A Story Of Success: Rethinking What You Love

Seth Godin in The Bootstrapper’s Bible tells that story of a friend of his. She loved making things and she was good at it. She could use leftover clumps to create beautiful fabric. She could use almost any piece of fabric to create great pieces of art. She was good at it and she loved it.

Like everyone else, she had heard about how the secret to success lies in doing what you love. She loved this and so decided to start making toys and pieces for the toy industry. As Seth explains, she did all the right things right and avoided all the bad things. But she almost always seemed to get close but never really get a contract with the big manufacturers.

It was only years later that she discovered her mistake. She had chosen the wrong industry! Nobody really wanted her because the toy industry is cutthroat and the “big” fish don’t really like to encourage inventions and inventors. As Seth Godin observes: “… Toy companies work hard to keep inventors away, because they’re scared of lawsuits and the hassles of dealing with outsiders. They’re not overflowing with happy, Tom Hanks–like luminaries, looking for the next Big Idea. The toy industry is a business, and a cutthroat one.”

She had worked hard and none of it was yielding any fruit. She simply wasn’t becoming successful. Her story of success seemed elusive.

That is when she decided to go into publishing. She studied the market and the industry in general and decided that it was more open to new ideas. She developed new concepts based on what she loved and had learnt over the years. A few months down the line, her calendar concept was picked up by a publisher and what followed was over 2 million of copies of their work in print. She is experiencing success because she went back to the drawing board and rethought what she loved.

Are you doing what you love and yet still not experiencing success? Maybe it is time for a little bit of a rethinking exercise. Maybe the key to success in your life lies in thinking differently, in applying a little bit more of creativity.