Looking for an idea for a company to start? Wondering how you can become an entrepreneur?
Then stop paying attention to market trends, reading the advertising sections of Entrepreneur magazine (franchise much?), or trying to jump on some industry bandwagon. Just go and make something you care about. (Yes - it's that easy and that hard.)
Muse Seth Godin (Is it too much to call him a muse?) writes:
I don't think we have a calling.
I do think it's possible to have a caring.
A calling implies that there's just one thing for you, just one thing you're supposed to do.
What we most need in our lives, though, is something worth doing, worth it because we care.
When people ask why we started Batch, I tell them that it was a nice fit of the hearts of the co-founders. Your heart is a key ingredient when it comes to entrepreneurship. It's the thing that keeps you going. It's your passion, that fuel for the fire you'll need when stuff gets hard (and trust me, it will get hard). The only way to find that fuel is to make sure you're creating something you care about.
For me, that was a love for all things local. It wasn't just that I loved stuff nearby in my own Nashville, but when hitting the road, I also loved to check out the best local burger, the nearby coffee shop, or the hometown bar that everyone raved about. And now I get to ship the best of certain iconic cities to customers all over the US.
We already have enough people trying to make money. What we need is people who believe in what they're doing and can't get enough of it. We don't need you to work; we need to you to care.
(By the way, you can't measure heart on a balance sheet, so please, founders, make sure you're talking about this as regularly as you can at your staff meetings.)