During my young days as an entrepreneur, I was taught to find a pain in my life and solve it.
Nowadays all I hear is “Make money following your passion!” or “Turn your passion into a business!” I mean EVERYONE is telling you to do this, not just the big dogs.
Last week, Seth Godin advised the following:
“If you’re really into high-end stereos and you want to be an entrepreneur, I don’t think you should go into the stereo business because it’ll wreck your hobby for you”
So which one is it?
Should an entrepreneur solve a pain or follow his or her passion?
The case for passion
Note: For this section, I only focus on monetizing through blog content, readership, sponsorships, videos, and advertisements.
I think we can all agree that we would love to make money doing what we love, and although we’re made to believe that anyone can do this, I personally don’t believe this is the case.
For example, lets say I’m passionate about movies. Well then, this is what 90% of the “passion” bloggers would advise me to do:
If you’re passionate about movies, then you should start a movie review blog! You can write very opinionated posts that compel readers to respond with their own opinions. Also, you need to start a movie review video show where you review all of the latest blockbuster movies. Don’t worry about making it a big production, just start making videos and revise them accordingly with user feedback.
Believe it or not, I actually tried to do this with a couple of friends.
If you are passionate enough about movies, can you monetize your passion?
Yes, I truly believe you can. However, you also need one of the following marketable skills:
- Are you an excellent writer?
- Are you charismatic and do you look good on camera?
- Are you an expert in your field?
Can you do what iJustine does? Do you have her looks, personality, creativity, wit, humor, and style?
Yes, platforms on the internet like YouTube have greatly opened up the opportunity for stars and people with talent to excel and be found. At the same time, it means that your competition has increased a thousand times! For every person that makes it on the internet, there are tens of thousands of people who will never make it.
Entrepreneurs solve a pain
Aaron Patzer found it painful to manage his finances online. He created Mint to solve this pain.
Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire found it painful to constantly go to the market to buy toiletries, and even more painful to find and cut coupons for their favorite products. They created Alice to solve this pain.
Jessica Ma found it painful to track her startup’s finances without purchasing an expensive solution that only enterprise companies can afford. She created Indinero to solve this pain.
Find a pain in your everyday life and solve it! That’s the goal.
This series will help you build a startup from idea, to team creation, to funding, and to your ultimate success. For the purpose of building a startup together, we are going to focus on solving a pain. This pain does not have to be something you’re passionate about, but it does have to be a pain that is relevant in your life.
Note: In the next post of this series, we will test the viability of your business idea.
For example, here are some pains that might be relevant to you:
1. iPhone app that counts nutritional intake for you
Passion: Working out and eating healthy
Pain: You hate watching your diet, counting calories, and tracking your protein intake
Solution: Create an iPhone app that allows you to take a picture of the food you eat, and that will automatically track your nutritional intake for the day. Based on your age and weight, the app will then tell you how much cardio you have to do to lose weight or what kind of weight-training to do to build muscle. If you love working out but hate tracking what you eat, then this might well be the relevant pain that you must tackle.
2. Best baller in your city app
Passion: Pickup basketball
Pain: No recognition for the best team in the city; no way of tracking when and where the best teams are playing
Solution: Build a site that ranks pick-up basketball players and teams in cities, and rewards the best players and teams. Ballers can check-in using a Foursquare app integration that allows people to see in which court your team is playing and who your team is playing. The iPhone app can immediately update which team won so the rank is updated in real-time. Money can be generated from basketball advertisement placement on the site and on the iPhone app.
This is a play on my good friend Brenton Gieser’s idea that I think he should still pursue.
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Find a pain in your everyday life and figure out a way to solve it. This is the startup that you’re going to build throughout this series.
What pain are you going to solve?
Check out all of the posts in the series here: Young Successful Entrepreneur Guide
Jun, first, GREAT idea…with the link to “keep up with this series” it’s helping me follow the content I want on this booming site with tons of content.
What’s the pain I’m going to solve. I want to help all those self starters, freelancers, and newbie entrepreneurs get their technical feet on the ground! I want to solve their problems for free and grow products out of what I learn doing it! attempting just that at http://www.itarsenal.com ! … whatever you’re struggling with on your blog, your computer, or online…let me know!
Awesome site! I’ll be checking by often for my tech help 🙂
What a simple way of putting things. I’ve heard this many times and yet somehow after reading this article it sunk it! Thank you so much Jun. I’m gonna link this on my blog!
Hey Jun! I love this post and what you are doing with untemplatar! It has officially replaced the BC aggregate blog in my heart 🙂
I just wrote a (significantly) less refined post about the exact same thing yesterday! Great minds think alike and maybe we have some weird same-phonetically-sounding-name connection.
