I’ve been working on growing Snoloha for a long time.  The idea came to me in 2003, but development didn’t start until summer 2006.  And the ‘official’ launch to the public was in February of 2007.

There have been ups.  There have been downs.  It’s still completely owned and operated by myself.  No outside investors.  No partners. It was launched with a modest savings, and continues to grow on a shoe-string budget.

Along the way I’ve read countless books, articles, blog post and interviews about business, branding, startups and entrepreneurship.

One cliche that gets repeated, and that I’ve always ascribed to, is ‘follow your passion‘ or ‘follow your dream‘.  You hear it over and over.  Seems simple.

But while listening to Howard Stern the other day, I began to re-think ‘follow your passion’.  Mark Cuban was in the studio being interviewed and he explained to Howard how that was horrible advice.

His advice was ‘follow your effort’…and the passion will come.

More precisely (read his blog post here):

  1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.
  2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.
  3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it
  4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.

It really hit me.  If I was to follow my passion…well, I’d try to make a living around Seinfeld, Jimmy Buffett and my wife and daughter.  Hmmm…not sure how to do that.

But ‘follow my effort’ seems to make sense.  My effort and time goes toward Snoloha and Unsalted Sailing.  I’m working hard at both, and I’m becoming better at both.  I enjoy both and I’ve become passionate about both…through a TON of effort.

Next…good things will supposedly happen.  I guess this means Buffett will finally take Snoloha under the Margaritaville wing.

But until then…the effort, passion and hard work continues.

I guess the effort is needed in order to learn to play this darn guitar, which will lead to the passion that I wish I had for playing guitar.

What a confusing world.

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