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.

Secrets To Success: Do What You Love Is The Worst Advice You Ever Got

It is the worst advice. It is the most stupid advice. And it will likely lead you to failure. Why? Because all successful people never became rich, successful or famous by doing what they love.

Any person who tells you that the secret to their success is “doing what you love” is simply telling you a lot of bull shit. He is telling you that because that is what looks cool and good. He tells you that because that is what success pop candy looks like. What is sad is that the majority of people get foolishly sold on this idea. They believe it and that is why there are so many miserable people in the world today.

Bill Gates did not become the richest man by doing what he loved. He loved math and he wanted to be a math professor. What led to his immense success? He stumbled upon computers, and suddenly he realized that he could do it better than most people. And with time, he ended up building a billion dollar empire. Not because he did what he had a passion for. Not because he ended up doing math all day!

George Soros, one of the most successful investors had a dream. He wanted to be a writer and a philosopher. So when he entered into the field of investing, his goal was to simply make $50, 000 so that he could concentrate on what he loved: writing and philosophy. He ended up sticking to investing because he discovered he was good at it. He also ended up making over a billion dollars in the process. And he ended up becoming one of the most successful investors of our time.

Mark Cuban started out as a computer salesman. He had been fired from several jobs before he discovered that he could sell computers and make a few dollars from them. Did he have a love for computers? Nope! He had a love for the freedom that came with money. He knew he had to work hard, and he worked hard. He learnt to code, to train and all those things, not because he had a natural love for them, but because it was at first necessary, and along the way, he discovered that he could do it better than most people. He ended up building his company into a multimillion dollar business: from ground to the top. He sold it. Started an internet company, not because he had a fondness for the internet, but because he saw an opportunity. Broadcast was born and he eventually became billionaire.

What about the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos? Did he love selling products? Did he naturally fall in love with the internet? Was his love for books so immense that he ended up forming Amazon? Absolutely not! He made a cross-country trip, discovered the increased use of the internet, heard about a Supreme Court ruling and then decided to leave his well-paying job to go to his garage and try out this little project he had. He was good on Wall Street, he loved science projects as a child, he was a good programmer and he must have had a love for these things or at least one of them. Were they the key to his success? Definitely NO!

Doing what you love is the key to success? Bullshit!