They say passion is the key to business success. It’s what compels one to cross from being a “wantrepreneur” to a real-life entrepreneur, inspiring them to see through the trials along the way. But the question is how exactly do you find your passion?
If you’re thinking of starting a business yourself, here are some mental exercises you can do to discover your entrepreneurial passion.
Go back to your childhood memories
The things that gave you joy in your childhood are likely sources of pure, unfiltered life passions. Unfortunately, a lot of people lose touch of these things because of the demands and responsibilities of being an adult. What you have to do now is to revisit those early life memories intentionally.
What made you happy as a child? What were you looking forward to when you were younger? Perhaps it’s baking cookies with your mother on a Sunday afternoon. If that’s the case, it may then be worth trying putting up a pastry shop. Or maybe you enjoy caring for your grandmother, playing “nurse” and talking to her for endless hours. Then, it may be worth considering a senior home care franchise from companies like Interim Franchising. The principle is, list down the things you find delight in when you were a child and turn them into business ideas.
Put up a creativity board
Get a poster board, hang it at your home office or bedroom wall, and fill it with pieces of inspiration, images, quotes and opinion pieces that come to mind when you think about your business. The more you concretize your abstract thoughts, the more you find clarity in your innermost passions.
This board will evolve over time, for sure. It’s okay to change things up, but you also have to give yourself a deadline on zeroing in on a business idea. You don’t want your business to be stuck in the creativity board. You have to make the resolve of getting it out of paper literally and bringing it to life. Now, when is the ideal deadline? The best time to make your idea a reality is when your concept is already well aligned to your target audience’s needs.
Be preoccupied with a hobby
Sometimes, it’s when you do something completely unrelated to business that you actually discover your entrepreneurial passion. Some people find their calling when they travel, being exposed to different cultures of different countries, seeing other nationalities’ innovations in food service, healthcare, transportation, communications, agriculture, etc. Others discover their purpose when they engage in leisure activities, like doing street photography or joining bird watching.
These serve as inspirations for their business ideas later on. So, pursue your life interests. Don’t treat them as separate from your entrepreneurial journey. This is very much part of it, and might even be the spark you need in finally starting the business.
Passion is a crucial ingredient in making your business successful. Start finding your own. Give these mental exercises a try, and you might just find your one true calling.
