In the early 1990′s, Robert Tuchman was working at Lehman Brothers in New York City. At the time, he dreaded Sunday nights because he knew that the next day he had to get up and show up at a job he hated. Robert came to the realization that life was too short to stick around in a job that wasn’t for him. He wanted to follow his passion: sports.
Here’s what Robert has to say about following your passion:
“I feel it’s essential that you are able to marry your work and what you love. This passion will ignite the minds of your potential clients and connections. Your business has to be a reflection of what you are already willing to pour countless hours into. Your passion and enthusiasm for your business has to connect to your why, be a part of your own experience, and is ultimately what will make you successful.”
Robert went on to found Tuchman Sports Enterprises (TSE), the global leader in sports event travel. He’s also a favorite commentator on the sporting industry, and the author of “The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live”, and “Young Guns, The Fearless Entrepreneurs Guide To Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own”. (Source)
As you’ll discover below, your sweet spot–that place at which you love what you do and are well compensated for it– is found at the intersection between passion, talent, and economic opportunity.
The Three Questions You Need to Ask Yourself
Business writer Jim Collins—author of “Good to Great” and co-author of “Built to Last”–suggests that you ask yourself the following three questions:
1. What are you deeply passionate about?
2. What are you genetically encoded for — what activities do you feel just “made to do”?
3. What makes economic sense — what can you make a living at?
Find or create work that allows you to do the things that are located at the intersection of the three circles (the sweet spot), and you’ll have the basis for a great work life. (Source).
(Venn Diagram from here).
Being In Your Element
“The problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail, it’s that we aim too low and succeed.” — Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson–an internationally recognized leader in the development of innovation and human resources–argues in his book “The Element” that most adults have no idea what their true talents are, or what they’re truly capable of achieving. They bump along the bottom doing what they’re competent in and what they feel they need to do, but without much passion or commitment.
Yet Robinson has met people who love what they do, and who can’t imagine doing anything else. The book is based on interviews he conducted with people in this second group: those who are “in their element”.
If you’re in your element, you’re doing something for which you have a natural capacity. But being good at something isn’t enough. You also have to love it; it has to be something that resonates with you. There are plenty of people doing things they’re good at, but that they don’t greatly care for.
Robinson adds that while working on a book in the eighties, he discovered that his editor was a former concert pianist. One day she realized that although she was very good at playing the piano, she didn’t particularly enjoy it.
The editor had spent her entire life meeting other people’s expectations: after showing a talent for playing the piano at an early age she had been sent to a special school to develop her talent and, following that path, she progressed to the concert platform. But what she had always loved was books. She loved reading, writing, and the literary world. She became determined to find a role in the literary world, which she did, and in this way she finally discovered what made her happy.
The element is that point at which natural talent meets a passion. It’s about being in love with something you’re good at. Most people don’t have the experience of finding this configuration. Robinson argues that, in a way, if you don’t know what you’re truly capable of, you don’t know who you are. (Source)
An Exercise to Help You Find Your Sweet Spot
Part of being “in your element” is also finding something that you will get remunerated for. Here’s an exercise recommended by Arnold M. Patent in his book “You Can Have It All”:
- Make a list of the activities that you most enjoy. How inspired each of these activities makes you feel is more important than how many you can come up with.
- Select the activity on your list that inspires you the most.
- Now make a list–this time make it as long as you can–of all the ways in which you could express the talent you selected. The idea is to come up with a long list of creative ways in which you can express your talent.
- Over the next few days keep thinking of more things you can add to your list.
Examples of Turning Your Passion Into Your Work
There are many ways in which you can turn something you love into a career. Here are three examples:
Suppose that you’ve always loved antiques and one of your hobbies is browsing through antique stores and collecting antiques. Some ways you could start a profitable business from this hobby are the following:
- Become an Antique Appraiser, which would involve determining what other people’s antiques are worth and whether they’re authentic. You can even create a niche advising attorneys settling estate cases.
- Start an Antique Refurbishment business: take worn-out antiques home with you, transform them into something amazing, and then resell them at a profit.
- You can even write a book about antiquing, advising others how to get the most value for their money.
I got the following two examples from this video:
- Chris Elmore loves playing the guitar, and he knows how to teach others to play it. So he started a membership site in which he posts videos and how-to manuals for those who want to learn how to play the guitar. He’s on track to make $200,000 a year.
- Bert Ingley loves sports video games. He’s been playing John Madden Football since its release. He hated his job and asked himself how he could make money from playing video games. He began visiting the Madden forums looking for problems that people were having. Based on trends that he noticed–plus his desire to create a strategy guide for Madden football–he created an ebook of about 100 pages and created a web site to sell it. It started to sell well, and so he made more guides. He’s on track to make $300,000 a year.
Conclusion
Set the intention to find your sweet spot, do the exercise recommended by Arnold M. Patent, and look for examples of how others have found their sweet spot for inspiration. Here’s a quote I found on Sir Ken Robinson’s blog:
“Finding your Element is a two way journey: an inward journey of reflection and an outward journey of exploration. The first is a process of reflecting on the times and experiences when we felt most ourselves, most in flow, most absorbed and at our most authentic. Some people find it helpful to make lists of moments and experiences: others to collect images and make a dream board or collage. The second is about trying new experiences, of doing new things and finding how they feel and fit with us. So also make a list of things you wished you’d done or would like to do and ask yourself honestly what’s stopping you now.”
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe for free by RSS or e-mail and you’ll always know when I publish something new. (What’s RSS?). Also, please share it on the social media site of your choice. 
Related Posts
- Toolbox for Would-Be Entrepreneurs: 69 Fantastic Free Resources
- Business Ideas and Opportunities for 2010
- If you had five dollars and two hours, how would you make as much money as possible?
- Finding Your Life’s Passion: Conduct Experiments
- Zen Capitalism: Randy Komisar
- Creativity Insights From Seth Godin
I Recommend:
My ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists” explains that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts but is important in any field. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better. Discover practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor by reading my ebook.
The Sedona Method is a simple, powerful, easy-to-learn technique that shows you how to let go of any negative, unwanted or painful feelings you may be experiencing at any particular moment. It consists of a series of questions you ask yourself that lead your awareness to focus on what you’re feeling in the moment and gently guide you toward letting it go. Read my review of the Sedona Method here.
