A guest post by Rodrigo Laddaga of EMyth en ESPAÑOL

Passion is a topic that is covered by many authors and gurus in these past decades, but I still see that many people “don’t get it” yet. When we talk about entrepreneurship and small business success or any kind of success we find that in each instance passion is the key element. Steve Jobs explained it in a very practical way in his famous interview with Bill Gates, when he said “you have to love what you do or you are going to quit soon or later.”   Your business, ultimately, is your life.  If you want your life to be fulfilling (a perhaps extremely accurate definition of success) you need to have passion for what you do.

Most of the people that start a small business start it with the wrong assumption.  They ask themselves, “How can a make money?” “What type of business can be more profitable?”  The focus is money first, fulfillment second.  That’s a mistake.

The right question to ask is, “What am I passionate about, and how can I build a business around it?”  This is so critically important, because you will spend most of your days working on your business, between 8 to 12 hours a day, between 5 or even 7 days a week. Most people today spent more time at work than any other activity, so you better do something you really, really like.

As the famous author Wayne Dyer said “If you are not doing what you love and loving what you do you have 2 options, change what are you doing, or change the way you feel about what you are doing.”  The second option is very impossible to achieve.  You can’t create passion out of thin air. Either you have it or you don’t.  The only way to change your feeling about what you are doing is to find your passion within what you do, is to tell yourself a new story. If we observe the people that are truly successful you will find that most of them, if not all of them, have this key ingredient, they just love what they do. It does not matter if they are writers, business men, sports people, actors, singers, architects, engineers, etc. – passion leads to success.

I really believe that schools at any grade should focus in helping kids, teenagers, young adults and adults find their passion – the probabilities of being successful and happy will increase exponentially.   The task of finding your passion is not easy, but there is a simple guide:

Ask yourself these 3 questions frequently, at least once a week, and measure yourself from 1 to 10.

1. When I woke up this morning, did I feel energized, enthusiastic about my business and what I do? How energized are you when you wake up? (1 to 10 scale)

2. When weekends come, do a feel like “yes finally the weekend” or do a feel like “this weekend is a gift to recharge for work on Monday! And I am excited for the week to start again.” (1 to 10 scale)

3. Do you get lost in your work today because you are having so much fun? (1 to 10 scale)
If you can your score average is 8 or higher, you are living your passion. And some fine tuning may get you to a perfect 10.  If you score below an 8, you should strongly evaluate the link between your work and passion.  Because, once you can closely correlate your passion to your work, it will lead to unlimited success.

Rodrigo Laddaga is married with two children.  He started his first business at 26 right after college. He is passionate about finding the best tools and techniques to help entrepreneurs and small businesses succeed. He is a mentor for Endeavors Network, a member of EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) Mexico and member of USEM (Social Responsibility Association).

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