I’ve heard the saying ‘build boring businesses’ before and was wondering, is it important to build a product that you are passionate and interested in?
Is it better to find a niche thing you are interested in and work on that, or build something for a niche that is somewhat uninteresting to you?
Would love to hear what you guys think of this and if you are passionate about what your business does.
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I’m passionate about solving problems. So if there is a business (boring) problem, I can get excited about a creative solution.
This.
I love to solve problems. Business is the ultimate problem solving game. So, for me it’s pretty easy to be passionate about any business idea.
Here’s my take - if you need to “follow a passion” to be successful then you’ll probably fail. On the other hand, if you’re the type of person who is intrinsically motivated to show up every day with a consistent work ethic, then there is a decent chance that you’ll succeed. That is more of a habit discipline, and an internal motivation to do something meaningful vs. what is in my opinion a more selfish desire to be entertained.
Successful business people typically work extremely hard, are driven to put in the extra energy and effort to succeed and put some types of other people before themselves (customers, good employees, etc.).
I’ve built several businesses and once I’m immersed it’s never been difficult to get deeply interested in and every passionate about what I’m building, even in topics might have been boring for me to read about before I decided to work on it. There’s something about solving difficult problems that always manages keeps me engaged once I’ve decided to go all in on it.
If you have that and you happen to be super interested in what you’re doing that can be great too so long as you don’t forget that your business also exists to solve somebody else’s problems, not to fulfill your passions or interests.
It takes years, some time decades of grind to build a business, in the case of startups it’s even more extreme, it’s possible that for those year you’re earning the same as junior employees and constantly struggling with cashflow and the threat of going out of business.
It’s not so much about passion for your idea, but you need something to offset the downsides, something that keeps you motivated and disciplined through the grind.
It’s important to get the work done. It’s easier if you’re passionate about it
Totally on point! That’s how important it is to find your business niche. I suddenly remembered the article I’ve read the other day https://www.cuppa.so/post/how-to-find-your-business-niche-what-should-you-focus-on
Well-said!
When your passionate I find that it’s easier to go above and beyond and make a product that stands out.
Focusing too much on what you’re passionate about can actually narrow your thinking so much that you miss problems that you could solve. Passion can get confused with caring. You have to care about your users and therefore care about their problems.
“There are great startup ideas lying around unexploited right under our noses. One reason we don’t see them is a phenomenon I call schlep blindness. Schlep was originally a Yiddish word but has passed into general use in the US. It means a tedious, unpleasant task.”
First business I started, my partner and I both worked 100 hours a week, no vacation for the first two years. I could never have done that if I wasn’t really into it. Your mileage may vary.
I prefer to keep business and passion separate.
One of my closest friends started a business that he was passionate about and by the end of it he couldn’t face that passion anymore. He still can’t tend years later.
I heard someone say to build a business around the base things you find easy or are really good at ie. research, writing, selling. It doesn’t matter what the act product, service or business is.
Passion helps you to sustain what you’re doing. It doesn’t automatically make you more successful.
It definetly adds the fuel to run extra mile
Start doing then you will see how far you can go.