’d think of to make money. It should be the first thing. Make this your starting point and keep your mind wide open. Nothing is off limits here. Don’t dismiss something you love doing because it comes easy to you or you enjoy it.

Put the idea out of your head that working is supposed to suck. That’s a terrible lie you’ve been told. Working is not supposed to suck; it’s supposed to be the thing that fires you up the most and comes easiest to you.

2. What am I good at?

Get really analytical about this. Look deeply at the things you do — your job, hobbies, special interests, etc. and look at what makes you good at them. For example, if you fix computers, what makes you good at fixing computers? Look beyond the obvious things like knowing a lot about computers or having a lot of experience or practice. Lots of people know things and have experience.

What is it about YOU that makes you really good at fixing computers? Is it your ability to troubleshoot complex problems? Is it your ability to understand complicated things quickly? Is it your ability to build great relationships with the manufacturer so you can get help from them?

Crack open your mind and figure out what you are uniquely good at. If you can’t figure it out, ask other people who know you for their ideas.

3. What do I care about?

You have to care about your business a lot — a whole lot. You have to care about it enough to make all the sacrifices required to be successful. All the long nights, the worry, the failure and the disappointment. (Don’t worry, it’s totally worth it).

So, ask yourself: What is the thing you care about more than anything?

Passion isn’t everything

Passion is just the start. To be successful requires devotion. Your passion has to be so strong that it becomes devotion. Devotion is the fierce commitment to succeed that only comes from something you care deeply about. Something you care so deeply about that you’d do anything for it.

You might get it wrong

Yep, you might totally miss the mark. You might start a business you end up hating. That’s ok. It will be a tremendous learning experience and you’ll be out of the 9-5, so you’ll be way ahead of where you were before.

Plan B: take it freelance

So, what if you’ve done all that and you still don’t know what business to start? Don’t worry, you’ll get there. You can still quit your job. Sometimes it makes sense to just chuck the passion thing out the window temporarily. Sometimes you just have to take your existing job and “go freelance.” Even if it’s not exactly what you want to do long term, by moving off the dependence of a 9-5, you’ll gain business and entrepreneurship skills and begin to get used to the self-employed life. The best part is that you’ll create more flexibility in your lifestyle and allow yourself to work on finding your passion.

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Entrepreneurship is the only true path to freedom. But ask kids, we’re taught that working a job is the only way to make money. Working a job is fine for short periods of time, but to create life-long happiness and fulfillment, you have to quit your job and start a business that lets you live a passionate life of freedom. Here are seven reasons why you’ll never thrive while working for someone else.

1. Your employer doesn’t care about you

No matter how much HR and management trots out the tired, “we care about our employees,” mantra, what they really care about is the bottom line. There’s nothing wrong with making money. That’s their prerogative. But it’s also your prerogative to choose to not be a part of someone else’s money-making venture. When the bottom line is in trouble, one thing you can be sure of is that you’ll be helping it. You’ll help it by doing more work for the same amount of money or less. Maybe you’ll have fewer resources to get your job done with. Or maybe you’ll be the one who makes the ultimate sacrifice for the bottom line — you may get “the ax.”

When you quit your job and start your own business, you can build it to be exactly what you want it to be so it supports what you want in life.

2. Your pay has nothing to do with your value

When you work for someone else, they pay you to provide some service to them. That service contributes to the product or service they provide to their customers. Whether you’ve been doing this for six months or six decades, your value is the same. The value of the product you contribute might go up, but sorry, all the benefit of that increase goes to the shareholders or owners. Your value is determined by supply and demand. As long as there are other people who can do the same thing, there will be other people they can hire.

When you have your own business, as your business grows, you develop and get better, your products get better, you (the owner) get the growth.

3. There’s always a cap (and you don’t want to hit it)

Companies will tell you there’s no limit to how far you can grow inside their company. That’s a lie. There is a top to every organization. Let’s say you move to that top spot. You’re the CEO of the company you work for. You still have a boss – the board of directors! They represent those darn shareholders who get all the money! This is the worst boss you’ll ever have. You are no responsible for everything. Everything that goes wrong is your fault, and if you screw up big enough, your out. Sure, it’s a lot of money, but I don’t know anyone who wants the lifestyle of a CEO. Is that a mountain you want to climb?

