No.6 - Follow your passion and work on it

Most people complain that they don’t want to start their own business because they are not disciplined enough. They feel that they have to sacrifice their Saturdays, Sundays and even public holidays just to run a successful business.

Now, this may be true to a certain extent, but when one enjoys his or her work, and I mean really enjoying it thoroughly, it changes their perspective towards their work. If you start a business based on your interests, you won’t find it a drudgery to go to work everyday. In other words, work doesn’t feel like ‘work’ anymore. It becomes more like play. By choosing the type of work that you love, you won’t have to work a day in your life anymore.

I know a friend who loves to play chess games. He loves it so much, that he would compete in board game tournaments across the world. Although his parents thought little of where his gaming habits will take him in the future, he eventually started his own cafe and attracts tons of customers who love to play chess games as well. He makes a good living off running his cafe while teaching his customers how to play the games and he thoroughly loves going to ‘work’ every single day.

By focusing your efforts on your passion, you not only enjoy your work, you will also excel at it because you will learn to ways to improve yourself in your field naturally. Your interests will take you all the way and become the best in your industry naturally.

So how does one make money from their interests? How can one channel their expertise into a profitable venture? All you need to do is to take a look around. There will always be a hungry niche market around you. If enough people take an interest in a particular niche, there will be demand for information. Information products are one of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert in a particular niche.

For example: if you enjoy cycling, you can write (or get someone to write for you) information about cycling. If you like to make friends, you can make a lot of friends on the Internet and meet a lot of people (while expanding your network at the same time. These people could become your customers because it is quite easy to start a business on the Internet with the rise of social networking services such as MySpace, YouTube, blogs and many others.

If you like cooking, maybe you can start a website and talk about cooking recipes. If you like writing, maybe you can consider starting an e-book publishing service. It is much easier to publish your work online compared to publishing offline. It is all up to you. The sky is the limit and you can go as far as your imagination takes you. You just need to channel your passion into your work and learn from others who have already made substantial profits in the field.

Mason Cha , Principal Advisor of EPTS Advisory