Do What You Love (part 3)

My siblings and I share a running in-joke to effect that we are doomed forever to dislike our careers and that this gloomy predisposition for vocational discontent is firmly and specifically our mother’s fault. Why? Because every morning, five days a week, for 38 years she got up and went off to a job she loved. Every day she enjoyed her career thoroughly. Every day she came home happy to have been at her job and happy look forward to the next day at her job.

Who can compete with that? How many days do you think it took at my retail sales job, my telephone customer service job, or my security guard job before I realized that I did not have that? Each of the jobs I cycled through while in high school and college were perfectly decent, but who could love them?

Then I started a business.

Every day had pressure. Ever day took effort. There were never enough hours for the tasks at hand and nothing was ever done. I had never worked so hard in my entire life and that includes three quarters of running a full college class load and a full time job. Yet, through all the stress, all the tiredness, all the effort, I loved my job.

The difference between a job you tolerate and a job you love is like the difference between falling and flying. I encourage everyone to try entrepreneurship for themselves. It is a unique and indescribable lifestyle that simple cannot be replicated. Once you have tried it, think long and hard about it, and come to a firm conclusion. Do you love it?

If the answer is no, do not continue. You must love the people—if not the people, the challenge—if not the challenge, the responsibility—if not the responsibility, the product—if not the product, the field. If you merely like your entrepreneurial venture, if you are merely good at it and able to get through your day, quit. I have stated it before; owning a business is not a career, it is a lifestyle, and no amount of money is worth leading a lifestyle that does not exhilarate you.

Go to part 4 >>

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