When you quit your job and start your own business, you get to decide how much money your company makes and what role you play. If you work harder and provide more value, you get more money. If you’re really smart, you work less and get more money.

4. Your priorities aren’t aligned

In the rare and temporary situations where people are happy working for someone else, they’re happy because the priorities of the employer and employee are aligned. Perhaps you want to develop a specific skill and the company needs that skill. You are excited about developing this new skill, you’re good at it and your employer appreciates your dedication. Everything is great. Until… that project is complete and they are on to the next thing that requires a different skill set. It’s not just about skills. Priorities can fall out of alignment when management changes, cultures change or anything changes in a way that is no longer aligned with what you want.

When you have your own business you get to decide what the priorities are. You decide what comes first, what comes second and who does what. You are in control. What you do for money takes up a lot of time, so don’t you think you deserve to be in control?

5. You’re selling your life

The only thing you really have is time. When you work for someone else, you’re selling it. You’re selling one hour for some amount of money and there is no future return on that money. You get the money, you spend the money and that’s it. The time and money are gone.

When you quit your job to start your own business, it does take a lot of time, but at least you can do it your way. You build a business that’s about something you are devoted to and you spend your time how you want. Spending your time creating a business is investing the time into something that gives you a greater amount or quality of time in the future.

6. You can’t be creative

Unless you have a job that is based on your creativity, you generally are required to check it at the door. “Do it our way,” you are told. Your creative ideas are not needed here, because we already have a computer system or a process for that. Humans are inspired by creatively solving problems and creating new and beautiful things.

When you quit your job and start your own business, you get to be creative! In fact, your creativity is what makes your business unique and successful. What a great outlet for your creativity!

7. You don’t care

Most 9-5 workers don’t care much about what they do for their employer. They don’t care much about how many popsicles, dryer sheets or insurance policies the company sells.

When you quit your job and start a business, not only do you get to care – you better care! Caring about the business you are building is absolutely necessary because it’s a lot of work. When you care about what you’re doing, you’ll be able to push thorough the hard stuff, the boring stuff and the stuff you don’t like and get it done.

Nothing about working a job works with how human beings are wired. You are a smart, motivated, creative person who wants to help people and build cool things. A job rarely lets you do that.

Quitting your job to start a business requires brains, motivation and creativity, so you’re perfectly suited to it. Going to work for someone else as the primary way to make a living doesn’t make sense. Quit your job and start a business so we can reverse this trend.

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To become a successful entrepreneur, there are only two simple things you must do. Once you’ve done these two things, the rest is easy.

What is an entrepreneur?

It’s actually very simple to become a successful entrepreneur — you just provide a transformation in someone’s life in exchange for money. It could be a big transformation like finding a relationship or buying a house. Or it could be something small like a new type of coffee cup that won’t tip over in your car.

Two simple things you must do to become a successful entrepreneur:

1 – Create value that people will pay for

The whole idea of providing value to others is basic human instinct. We’re driven to provide it; it’s how we’re wired. People have been providing value to each other since we were cavemen.For example, if you were a good hunter and I was a good fire-maker, together we can make a better meal than we could by ourselves. You catch it. I cook it. This is nothing new to humans. Providing value to other people is totally engrained within us — no problem there.

2 – Deliver that value in exchange for money

The basic concept has not changed since cavemen traded hunting and fire-making services, but the details of how it works have changed. The cavemen didn’t use currency, they just traded. The cavemen didn’t have to comply with accounting rules or even do accounting. The cavemen didn’t need websites or social media. Today a more complex structure is required for exchanging value for value. But it’s not hard to create.

Become a successful entrepreneur today

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, only 13% of Americans have started or are starting a business. The rest are not starting a business for two main reasons.

1. They underestimate the value they can provide to other people.
2. They believe that starting a business is too hard and too risky.

When you hold onto these thoughts, you can’t become a successful entrepreneur. They block you from success. Here’s how to flip it around.

