"Do what you love and the money will follow?"

There's a saying which some still repeat.... It goes,

"Do what you love, and the money will follow."

We've discussed this here before on Sowpub, but it could be good to mention it again.

I love to do a lot of things. I love body surfing. I love listening to music. I love deep philosophical discussions. Does that mean that the ideal thing for me to do is to keep doing these things?

Business is about fulfilling a want in the community.... Unfortunately, my body surfing doesn't fulfil a very big want in the community (no matter how much I love to do it)!

I think the ideal is to find a particular intersection.... Find out what are viable businesses. What will make money for you.

Once you have many of these in front of you - many ideas - then choose one or more to do. Think through it - what will it actually entail? Make a plan of some kind - it doesn't have to be a formal business plan, it could be a simple flow chart of what you need to do.

The ideal is to choose something which will bring in money, and which you love to do as well! (Or at least like to do!)

The fact is, work takes up a big chunk of our lives.... It's best to spend it doing something you enjoy!

If you enjoy meeting and talking to people, start a business which will let you do that. If you like solving technical problems, find a business which lets you do that. Some people just like setting up businesses - so that's their "business"! They set up businesses, then let them run, or sell them only to start another!

It helps to have lots of viable businesses in front of you to do this.... I realize I'm "tooting my own horn", but The Great Ideas Letter is perfect for that reason!

I put all the issues in front of me in a big folder.... It makes it easy to skim through them. Dozens of viable ideas.... Unusual ones. Interesting ones. Having all these ideas in front of you stimulates more ideas in your mind.... Perhaps different variations of what's there. Or combinations.

Anyhow, "Do what you love and the money will follow" is a widespread myth.... Of course, it's great to be able to do what you love. And if you're doing what you love, you'll probably do it better than most people will. But - not EVERYTHING you love to do will bring you an income.

So, instead - out of the things you could do to bring an income - choose one of those options which you love to do the best. :)

- Dien Rice