You are awesome and I can’t wait to hang out!
dude, that’s a totally scary picture. just by the way.
Hi Jun,
Luv the post. You hint at this, but let me re-iterate: I think one can certainly combine both pursuing a passion and solving a problem at the same time. If u can leverage something you’re passionate about, and figure out a common or relevant pain/need that directly involves your passion, well then that’s even better!
Take iConcertCal (iphone/itunes app) as a perfect example.
Passion: Music and attending concerts
Pain: Missing out on musicians in their iPod playing in their vicinity
Solution: Create an itunes/iphone app that syncs with your ipod and shows you when the artists in your ipod list are playing each month.
I think if u combine your passion with a pain you or people you know have that involves that passion, you’d have a recipe for success.
Hey Jun, thanks for the Alice.com shout-out! And great post as always. What’s interesting to me most about our co-founders is that they are successful serial entrepreneurs and as such, don’t approach with a particular passion, as you say, but rather, with a particular value-set.
In Brian and Mark’s case, they’re interested in disrupting markets and bringing more value back to the consumer as a result. It’s not about the toilet paper, but disintermediation and changing the game completely.
I completely agree that trying to build a business off your passion alone will usually end in failure. That’s what happened with my startup a few years ago. It lasted for 7 years through sheer denial that it was failing. While profitable as a side-business, it was never scalable to a full-time income.
I really enjoy working with computer hardware. So, in college, I started building and selling custom PC’s. The only problem is that there hundreds of companies that build PC’s, including such tiny places as HP and Dell. In fact, every sale I couldn’t close ultimately went to Dell. The way to make money in that business is value-add and services (and anymore, even that is becoming commoditized). My problem was that I didn’t have any interest in that stuff. I started my business people I liked the hardware. The other stuff was an annoyance.
So now I’m not in the business of building computers. But my friends know that I can build them a better computer than they can buy in a store, so when one needs a new PC, I take care of them.
Great post! Looking forward to hear more!
Very thought-provoking post, Jun! This just makes me wonder, though — what about guys like Gary Vaynerchuk? I’m guessing that it can work for some, but like all things, it isn’t one-sized fits all. (Passion doesn’t always turn into money for everyone, basically, but that doesn’t mean it won’t for others.)
I think Gary is an awesome, inspirational guy who is extremely successful at what he does. He has the charisma and personality for a video show, which is why he succeeded in it. To clarify:
Talent + hardwork + luck = Success
I believe that Gary had all of the above.
If you do not have the talent for a video show, then you’re not going to succeed. If you’re not a talented writer, then you’re not going to succeed in writing a blog. If you’re not a talented marketer, then you’re going to need to find someone to become the marketer for your company.
Gary says know and love your DNA. This is absolutely important when starting a business.
If i can correct your formula, I don’t believe in luck. No such thing.
Talent is great to have but a lot of things in business are learned skills. The great thing about that is anyone can learn to master them with some time and practice.
Try>Fail>Adjust until you reach Try>Success
So many great opportunities to figure out how to combine your talents and knowledge. And some of the greatest entrepreneurs where the ones without talent or knowledge but they knew how to leverage others to get what they wanted. Henry Ford is a great example of this being put to practice.
Luck is a very real and pervasive part of the universe. It is actually one of the underpinnings of quantum physics. Einstein originally did not believe in quantum theory because it ran counter of his elegant view of how the universe operated. He famously declared, “God does not play dice with the universe.” However, there is now quite a bit of physics that simply cannot be explained by quantum theory.
Flip a coin and pick heads or tails. Did you guess correctly? That’s luck. Were you wrong, that’s luck too.
Nice way to attempt to impress me, but there is difference between the luck of flipping a coin and the thought mentality that people associate with luck. And that’s what I was trying to stress. A lot of people just go around living their life saying “I’m just not lucky enough”
A lot of life is not luck. It’s hard work.
I agree that most people mistake not trying hard enough with being unlucky. By the same token, there are also people who mistake their good fortune with their own effort.
10 years ago, I was three inches from dying. By sheer luck, my car veered just enough to miss hitting a telephone poll head on. Any success I have in the future is entirely dependent on that piece of luck, because if I hadn’t been lucky that day, I would not have the opportunity to be lucky in the future.
Word! (referring to Edward)
Wow, Edward, luck & quantum physics? I bow to you, sir. 😉 I only understand some very, very, very basic bits about quantum physics…. (I admit, I’m geeky and get a kick out of string theory.)