Understand your value

Every human being has value to provide. It comes down to one question you must answer: When your friends, family, coworkers or anyone else calls you up and asks for your help, advice or opinion on something, what do they ask you about? Everyone has something they are asked about. That’s the beginning of your business. It’s the area where people already gravitate toward you in search of help. Ask those people what their problems are and how they would like those problems solved. Then expand the conversation beyond your friends and family. Start talking to more people like them. They’re handing you great business ideas on a silver platter!

Create the business (the structure)

It does take a lot of work to become a successful entrepreneur, but it’s not as hard or as risky as most people believe it is. The great thing about  successful entrepreneurs is that many of them write books. They’ve written great books about how to overcome obstacles and the basic steps to starting a business. The information is there and very well documented. You just have to seek it out. Here’s a simple piece of advice that will help you become a successful entrepreneur:

Want it more

• Want it more than you want to watch TV.
• Want it more than you want complete economic certainty.
• Want it more than you want to take a nap.
• Want it more than ice cream. Yes, even more than ice cream.

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Money is nothing more than a representation of value. In a previous post, we talked about how money is created by an investment of your most valuable resource.

You make money by creating value. Use your most precious asset (your time) to create value that other people want. They then give you some value (money) in return. You used your most valuable asset to create the value. They (your customer) used their most valuable asset (their time) to create value (represented by money) that they will give you in exchange for the value you created; which they want.

So, the way you get money is by creating value. Create the most valuable thing you can. It will be worth the most money. Now, since time is your most precious asset you must be sure you are enjoying what you are doing while you are creating this value! So, create that value out of something you really care about; something you like; something you love. Better yet, something you are obsessed with.

This Chihuahua is happy because she is creating value with something she cares about

I’m obsessed with finding a Better Way to Do Life because, we are nowhere near as happy as we should be as a human race. A Better Way to Do Life means a lot of things and one of the most important parts of that is changing the way we earn money.

Since time is your most precious asset; since time is what you use to create money (by creating value); you must create that value out of something you enjoy, so that you are a) living and b) creating value at the same time.

Stop thinking about Money as the goal and start thinking about Money as the result. The goal is Living your Life, and doing so in a way that creates value for other people. Then, all you do is live an awesome life that you enjoy immensely and watch the money flow in as the value is created and released into the world.

Photo by Peter Conlan on Unsplash

Merriam-Webster defines an Entrepreneur as:

“a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money”

Entrepreneurship is simply identifying what value you have that other people want and delivering that value to them in exchange for other value, which we have standardized in the form of money.

Where Does Money Come From?

Money comes from time. To get money you either a) sell your time or b) create assets that make money. Option “b” ultimately generates more money from less time and it therefore is much better for lifestyle fanatics. However, it still takes time — considerable time.

Option “a” is also known as a “job.”

We can all agree that time is the most important and precious asset you have (more on that here).

Money Comes From Time

You’ve got 112 hours each week. Assuming you sleep 8 hours a night, that leaves 16 each day, times 7 is 112. You probably work 40 of those hours, so that takes you right down to 72. Then there is eating, cleaning the house, driving to and from work, getting ready for work, etc, which suck up a whole lot of those 72 hours. Let’s be really conservative and say you only spend 4 hours a day on those things and we’re down to only 44 hours left.

It goes fast.

What Can You Do With Money?

You can use it to get time back. Use money to pay people to mow your lawn, do your grocery shopping, and clean your house. You use your time to make money and you use that money to get time back.

Lifestyle Fanatics are obsessed with two things:

1. Making money
2. Using that money to Build better lives for themselves and others.

Always create things that will make you money in the future, which you use, not only to make your life better, but also to make more money to make your live even better and do all the other things you want to do with money.

Why is Money Valuable?

Money is generated by investing your most valuable asset, so it therefore has considerable value itself. Further, since money allows you to make better use of your most valuable asset, it’s really awesome.

Put away your notions that money is bad, evil, or negative in any way and remember that it represents two things:

1. The investment of your or someone else’s most precious asset.
2. A tool you can use to better use your most precious asset.

To live an ultimate lifestyle of freedom you need money, but first you have to quit thinking about it in a negative way. You are giving up your most precious asset for it. Do so proudly and use that money you get in exchange to make your life everything you want it to be.-

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Some People Don’t Think it’s Possible

If you asked many people if they can have whatever they want, most would say, “Of course not. There are a lot of things I want that I can’t have.”

