Startups can fail for many reasons.
The product features are not prioritized in the right way. There is no need in the market for your product. Your funds dried up. You don’t have the sales skills to connect with customers, and so on and so forth.
However, a lot of startups fail when money comes before passion.
Let me explain.
If you’re in business for money and you don’t care much about the product or service that you’re promoting, then you’re setting yourself up to fail. Money shouldn’t be your motive for getting into a certain business. It shouldn’t be the only priority…because if so not only the business is most likely to fail, but you also become vulnerable to quick money scams, pyramid schemes, and lies.
It’s unwise for you to follow this path and make all sorts of foolish mistakes.
In addition, if you’re in business just for money’s sake, you’re going to face a lot of practical and conceptual problems in your startup that if you don’t believe in your business and you’re not passionate about it, you have nothing else to motivate you.
On the other hand, pursuing a business that you’re passionate about is perhaps the best strategy you can have to persevere in the competitive business market and in the sequence of “failures” that you might, and sometimes will, run into.
So let’s consider how your passion for the business can influence its growth trajectory and how you can determine if your heart is in the right place to get into your new venture.
1. What Does Passion Have to Do With Business?
The late Steve Jobs famously said in one of his speeches, “You have to have a lot of passion for what you do…because if you don’t, any rational person would give up.” We all have a sense of what it means to be passionate about something.
The problem, however, is that you really can’t measure how much passion someone have for what they do. In fact, these days a lot of people claim that they’re passionate about their startup, but how do we know that they have enough passion or that they have what it takes to succeed in the business world? I also ask this question because the word “passion” has been used and misused and has been thrown around in so many different contexts that it has lost some of its meaning.
So I’ve come with a way to help you assess whether you’re genuinely passionate about your startup or just pretending. And I think it boils down to one simple question.
Here it is:
Can you imagine the possibility of your business becoming global?
A lot of people have never entertained such a possibility. They just want to make enough money to get by and pay their bills. But if that’s where you are intellectually, you won’t see much growth in your business.
Now try to imagine your business as a global brand.
- What would you do differently today if your business could become global?
- What aspects of your business would you change?
- How would you allocate your time and resources?
- Would you attend more conferences and network with more people?
- Would you seek out investors?
- Would you invest more thought in the production process?
I am certain that the answer to all of these questions would be yes. You would probably change a lot of things about your business, psychology, attitude, and the people you work with.
In fact, even your belief system about business and management would change. Your marketing strategy would change. You as a person would also change.
If you have never imagined that possibility of your business becoming global, then you’re more motivated by the money you expect to receive at the end of the month, and that’s it.
And if you’re focused on the money more than you care about the concept of the business, then you won’t persevere and take an active role in managing the business. You will choose the easy way out when things get tough. You will either pull out whatever is left of your investment, or if you’re too lazy, you will lose it.
2. Healthy Relationship to Failure
Now, even if you’re passionate about your business, there’s no guarantee that your startup will succeed. Starting a business is a time of tremendous uncertainty. You’re looking for ways to market your product, you’re searching for the business model that can best sell your product, and you’re testing your assumption and hypotheses.
And in this process, you might arrive at negative results that could ultimately cause the failure of the business. In fact, statistics show that only 10% of all new startups succeed. So you have 1 in 10 chance.
But I am not saying this to discourage you.
I am saying this because it’s important to recognize that failure is a necessary part of the learning process. But what’s more important is your relationship to failure.
I suggest that you develop a healthy relationship to failure in general and to recognize emotionally that it’s okay. In fact, the more failures you go through in your particular business, the closer you get to “discovering” the formula that works best for you. Don’t assume everything is going to fall into place…and it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are.
Remember to breathe.
Failure doesn’t have to be the end of your business or the end of your entrepreneurial aspirations. Take some time off, recharge and get back when you’re ready.
3. What about Imagination?
Every new business is born in imagination.
So why not imagine how big your business can become? Why not imagine how successful you can be? The more able you are to create compelling pictures in your imagination, the greater your chances are to be motivated to turn them into reality.
So don’t be afraid to dream. Dream big and feel pulled by those dreams.
That’s a resource you must use if you want to be as successful as possible.