Passion. It’s the stuff dreams are made of—and die without.
When I was invited to participate in a "Women and Entrepreneurism" panel at Minot State University, my passion picked up momentum like a spinning top of high-energy light! I did everything necessary to be there, including missing a career-enhancing event, driving 500 miles, and chancing a blizzard. I was determined to be there!
Do you know that feeling? That excitement that comes from doing things you love? For me, it's tied to anything having to do with entrepreneurship. I discovered this when I was five years old and set up my first venture selling lemonade in Cherry Hill, NJ. Today, some 40 years later, I am still discovering it in profound new ways that serve my family, employees, community, and world.
Don’t get me wrong: many times in my life I've forgotten what fires my passion. Life isn’t easy, and passion sometimes seems like a luxury we can't afford. We all need a reminder—an ah-ha! moment—now and then.
As college students, you are at an incredible place in your lives. All your opportunity is in front of you. You can create the life of your dreams. You can make unlimited income. You can be eons ahead of anyone else in your chosen career. I can show you how, because I've done it for myself against all odds.
First, though, you must identify with crystal clarity where you find your passion. The American mythologist and philosopher Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) said famously, "If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you…. Wherever you are, if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time."
Once you've identified your passion, you need to strategize ways to use that passion to drive your success. It's simple, but it takes discipline. That's why only one percent of the population uses passion plus strategy to find success through entrepreneurship. I happen to think it's also why only one percent of all businesses make it in the competitive marketplace.
Passion has everything to do with successful entrepreneurship. It’s not just one thing you need—it's the thing you need to wrap everything else around. If you have it, you'll feel confident, significant, liked, purposeful, and connected. It's just that easy.
Listed below are six ways to tell whether you have passion. Take a quick look before I visit on the 15th, and please e-mail me with any questions or comments. I'm looking forward to speaking with you!
6 ways to identify your passion
[I borrowed parts of this from Tony Robbins, with whom I just spent five days in Las Vegas.]
You have a "Flow" experience.
Is there an activity that makes you lose all track of time? That's a passion!
You hurt when you see it done poorly.
Is there an activity that bothers you so much when you see others do it poorly that you just HAVE to help? That's a passion!
You don’t see failure as final.
Because passion comes from the soul, there is unstoppable energy for pursuing it. When you fail, do you see failure as a set-up for a comeback, rather than as a setback? That's a passion!
You love the journey as much as the destination.
Do you enjoy the process of doing things that fuel you as much as you love the outcome or the consequences? Once the goal has been met, do you find yourself starting all over again? That's a passion!
You bore people at parties.
Do you have a subject that you go on and on about? Does the subject energize you but bore your friends and family? If so, you have found your passion!
You would do it for free.
Starving artists know what this means—but so do Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and Madonna. It’s how they keep improving. If it were about the money, they would have quit long ago! If you'd do it for free, it's a passion!
“Success is never the result of spontaneous combustion; you must set yourself on fire!”
Arnold Glasow (1905-1998): Humorist
-Kari Warberg / Founder & CEO of Earth-Kind, Inc. Stanley, ND 58784 1-701-628-1310 Kari@earth-kind.com