But that’s because they are looking at it all wrong.

Then if you asked those same people why not, most would say just a few things.

“I don’t have enough money.”
“I don’t have the right connections.”
“I don’t know how.”

Causes Versus Results

Unfortunately, those are not causes. They are results. These are results, not the reasons why you do or do not get whatever you want.

Money, Connections, and Knowledge are results in themselves. They are very fundamental results and good ones to get because they’re resources you can use to get more of what you want.

So, you can see why getting whatever you want is so difficult when you think that results are what is stopping you from getting the results! Now let’s look at what it really takes to get those results.

How to Get Whatever You Want

Getting whatever you want requires three things.

1. Peace
2. Devotion
3. Choice

Peace

Start with Peace. Stop thinking that whatever you are after will make you happy. Once you have your basic needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, etc) nothing else is really going to make you happier. So, don’t look to things, like money, fame, friends, relationships and cheeseburgers to make you happier. Look instead internally for happiness. Because it’s always there. When it’s not, it’s usually because you are looking outside for it in all the wrong places. Step one to getting whatever you want is realizing that it won’t make you happier.

Devotion

Decide what you want and become Devoted to it. Care as deeply about it as you can possibly care about something. Develop such a strong Devotion to it that you cannot imagine not having it. Be sure it’s worth it. Make it something you really care about enough to Devote yourself to it. Getting whatever you want takes time. Since the hours in your day are limited (more on that here), make sure that what you want is something you would really be willing to spend the time on.

Choice

Choose to take any action necessary to get the thing you decided you want.  Make a choice you can only make if you are at Peace and Devoted. Make a choice that means nothing will get in your way. You will go over, around under or through whatever obstacle stands in your way. Choose to take full responsibility for getting that thing you want.

Do it in that order. The order really matters. Peace is first because you have to be at Peace with with yourself before you can make a sound decision about what to Devote yourself to. If you aren’t at Peace, you can’t make that decision correctly; you will make an irrational decision in a futile attempt to find Peace through an external outcome. Choice is last because you must be Devoted to something before you will be motivated to fully make the Choice that is necessary to get what you want.

Getting whatever you want is not easy. But when you align these three things, it becomes possible. It doesn’t make it easier, but when you are Devoted to something, it makes the work worth it. Do not view it as an avenue to happiness. Choosing to do what you need to do to make it happen suddenly becomes completely natural. It also becomes less scary.

You can Get Whatever You Want

You can have Whatever You Want. Never believe that you cannot have Whatever You Want. If there is anything you don’t have, it’s because you Chose not to pursue it. And that’s OK because you are at Peace and made the Choice to pursue something you are Devoted to.-

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Many will say that real estate is the best investment. I disagree. Let’s start with supply and demand. The price of any resource is determined by the relation of supply to demand. In other words: How much is there and how many people want it? Price is a direct function of how many people want it (demand) versus how much of it there is (supply). If more people want it, but there is less of it, the price is higher. If there is more of it than people want, the price is lower.

Understanding supply and demand makes the world much easier to understand. If you’re a little foggy on supply and demand, read more on the Wikipedia page for supply and demand.

Real Estate

Here’s why real estate is so awesome as an investment:

1) Certain Demand: People are always going to want to own land. Whether it is to live, put a business or to store their antique car collection, as long as there are humans, they will want to claim a piece of land for themselves.

2) Fixed Supply: There are only so many usable square feet on this planet, so there is a fixed supply. You can’t print, manufacture, build or otherwise create any more land on this earth than there already is.

No question, real estate is timeless as an investment. But I’ve got something better.

Platforms

A Platform is just when people listen to what you say, like listen to your show, read your blog, read your magazine, follow you on social media, etc. It’s when you have their attention.

“The most precious commodity that we have is attention.” – Arianna Huffington

Here’s why attention is better than real estate:

1) Certain Demand: As long as there are people who want to communicate, for the purpose of selling something, fundraising, or any type of communication, there will be demand for attention.

