You Should Build A Business Around Your Passion — Well, Maybe Not

For years I’ve been telling people to build a business around their passion and that will be the key to success. Well, that’s not exactly correct. Someone can be super passionate about, say, yoga — they practice yoga all day long, read yoga books, talk about yoga to their friends and family, eat, sleep, and drink yoga. But does that qualify them to start their own yoga studio and run a business? No way.

This comes back to the distinction between a businessperson, entrepreneur, and someone who has a passion and wants to make money through that passion. Phew.. these semantics are confusing, eh?

Let’s try to work this out. Ok, the person who loves yoga and wants to start a business around yoga (opening a yoga studio) isn’t exactly an entrepreneur just because they want to start a business around their passion. However, if they team up with someone who can run the business allowing them to take care of the yoga lessons, and you are able to turn a profit, then I’d consider you a businessperson who is making money from your passion.

Now, if the dude who loves yoga has ideas to spread yoga all throughout the world, has an innate desire to start a business and then actually starts a studio either by themselves or putting together and running a team…I’d consider that person an entrepreneur who has materialized their plans.

Semantics and definitions aside, people have to understand that just because they are passionate about something, that doesn’t automatically mean that they can build a business around it. Just as most musicians aren’t exactly qualified to promote and sell their own records.

The small group of special people who are usually able to handle the creative / business aspects of running a company are the “entrepreneurs.” Entrepreneurs are the people who can wear many — pretty much all — hats of running a business (from idea to implementation.)

The bottom line: if you have a passion and want to build a business around it, then do that! But understand that not everyone is going to be born an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs, I believe, aren’t made. Businessmen are made. Realize who you from the start. If you have the passion, then find the entrepreneur to help you realize your dreams.

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