That’s the question I’m asking myself right now. This is all because of one guy Gary Vaynerchuk and his book Crush It. One of the first things the book talks about is being you, doing those things you love, and putting it out there for the world to see, which will ultimately allow you to earn sums of money you never imagined possible.
So what are my passions?
1) I love music. It was my first love, the first thing I was passionate about. My weapon of choice was (and still is) the piano and I could get lost in it, practicing for hours at a time being totally unaware that time was passing. I could talk about music styles, songwriters, rock stars, bands, and the composition of music itself for hours. I’m amazed at people who can write a song that gets a whole bunch of people on the dance floor, tearing up, getting pumped up before a game, or recalling a specific moment in their life every time they hear it. There is not a type of music that I don’t like.
2) I love politics. Scratch that. I hate politics. I only find myself engrossed in it because it’s important. In my ideal world, there would be no politics; everyone would agree on the big things, respect facts, truth, math, and other realities, live in respect of other fellow human beings, and calmly disagree on the smaller things without pushing their will and attempting to use force to get those who disagree to comply. Another way to put it is I like freedom. Hate politics; love freedom. There you go.
3) I love history, some economics, and a little bit of philosophy. There was a recent period in my life that I found myself engrossed in US, European Medieval, and Roman history. I couldn’t get enough. I was never into these things during my high school and college years, when I was sitting through those classes, oddly enough.
4) I love biking. Road and mountain, but mostly mountain. I love the side benefit of good health that it provides. There was a time when I was on the saddle three to five times a week. The best thing about biking is destroying yourself getting to the top of a hill and then getting to reap the rewards of the downhill. Getting the nerves to bomb down a steep hill is another joy. The nerves that precede the bombing and the thrill of making it down in one piece – that’s when you know you’re alive!
5) I love funny. Finding humor in something, taking the seriousness out of other things, irony, sarcasm, satire, touches of irreverence, making someone laugh, making myself laugh – these are all things I value. Brian Regan? Yes.
6) I love maps. For some reason I can stare at a map for hours. There is something satisfying about knowing where things are in relation to other things. Why? I don’t know. I stopped questioning it years ago.
7) I love insurance. Let me explain this. I happen to be an insurance agent, having done this since 2001. Of course, the various insurance contracts are super boring – few deny that. (But I do love that I know them pretty well). What I like about insurance is it is totally crucial to helping our 21st century American capitalist economy work and without it, we would be hundreds of years (just a guess) behind where we are now. Why? Because the cost of having bad things happen, like a fire burning down your factory, would be too high for most people to actually engage in a business venture. So when I say I love insurance, what I really mean is I love doing something that I feel is important and helps people progress in their personal and business lives.
8) I love business. This is a new passion of mine, somewhat born out of necessity. Business development and entrepreneurship are things I’ve recently started to understand, and it would be more accurate to say that the feelings that I feel when thinking about working on the insurance agency I’m going to acquire could be more accurately described as daunting, intimidating, and an overall freak out. But, the kernels of passion are there. I’ve always marveled at how someone could create something from nothing, convince enough people to part with their money to obtain it, and earn millions (sometimes billions!) of dollars in the process. I never thought of myself as a businessman or entrepreneurial, however. After all, I’m an introvert who loves music, freedom, history, biking, comedy, maps, and helping people manage risk and these are not exactly the things that entrepreneurs are made of. Or are they?
So that’s it. Is Gary Vaynerchuk right? In this internet age, one that provides the ability to reach out to the entire world at little to no cost, can these passions be used to build a business?
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