Skip to content
Do What You’re Good at and Make More Money
Entrepreneurs, what percentage of your time is spent on doing tasks you hate? 10%, 50%, 100%? The fact of life is that it’s unlikely that you’ll only do things you love every single day. But have we accepted that fact and allowed it to encroach to a level that is unacceptable? I challenge any professed entrepreneur to follow this exercise even if you’re happy, or focused it should provide a few nuggets of insight.
So you want to stop doing what you hate, and focus most of your time on the things that you enjoy. Take 5 minutes right now and start making a list.
What do you love?
What are you passionate about?
What makes you tick?
Don’t think about the business/financial side just yet. Is your hobby to play the guitar, to knit, are you a tiddly winks companion? Write down everything that comes to mind. The faster it comes to mind the more likely you’re truly passionate about it.
Grab a pen and paper (or open up a document and start typing this is the 21st century after all) and build your list.
Stop reading right now.
Tick
Tock
Tick
Tock
5 minutes is up! Done?
How many items do you have on your list?
Did you stretch yourself?
I imagine for most of us we can easily write down at least 20-30 things you really love in 5 minutes pretty easily. I want you to challenge yourself. Stretch yourself. Take an extra few minutes till you have your list to about 50 items.
Stop reading again.
The Mouse
Went
Up
The Clock
Done?
Okay now that you have a list of all the things you love. My next step is not to have you mark out the ones that you don’t think could make you money. No, I want you to tell me how if given no other opportunity in the world, but each of those items on your list, how exactly would you make it? I don’t mean survive. I want you to be creative and tell me how you would thrive.
How can you take that interest, hobby, etc., and make it into a thriving business?
This part will likely take some time. Take it slow. Don’t rush this. Ready? Take 30 minutes and start on the items you’re most passionate about first.
Stop reading again.
Hickory
Dickory
Dock.
(Yes a children’s song has officially infiltrated this blog)
Done?
So what are your thoughts?
What sounds really interesting?
What do you not only have a passion for and believe as a truly viable business? I realize you may have stretched quite a bit to turn your tiddly winks passion into a viable business. Are you currently doing what you’d really love to be doing that is truly viable? If not I don’t want you to list all the reasons you can’t. I want you to write down what is the first step to make it a reality? Don’t get hung up on the big picture and making it happen all at once. Don’t write down all the steps. Just write down the first step. What’s the first step? Do that.
When step 1 is done, write down and work on step 2. If you take a baby step here and there, you will get to your destination. The other part of taking steps is set a time frame. Keep yourself accountable. So when can you accomplish step 1? Make it a priority. “30 days” sounds like an “I don’t really plan on getting to it” kind of time frame objective. It’s likely that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish it in 3 days not 30. Now, once you take the first few steps and are making it a reality, how do you integrate others? I’m a big believer that you are far more likely to succeed when others are passionately involved in the pursuit of the common goal. I don’t necessarily think you need a “partner”, but at bare minimum someone that is going to keep you accountable as you keep them accountable for their goals will pay huge dividends. So you’ve stopped doing what you hate. You’re started doing something you’re good at. (It just so happens that it’s very likely that the things we’re passionate about we’re naturally good at.)
Now how do you make more money?
Monetize everything. Get other people who are going to do the things you can make money from , yet don’t want to do. If you’re passionate about building websites and you’re pursuing becoming a fantastic web developer, then don’t do the things you’re not good at, or don’t want to do. Ask youself what else your customers need. What do they want? Find partners who will fulfill those needs and keep doing what you do best.
That Company’s entire business is built on doing what we are good at, doing what we love, but our partners don’t want to have to do. If everyone takes this approach then we’re just one most step closer to a better world, where we’re all happier doing. So consider this: do only what you love, and have others do what you don’t want to do. This could mean hiring people, outsourcing, or flat out not worrying about the things you don’t like.
Did this exercise make you think? We hope you found it useful. Share this with another entrepreneur!
– Michael Knorr, Vice President of Sales
