Your Business Idea is in How You Apply Your Time
Coming up with a business idea is challenging. We often get advice to follow our passions. But this is a problem if:
- You aren’t really passionate about anything
- You are passionate about so much it feels like everything
So if you fit within these two cases (let’s call it the passion problem), following your passions is not the answer.
I had this passion problem for the better part of 3 years until just a few weeks ago. I quit my job in 2012 to start a business in an area I wasn’t passionate about at it didn’t work out after 3 years of toiling. From that point on I was determined to come up with a business idea that I was passionate about.
As a result, I haven’t started another business since. Instead, I’ve just been working with other entrepreneurs while I figure this out. During this time I’ve spent countless hours researching the conundrum of coming up with a business idea when you have a passion problem. Then one day I remembered an old post I read from Mark Cuban years ago and it hit me like a brick.
Finding Your Business Idea: The more time you spend on something, the better you get at it.
On Mark Cuban’s blog he has a post titled Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort. He suggest that the prevailing belief that following your passion leads to success is rubbish. Instead, you should follow how you spend your time. He says:
“Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get.
He also states:
If you really want to know where you destiny lies, look at where you apply your time.
Read Mark Cuban’s full post on his blog right here.
His rationale is quite simple. The more time you spend on something, the better you get at it. The better you get at it, the better your business idea will be.
My Next Business Idea
I am passionate about a ton of things such as connecting my community, raising boys, keeping marriages together, improving the quality of public education, and Pan-African history to name a few. However, I’ve never been able to focus enough on one of those passions to come up with a solid business idea.
A few weeks ago it finally hit me when I wrote this blog post. I noticed I spent most of my free time since I was a about 20 years old reading personal growth and business books. I noticed I only read non-fiction books and loved to write non-fiction articles about business, investing, personal growth, and gaining self-knowledge. I did this without thinking about it, and without being paid to do it.
This is where my next business idea lies. I now know what I must do. I hope you can use this advice from Mark Cuban to help you find what you must do as well.