Making a Business of Your Passion
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2047
- WEALTHY: How to act like a Wall Street millionaire (Andrew Gordon).
- HEALTHY: The truth about Twinkies and Chicken McNuggets (Jon Herring)
- WISE: Benjamin Franklin on being motivated by passion
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Is passion enough? (Michael Masterson)
- How to win over the most skeptical prospects (Bob Bly)
- It’s Good to Know… about air travel
- Add "tyro" to your vocabulary
Confidential Report: Disillusioned Trader Opens ‘Money-Floodgates’ to YOU…
Rob Banks Legally… With an Inside Job!”
Are You Ready for a “Smash and Grab” on The World’s “Hidden” Money-Mountain?
Great! The getaway car’s leaving…
Do as They Say, Not as They Do
By Andrew Gordon
Rich Wall Street investors got a lot richer last year. Senior bankers earned from $2.2 million to $3.8 million in bonuses – prompting The Wall Street Journal to complain about their new levels of conspicuous consumption in an article entitled, "What, Me Save?"
Over a quarter of their bonuses were spent on home purchases and improvements, and another 16.5 percent went into savings and investment accounts.
One could argue that their timing in buying second or third homes might not have been the best, but since when is a real estate investment frivolous? And if it makes for a good investment, then it doesn’t matter how "conspicuous" other people deem it. Certainly, the bankers’ investments in art and collectibles (11.9 percent) and jewelry (11.2 percent) were probably some of the best investments they could have made. And if those things shout WEALTH to some, so what?
I’m not usually in the habit of thinking those wealthy Wall Streeters are smart investors, but their choices show they know a thing or two about value. So, while your bonus may be a tiny bit smaller than theirs, don’t hesitate to put it into a piece of art or some high-end jewelry.
[Ed. Note: Andrew Gordon, ETR's financial expert, is the editor of INCOME. Each month, he uncovers income-generating stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much higher-than-average profit potential.]
"If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins."
Benjamin Franklin
Making a Business of Your Passion
By Michael Masterson
One of the most common recommendations that you will hear from business-opportunity "experts" is to "find something you love" and make a business out of it. In fact, I used to make that recommendation myself, arguing that turning your passion into a career is a good way to make a good living.
This is the kind of advice that feels right and inspires loyalty. But when I thought about the successes in my own business career, I didn’t see that pattern.
When I decided to get rich back in the early 1980s, I didn’t stop to ask myself "What do I love?" I set to work the very next day transforming myself from a sometimes-good, sometimes-disgruntled editorial director into a 24/7 marketing maven, and I boosted a marginally profitable, million-dollar business to a $135 million cash machine. I didn’t love the products we produced, but I loved the process.
I retired from that business – but didn’t stay retired for long. With my second career, I was determined to stay a little closer to my childhood dreams by selling publications instead of products, ideas instead of things. Because I partnered with someone who shared that mindset, I have been lucky. I’ve made as much money this time around, and without the emotional conflicts over selling products I was less than enthusiastic about.
But even as a publisher, I haven’t really "followed my dreams." My true passion – in terms of publishing – would be fiction and poetry. I can say without any doubt that had I followed that road, I would be running a much smaller, much less profitable business. And it might not have given me any more pleasure than I get now.
As a recommendation, "turn your passion into a career" no longer rings true to me. As I said earlier, it’s the kind of advice you want to believe… but it doesn’t take reality into consideration.
Proceeding with a pragmatic purposefulness, it seems to me, is the best course of action.
By "pragmatic purposefulness," I mean an ounce of passion and a pound of practicality. I mean facing the facts and making a realistic assessment of the business idea you love so much. Will it really work in the marketplace? Will it really live up to your dreams?
The usefulness of this approach was made clear to both me and the businesspeople who attended my Business-Building Retreat last month. Of the 30 people in attendance whose business plans were scrutinized, at least six realized that the financial expectations they had attached to their dream projects were totally unrealistic.
"You have to adjust your wealth expectations or change your business," they were advised. It would be silly for them to push ahead, following their passion, when it was easy to see, by putting pen to paper, that the businesses they had imagined could not work.