2) Fixed Supply: The supply is limited by the number of humans and the number of hours in a day. There is no more attention. Humans sleep 8 hours a night, so there are 16 hours remaining in each day that we can potentially have their attention.

As long as someone wants to communicate, they’ll need attention.

The Internet has changed many things, most notably, the number of people who are trying to get attention. It has lowered the barriers to creating communication drastically. Right now, anyone can take a message, and make it available to everyone with access to the Internet. As of June 30th, 2012, and according to http://www.internetworldstats.com, that’s 2,405,518,376 people.

Information Overload

There is a massive number of people assaulting us with their information every single day from roughly the same number of people. This has made attention much harder to get, much more scarce, and therefore much more valuable.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said, “we create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003″.

Every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of man to 2003. Information is no longer an asset. It’s  a massive distraction. The asset is a group of people who listen when you talk, who’s attention you have — your platform.

The key here is that all this information is only potentially available to those people. An overwhelming majority of them will never notice what you just put out onto that blog post, social media post, or website. But if there is a group of people who are interested in what you are saying because they have heard your stuff before and they know that what you say is going to be interesting and valuable, they’ll pay attention to YOU and tune out all the other stuff.

Build platforms, build wealth, build life.

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It happens way too often. And it’s stopping you from making progress in your business. You go on Facebook and you see: “Best-Selling Book Free! Over 127 Millionaire Secrets Revealed”. (That’s real, by the way, I just pulled it right off Facebook). The cycle begins.

What’s Going on in Your Head

Because humans beings (which most of the readers of this blog are) really, really like instant gratification, when you hear these claims, you are so excited you might even pee a little bit. That’s OK. You got a release of serotonin, a chemical in the brain that makes you happy. Next, you buy into the guru, teacher or marketer’s offer. Maybe that’s a product, program or some free content. Doesn’t matter. What matters is what happens next.

You start consuming (reading, watching, listening to) the information or using the product. Consuming it is work. Making the million dollars is probably totally possible using what you are learning, but it is work — A LOT. And the serotonin is LONG GONE. Now you’re bored and have lost hope that this thing is going to be the thing makes you a million bucks.

It Happens Again

Then what happens? You open your email. And there is a an email with the subject: “How We Got 20k Subscribers From Facebook” That’s also real, I pulled it right out of the new and (Wonderfully Amazing; I could kiss whoever thought of that) gmail promotions tab. There goes the serotonin again! Let’s download that eBook! Hell, its free, what do you have to lose?!

You have a LOT to lose.

The Simple Reason Why Businesses Fail

The reason so many businesses fail in the information marketing and online-type business in particular (and a LOT fail) is because of this vicious cycle of high-hopes followed by low spirits. When you get down, you raise your spirits by going after one of these new, fun “seratonin-pots.” But, if you had instead spent that time consistently and persistently executing against a very simple strategy, you would actually make progress, instead of that silly cycle.

I see it ALL THE TIME. I see it with my clients, peers, friends and total strangers in blog comments and social media posts. What is that next “Blast of Hope” that I can inject into my brain to get that next serotonin release.

Another thing that really sucks: While you are chasing the next serotonin release, you aren’t making any progress.

How to NOT Let Your Business Fail

1. Quit trying to become a millionaire overnight. Set a reasonable goal of bringing a few thousand or even hundred dollars a month. (by the way, a really cool by-product of this is that if you keep at it, you will become a millionaire)
2. Create a simple, clear plan and execute against it consistently. Even when it gets boring.

Imagine seeing small, incremental results and looking at your past accomplishments (small and large, but mostly small) with confidence, knowing that if you just keep at what you are doing, you will become a millionaire. Now YOU are in control. You are no longer at the mercy of the next email with promises of “pulling back the curtain” or “revealing the secrets of whatever or whowever”.

Becoming a millionaire is not going to make you any happier. How to Quit Working is not about becoming a millionaire. But if you want the exact tools, techniques and strategies you need to make a decent living that doesn’t involve going somewhere every day and doing something that you don’t care about, you are in the right place. Subscribe in a Reader for weekly content like this or like How to Quit Working on Facebook.

Put living first and create a life of freedom. Oh, and here is some great news: You can get that same serotonin boost by exercising! Read more about Serotonin here.

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