How to use your passion before it fizzles out?
If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. -Marc Anthony
There is a lot of literature already written on Passion and how it is the seed to the biggest visions. But here is the thing! Passion fizzles out. It is this temporary moment of excitement that makes you take BIG decisions. Many people listen to this passion and start building their path. Others wear the devil’s advocate hat and hold off to see if the excitement was real. And that is where we all make a BIG mistake!
Passion is temporary and when not acted upon, it is very likely that you will never find it again. In fact, the only way to bring back passion is to constantly entertain it and work on it. Fall in love with the feeling of thrill, excitement, and adrenaline to work on your purpose, your mission.
Passion is like a carbohydrate, it doesn’t last but will give you the burst of energy to face rejection, failure and still move on. And hopefully, when it does fizzle out, you are left with resilience, intelligence, experience, and persistence which will ultimately take you to the finish line.
When I started building Equally, I remember networking with 100s of people every week and then having the energy to build the startup, talk to users and do fundraising. WHY? Because I was on a mission of redefining learning. It wasn’t the need to go fast that made me work so much. It was actually the want to be on the mission and anytime I didn’t do that, I felt incomplete. As if something essential was missing out of my being. This taste of passion still drives me today when I am building New Founder School. Times, hours and days don’t matter. The passion to build something that will bring innovation into the world is keeping me going.
But I know what you’re thinking:
How do you find your passion? Honestly, I am no expert. But I can definitely say from experience that experimentation can certainly lead to the discovery of things that you may be passionate about. So it might be an exciting job at a startup or starting to build your own idea on the side. It might be the joy of creating art or making music. But without experimentation, it is hard. So go out there and be curious about things, new industries and see what brings that fire in your belly.
Types of Passion:
Passion doesn’t always come in one form. These are the 3 types of passion that I have experienced in my founder journey:
My Problem: Yes the quintessential, ‘this was my problem’ and no one was solving it for me. Or you saw a system breakdown and wanted to fix it. New Founder School came out of this passion. As an immigrant founder, I had no support and wanted to create a space for other immigrant founders to build their startups.
My loved one’s problem: After being an educator for about 8 years, It broke my heart when I saw kids passively consuming screen time and wanted them to have engaged and active experience through technology and that is why I build Equally with Anshul.
New Industry: in 2017, cryptocurrency and blockchain were becoming mainstream and I was surrounded by people who were experts. This led me to invest in a few blockchain startups as an angel early on.
So, see which type of passion drives you. The industries are endless and so are the problems. You have Artificial Intelligence, NFTs, immersive technology, blockchain, creator economy to build on. And then you have climate change, data protection, inclusivity, education, health and so much more that need fixing.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” - Walt Disney
The next time, the burst of energy comes to you and says, ‘wow, what if I did this.’ Go start doing it. You don’t really know where it might lead you. If you are waiting for that perfect time, sadly it doesn’t exist. So use that passion to help you, support you, motivate you and give you courage. The risks of being a founder are never less but the outcome will never be known if you don’t get started!
What is your passion? What do you want to build? Tell me below in the comments!
Until next time!
Love and light,
Arjita