Do what you love for those who love what you do. I honestly believe that this is the sweet spot for entrepreneurs or other producer minded people. Let’s breakdown the phrase into two elements because it gets thrown around sometimes and discounted even though there is a lot of value there.
First is doing what you love just because you love it enough of a reason to make that your life’s work? Dan Sullivan talks about this in his program, The Strategic Coach. He said when you really hit your sweet spot, you meet four criteria:
*Number one, you have passion for what you're doing. You love it.
*Number two, you have exceptional skill in that area. So, your sweet spot has to include both. The passion and the skill.
*Number three, it adds energy to your life. And this quite frankly is one of the reasons why psychologically it is a good idea to do what you love. It adds the energy that actually sustains you to continue doing this thing when it gets hard. And it's going to get hard. Did you know that a high percentage of new businesses fail within the first 5 years? Well, that's because it gets really hard. And if you're starting a business to make money without loving what you do, it's hard to sustain that through the hard times.
*The fourth point that Dan Sullivan made is that your sweet spot includes seeking constant improvement. This is where innovation happens. In doing this thing that you love you are constantly looking for ways to improve or innovate or upgrade the thing that you're doing. That's why technology today is not what it was 10 years ago or even 10 days ago. Do you realize how quickly it's all changing? It's because people who are passionate about it continue to innovate new solutions. And you can do the same thing with that thing that you love. Everything that we've talked about so far is the selfish part. Because obviously if you're doing what you love most of the time, your life rocks. You have more energy you're enjoying your life and that's pretty selfish so far.
So, let's move to that other part of the equation. Not only is it perhaps selfish to do what you love for all of those great reasons that we just covered. What makes this whole formula work is the second half. You do what you love for those who love what you do. Now, why would this be important?
Hopefully, you'll see very quickly that this is in fact the foundation of a free-market economy. It's what drives our economy. While you're creating value doing what you love, it begs the question who is going to consume the value. And if you do it for yourself then you're consuming all of the value that you create. You have to create value for other people in order to set up an economic exchange. If they love what you do, they don't want you to stop. How soon do you want your favorite restaurant to go out of business? Not soon. You want them to stay in business so that they can continue to do what they love for you who loves what they do.
The next question is who loves what I do? And spoiler alert, not everybody does. A couple of years ago, I got to interview Greg Olson. Google him, in the image search you will see his beautiful art-work, that is sort of faith-based and religious in nature. As I brought Greg into my studio and I had an interview with him, I said, “Greg, your work is amazing. I bet just everybody loves your work.” And I was goading him a little bit because I knew that some people hate his work. And he knew that too. Not everybody loves what you do. Get comfortable with that as soon as you can. Because they're not your audience, are they?
Seth Godin wrote a book called Tribes. And in this book, he points out that we all have a tribe. These are the people who love what we do. These are the people who are waiting for us to show up as the charismatic leader of their tribe. You're the chief of this particular tribe. And if you don't show up and lead them, nobody will. Because it's your tribe. Your tribe are the people we want to find. Your tribe are the ones who love what you do. Your tribe is who you need to connect with in order to make this exchange. Not everybody is going to love what you do. So, connect with your tribe. And if somebody tells you, “Oh, I hate that thing you do,” That's ok, I am used to that. I've got this YouTube channel. Go scroll through the comments sometime. Not everybody loves Dr. Paul. You'll see some of the thumbs down. I see them too. It used to sting a little bit. And now I say, “Oh, that person is self-identifying as not being in my tribe.” That helps me. That shift makes it easier for me to not expend a whole lot of energy on somebody who doesn't love what I do. I want to serve you. I want to serve the people who do love what I'm doing. That's who I'm here to serve. You're my tribe. Do what you love for those who love what you do.
How would it feel to you if you could spend more of your time doing that thing that you love to do that you have exceptional skill in? That adds energy to your life. That would be awesome. And that's the selfish part. You have to do that for someone. And as long as you're doing it for you, well you get to enjoy that. And that's a little selfish. When you do it for those who love what you do, it sets up an exchange which becomes the economic engine that drives this entire machine.
There are deeper levels of engagement that you can get involved with including personal coaching. You can sign up by going to www.drpauljenkins.com/breakthroughcall. You will get an opportunity to talk to one of our Live On Purpose Coaches to find what we can offer you. We have resources for parents as well as for entrepreneurs and people like you. Let's get together and see what we can do to team up on this thing.