That’s basically the same advice I have for LG, an ETR reader who recently wrote to me. LG has been advised by a well-known guru (who shall remain nameless) to "find something I love and make a business out of it." He says he has found a business for sale that matches one of his favorite hobbies: golf.
"It is a patent for a machine that uses sonar to clean golf clubs. Attached to the machine is an LCD screen that displays ads. The money to be made is not in the actual cleaning of the clubs but the selling of the ad space. It is an absolute novel idea, and the owner claims that he has patented it all over the world. My only problem is the cost for the patent in my country. He is selling it for what would be about five million in U.S. dollars. I’ve done a couple of sums, and I can see this business paying off itself after 3-4 yrs. My only problem is finding an investor that would possibly want to fund this. I know that the investor would make a very good ROI, but I somehow need to find that person."
LG "really wants" to get this patent, and is hoping I can tell him how to go about looking for the five million bucks in start-up capital that he needs.
This is precisely the danger you face when you follow your passions into business. You make these kinds of mind-bogglingly foolish mistakes. Invest your time and someone else’s money into a machine that spits out advertising as it cleans golf clubs? Are you nuts?
If I had to list the top 10 stupid business ideas I’ve ever heard, this would make it onto that list. It is stupid not just because the idea itself is so idiotic, but because the person behind the idea – the person supposedly holding the patents – thinks he will find investors to buy into it.
Maybe that guy isn’t so dumb. He has found, in LG, somebody who is seriously considering it.
I don’t have space here to list all the reasons why this is a completely crazy business idea. But let me use LG as an example for any other ETR reader who may have bought into the "follow-your-passion" fancy.
Listen, I know that it IS possible to turn your passion (a hobby or lifelong dream) into a way to earn a good living – but ONLY if there’s a good business idea to support it.
How do you find out if your passion makes business sense? Start by asking friends and colleagues what they think of it. Tell them to be brutally frank. Then look around and see if there’s anything like your idea out there in the marketplace. If there isn’t, chances are it’s not going to work.
Unfortunately, because there are so many stories about entrepreneurs who succeeded against all odds, the idea of pursuing a screwball idea is often lauded. But following your passion when it makes no sense… makes no sense. And if you have a family to support, it’s irresponsible.
The first and most important rule of entrepreneurship is this: Never invest in anything unless you understand it extremely well – unless you have the kind of knowledge about the business and the industry that you can only get by working in it, on the inside, for several years.
Staples founder Thomas Stemberg said it this way: "I think following your passion is a really dumb idea. I follow a great market that provides an opportunity to satisfy customers and to make money."
LG has a passion for golf, but what does he know about selling advertising? Does he have any idea of the kind of advertisers that might be interested in this kind of program? Does he have any idea what kind of numbers such advertisers would need before investing their money? Does he know anything about the size and volatility of his target market?
I don’t need to ask him to know that he doesn’t know these things. The way he talks about this business makes it clear to me that he is a total tyro.
The good news is that LG will not find the start-up capital he needs unless he hooks up with a Nigerian direct-mail scamster and steals it from some rich old lady in Pittsburgh. The bad news is that LG may continue to believe the foolish mantra his guru has been chanting and continue to follow his passion… instead of learning something about business before he jumps into it.
LG and others like him would be well advised to hold their passions in check until they’ve asked all the right questions and thoroughly researched their market.
If there are other people out there making good money doing more or less what you want to do (but your idea is better), by all means, go out and try it. But if no one is doing it – and people you trust give you that distant stare when you tell them about it – be smart and put your energies into a business that has been proven to make money.
[Ed. Note: Learn how to build your own Internet business at ETR's upcoming 5 Days in July Internet Conference. You'll walk in with nothing - no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how - and you'll walk out with your own online business. If you even think you might be interested in this opportunity, you must sign-up the Five Days in July Conference today.]
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Sell More Products With a "Secondary Promise"
By Bob Bly
The secret to selling any product is to create desire for it in your prospective customer. You create that desire by making what we call a "Big Promise." Testing shows that, at least in consumer direct marketing, small promises don’t work. To get attention and generate interest, you have to make a large, powerful promise.