Indeed, I do believe in luck. And while there’s “Luck = Preparation + Opportunity,” there’s more to it than that I think. Many people miss plenty of opportunities, others take way too many, this isn’t fully lucky or unlucky. Sometimes you end up in the right place at the right time and meet the right people. We don’t always need to explain why… Call it luck and leave it at that.
But, regardless of passion or not, I think Gary’s passionate talks are a great kick in the ass for anybody working on a business. 🙂 The DNA thing is something I need to revisit…. I took it too literally the first time I was exposed to the concept. (Oops!)
Great post Jun!
I totally agree. The passion thing seems to be related to motivation – if your not motivated about your business, you wont but in the required work and wont succeed. You’re more likely to be motivated toward a business idea you are passion about etc.
I honestly believe that real entrepreneurs enjoy business for the sake of business. their product/industry is less important than than the actual business that powers it. Same goes for C-Level execs.
In my opinion, most people who build a business around their passion, end up earning an income – not building a business. Its true that some make the shift from “technician” to “entrepreneur” but somehow I get the feeling this is the exception not the rule.
I’ve always enjoyed the ‘hustle for hustles sake’ it has always been the rush of finding the customer, negotiating the deal and turning a profit that has excited me. I’ve churned through many products and services. Thats why I feel I’m an entrepreneur at heart and probably why I like your posts so much and bothered writing this big response lol
I like big responses 🙂
Tell us what you’re hustling on right now
Im remotely working on a reseller muse following the 4Hww model using shopify. I got the idea from Tim’s blog but im based in Australia so cant enter the contest officially. Im set to launch mid Feb.
The product I have chosen far far away from my passions (it has to do with women’s beauty – actually I am passionate about beautiful women, does that count?) but it tested well so I’m moving forward.
I’m really enjoying making the business. I am new to the world of online business so am doing lots of learning simultaneously and am getting new ideas every day – but right now, I’m focusing on this one business while I travel (im vagabonding about).
The current goal is location independent remuneration (with automation as a secondary goal) – I dont care if im passionate about my product or not. Im passionate about business and travel. Eventually I want to work on a business with a larger earning potential – but that can wait until my 30s or at least until I get bored of travelling.
Once again, Jun proves he’s a maestro – I agree with Seth in that most often than not, trying make money off of a hobby will make you hate it. And I think if you use a blog as a vehicle – and you love writing – you’ll end up hating your hobby AND writing.
On the other hand, solving a problem – or a pain – may be a better pathway to financial success. You still know the market (like you know your passion), but you’re not as emotionally tied to it (maybe). Seems like a better route.
Cool ideas. I believe it’s possible to both solve a pain and follow your passion at the same time. I prefer the term “market gap” to pain and I think it’s easy to take a close look at that which you are passionate about and find an area where the market (the others who are passionate about the same thing as you) has an unsatisfied need or demand. Coming up with a way to make money from that need is another thing altogether.
These ideas support the idea that necessity is the mother of all invention!
I love the post, and I’d say that the real opportunity is where both passion and pain meet.
Passion is, in my mind, absolutely critical if you’re going to break out on your own or execute on a project that pays the bills. But, does it have to be something about which you’re really, amazingly passionate? For instance, my most successful start-up project was in the fashion eyewear industry — an area that I became passionate about because I wanted to make the company work, not because I’m enamored by the industry.
My concern about passion alone is that it sometimes skews what you think the market might want. YOU are so excited and passionate about the subject, but it might not scale. In these cases, I think you have to approach the project with skepticism, speaking with people and doing relentless market research, giving yourself every opportunity to prove that it’s not a good idea. If, after a little time and some feedback, you’ve not been able to convince yourself that it won’t work, then it’s full speed ahead.
Thanks for writing this article Jun!!! This article spoke directly to me. I want to do a startup of my own but I am struggling with ideas and trying to decide whether to use my passion as an influence. I am a big fan of your blog and it inspired me to start one of my own(just started it this year). I actually have one idea (in which I am trying to solve a problem) for an iphone app and would love to briefly tell you about if you get the chance. I look forward to the other articles in this series!
Hey Monique, would love to hear the idea. Shoot me an email at jun [@] Untemplater.com and we can chat about it.
Looking forward to hearing from you
Great post and totally dead-on- this is exactly what the founder of the company I work for did when she launched it – found a pain and created a solution. I had one in mind for Paris but it’s top secret 🙂
Ah, top secret startups…
I say you just tell the community and hear our feedback. There is the chance that someone will take the idea and run with it, but there is a much better chance that someone will give you amazing feedback that will help you see a hole you did not see before.
Or there is a chance that someone loves your idea and joins your team!
We’re all ears here 🙂