Are you "passionate" about your side hustle?
I listen to a lot of entrepreneurs on podcasts and read a lot of books and it seems that they fall into one of two camps:
🥰 Passionate creators who care deeply about the problem they're solving
🤑 Opportunistic builders who saw a need in the market and figured out how to fill it
Of course, the truth is we all fall on a spectrum somewhere in the middle, but I'm curious where you fall?
Honestly, I'm more in the second camp. 🤑
I found a market that needs services I can provide, and providing those services has allowed me to build a sustainable lifestyle I enjoy. Unlike many of the passion projects I pursued in the past, I was able to go full time on this one.
Starting this business has given me more free time, challenging problems to solve, and the potential to make much more money than I did when I had a day job. This seems to be enough to motivate me to keep going even though I'm just providing marketing services for tech companies.
But, I've met plenty of entrepreneurs who say you have to love your company if you want to succeed. While I like my customers and my little business, it's more of a means to an end than my life's work.
What about you? Do you do this for passion or money?
Be so good they can't ignore you disproves "passion hypothesis". Instead I would rather people inspect their capital, professional and otherwise to be applied, it can lead to possion - effortless execution, control and deep insight. Starting out with passion is like having a crush without understanding of what love is :D
This is an entertaining and insightful comment. Is the concept of passion more nuanced than this? A musician might be passionate about their art and stop and maybe practice all night or play with passion.
An entrepreneur might have a deep-set personal motivation for solving a problem that also has great product market fit. Both are forms of passion.
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Definitely agree that there's a spectrum. Some people might not be passionate about the industry or problem itself, but may be drawn to the process of building and problem solving. Ideally there's probably a mix of both.
I'm working on something that's fun and personally relevant. Seeing as it's not being monetized and it's so new, it's really important because it's the only thing that's motivating.
I agree, there are different reasons to do a project. I've done many that I was passionate about and made little to no money from. They were good learning experiences even if they didn't become a living.
I'm definitely the first kind. Let me put it this way: if a time traveler told me that my project never becomes widely used, never makes any money, that I'm pretty much doing it for myself, I would be disappointed, sure, but I wouldn't stop.
It's good to know that about your project! Means you can't really fail.
I definitely fall into the first bucket. I have a full-time job, but the satisfaction of creating something with my hands to solve my own problem doesn't come anywhere near 9-to-5 work.
I'm not even sure people need what I want to give them that much and sometimes I'm freaking out that my project won't be used by anyone, but for now that didn't stop me. Another thing that keeps me going is the desire to finish something for once, haha!
We do it to solve problems, pay the bills and contribute to the economy (i.e. make money yes).
If I didn't 'like' the problem we are solving or the ideas we are working on then I would not do it or at the least I would stop quickly.
Maybe passion is too strong a word, how about professional interest?
For us, however, my co-founder and I have personal motivation to solve the problem we are solving because we live the problem and want it fixed. I'm not sure that's passion, in the same way I have a passion for great red wine or music and so on but it's a strong interest and one that motivates me.
It feels like the answer isn't black and white. There is a blend of factors that contribute to someone getting satisfaction from working on a project.
“Forget passion, show me the money!” - Kevin O’Leary probably
While I am passionate about what I’m doing, there’s an early interview on IH I think that opened my eyes to your way of thinking.
He said that he sold diapers online. Once the money started rolling in, he got passionate pretty quick. Lol
So I think about that a lot.
Passionate? Hell yeah.
I'm addicted to Twitter.
It either sounds cool or sad as hell that Twitter is a big part of my life.
Seems natural for me to build a Twitter growth tool.
Interesting philosophical discussion.
I've got one major product failure under my belt. I was certainly passionate enough but I was unable to figure it out. In this case, clearly the market didn't want what I was selling. <shrug> Maybe I was too early, tried to solve it the wrong way, or maybe it's a problem nobody will ever solve. </shrug>
For our second product, I was much more careful about what I wanted to build and that state of the market. I'm certainly passionate about making the app successful but I never really imagined myself being "into" or passionate about Bluetooth. Which is certainly the path this app has been taking me down.
I think part of it is being open to being led in certain directions. We actually have the opportunity to build an app that does Bluetooth discovery, identification, and communication better than the Android operating system. I didn't know that was a possibility when we first started building this app. But now that I've been focused on this for nearly a year, I can say that Android could do this better. We also see other opportunities like catering to Beacon developers and people into home automation.
While it's kind of a circular argument, I think it's true in my case: an opportunity gave me passion which I think has then fueled the potential for more opportunity.
I am passionate but not about the problem I am solving necessarily but about my life goals. My professional goal was to run my own thing and I do that passionately. What I sell to achieve that is just a lower level of detail. That's me though.
Why not both 😛?
I’m actually more in the first camp, but discovered a few gaps in terms of accurate info online on how to thrive as a solo founder, so I’ve sauntered into the 2nd camp for the time being, so I can experiment on some of the ideas that keep returning into my head.
For instance, the common spiel is to build an audience first, but that’s really one tactic out of several. Building an audience really comes down to what kind of product you are making and what your growth goals are and the size of your marketing budget.
But people often recommend it because, in the long run, it may turn out to be cheaper, not that it is the most effective in achieving your goals.