But what happens if the Big Promise is so fantastic it sounds too good to be true? In that case, add a "Secondary Promise," a lesser benefit that the product also delivers.
Although not as huge as the Big Promise, the Secondary Promise should be big enough, by itself, to provide the customer with reason enough to order the product… yet small enough to make it easily believable.
You should always try to prove any Big Promise with testimonials… case studies… test results… favorable reviews… track record… and the reputation of the manufacturer. But if you fear that your Big Promise is so strong that people will still be inclined to dismiss it as false, overcome that skepticism from the get-go by accompanying it with a back-up Secondary Promise that is still desirable… yet smaller and more credible.
And when you use a Secondary Promise, prospective customers who don’t fully believe your Big Promise can still be sold by it. They’ll think: "Hey, if this Big Promise happens to be true, this is a good product to buy. But even if it isn’t true, the product is more than worth the price just because of the Secondary Promise – which I am sure is true. So, either way, I can’t lose."
And if you use both a Big Promise and a Secondary Promise in your next promotion, you can’t lose either. And that’s a promise.
[Ed. Note: Bob Bly is a popular Early to Rise columnist, self-made multi-millionaire, and the author of more than 70 books. He is also the editor of ETR's Direct Marketing Masters Edition - a program to help you start your own successful direct-mail business.]
Industrial Strength Food: Not for Human Consumption
By Jon Herring
I often advise ETR readers to eat a diet of whole, organic, unprocessed foods. Not only are these foods healthier – without the added sugar, fats, and sodium prevalent in processed foods – but you also know exactly what you’re getting. An apple is an apple. A steak is a steak.
Not so with processed foods. For example: Did you know that a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget contains 38 ingredients? In fact, about 56 percent of a McNugget is derived from corn, not chicken. But that’s not all. In his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan points out that this "food" also contains several synthetic ingredients that come not from a plant or an animal but from a petroleum refinery or chemical plant.
Two of them – dimethylpolysiloxene and tertiary butylhydroquinone – are known to be harmful. According to the Handbook of Food Additives, the former is an established carcinogen. And more than a gram of the latter is known to cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." More than five grams can be fatal.
Doesn’t exactly sound like dinner, does it?
I’m not trying to pick on McDonald’s. Just about any processed food is bound to have a label full of incomprehensible ingredients. In his book Twinkie, Deconstructed, Steve Ettlinger decodes the ingredients in those little snacks. He also asks the question: "If we can bake a cake at home with as few as five ingredients, why does a Twinkie require 39?"
The answer, of course, is that most of those ingredients contribute to a Twinkie’s "shelf life." Do you really want to eat something that can stay "fresh" on a shelf for a decade? Certainly not. Stick to whole, unprocessed foods.
It’s Good to Know: About Air Travel
The next time you fly, strongly consider limiting yourself to carry-on baggage. That’s because, according to USA Today’s "Today in the Sky" blog, the bags of over 11,000 fliers on U.S. airlines wind up missing each day.
In fact, maybe you should just drive to your destination. On-time airline arrivals in 2006 were the worst since the travel boom prior to 9/11.
Take a 5-Day “Summer Vacation” With Early to Rise
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You’re going to walk in with nothing – no product, no marketing skills, no technical know-how – and you’ll walk out with your own online business.
Best part? You can pick your new business from an area of interest you know and/or love. We’ll get you up and running with everything you need: domain name, running website, search engine submissions… the works.
Most importantly, you’ll wind up with an online business designed to throw off profits for years to come. And once you’ve been through this program, you can copy the plan as often as you like. The only limit to how high you can go is your own imagination… and your motivation to succeed.
Will it take some time? Of course. We’re not interested in giving you hype about overnight millions. Will it take work? Certainly. Anything of value requires effort.
But if you spend five days of your summer vacation with us this July, you might not have to worry about vacations at all in the future… because you’ll be well on your way to having the freedom to do as you please, where you please, whenever you please.
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Find out how easy it is to join us and get all the details here.
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Tyro
A "tyro" (TIE-roh) – from the Latin for "young soldier" – is a novice.
Example (as I used it today): "I don’t need to ask him to know that he doesn’t know these things. The way he talks about this business makes it clear to me that he is a total tyro."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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