Passion Is Overrated: Why Boring Businesses Win

0:00Hello, welcome to today's episode of Black Belt Startup with Ferris. We had a technical issue early on, so we should be all set right now. What is happening in the world of entrepreneurship? Today we're going to talk about a lie that is keeping a lot of smart, competent professionals trapped in corporate jobs they hate. The lie is this, if you don't love it, don't do it, or another version, follow your passion and money will follow. But here's the truth. Passion is optional. Skills and sacrifice are mandatory. They're not optional. And I speak with a lot of founders every week. Three to four founders, at different phases of their entrepreneurial journey.

1:00And I can tell you that a lot are obsessed with their idea. They fall in love with the idea without a whole lot of regard to the market and their needs out there. And this one gentleman I spoke with, he is very technical. He has 20 plus years experience in this one domain. He has some patents that he has applied for and received and very passionate about this idea, but has not spent any time speaking with potential buyers. And he sells to the businesses, the BTV set up. When we had that session, he showed me, we shared screens and he showed me all these diagrams and all these, the complexity of what he's trying to solve for. It sounds great to me, but I asked him a simple question, have you spoken with potential buyers? Oh no, I'll do that next time. I'll do that next week. I'll do that next month.

2:01I'll do that next year. My friend, if you're waiting for a business idea that gives you butterflies every morning, you aren't building a business. You're looking for romance. So you have to test this idea. You have to validate this idea against marketing, a market needs against buyers' pain points. That's what we want to talk about today. And I want to, I want to spend a lot of time on what people might call boring and show you how that, there's a lot of, it's, there's not a lot of gold in boring. Boring is wonderful. So we're going to break down why boring businesses that once based on unsexy problems that real needs are actually the safest, fastest boat to free them for you, a professional, someone who wants to be their own bosses, want to be, have a company and they want to build an amazing culture and they want to have financial independence.

3:04So let's do that. And before we step on the mat, a couple of, a couple of administrative items. One is that we have these live streams where we, where I asked the community for questions and then I answered these questions in this live stream, whether it is something that you you're struggling with today, something you're planning on doing and you're not sure what the next steps should be or even if you have some wins, small wins, big wins, it doesn't matter. I'd love to hear from you. So reach out, leave me a comment on whichever platform you're on, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X, we're there. I'm there. So leave me a comment. Or if it's something very personal, you're still working at a job. You don't want to broadcast to the world that you are starting your own business, email me at Ferris, F-E-R-A-S, startupwithferris.com. I keep all of it confidential and I reply and answer every question I get.

4:07So except spam emails, I don't. So join us here on these live streams. Again, you can send me questions at a time or you can join us live and ask me the questions. I'll give it my best to give you something useful, practical, or at least point you in the direction that will help you get where you want to go. All right. So now I remember I read a book by the co-founder of LinkedIn Read Hoffman. It was called, it's called the startup of you. The startup of you. And this is not just sulking on valley stuff. It applies to everywhere, wherever you are, if you're interested in investing in yourself and growth and getting better compensation, getting a better job, getting ahead in life. I think this is a great book. And he said, passion is often a byproduct of mastery and success, not the starting line.

5:15So let me say that again, passion is a byproduct of mastery and success, not the starting line. So this concept here, the concept here is that passion is not found, passion emerges. So instead of waiting for a lightning bolt of passion or waking up with and having butterflies about your idea, the focus should be on acquiring skills, hard skills, soft skills. I think he called them soft assets, skills and network. And then as you become more competent, as you become more valuable to the market, the passion follows. So I want to deconstruct passion further because when you leave corporate, whether it's something you've been wanting to do for a long time and you've saved up some money and you have

6:18a financial runway and I have a video on the six month financial runway, which I recommend you plan for before you take the leap. Or in some cases, life throws a curveball at us. We get laid off. The company goes under. I know it. I went through it. I know exactly how awful this feels. So things happen to us whether willingly we want to leave corporate or things lay off the place and we're impacted. So we're looking for a vehicle to take us from point A to point B. And that could be point A employment or being laid off to financial independence. And this is something that a lot of people struggle with because you might be, you might have a hobby on the side when you are in corporate. You might have a side hustle. I know some people do and I have a very opinion about side hustle.

7:22I have a strong opinion on side households and I don't need a server career unless you use them temporarily to either if you need some extra cash right away or there's stepping stone for you to figure out what business is like having your own businesses like and you want to use that opportunity to get ready to take the leap. But that's a different video for a different time. You can check out my live stream. You go to my channel at startup with Ferris. Go to the live stream and look for runway six month runway. So I talk about that. But if you've been doing, if you've had a side hustle on the side or if you're thinking of one and let's say something that you are passionate about something you like. It could be helping the elderly, the elderly, it could be accounting, number crunching. It could be you are great at customer service. It could be project management. It could be IT consulting. But this gentleman I spoke with, he was a very talented musician.

8:25He loves music. It's his passion. And he's been making some money providing one on one tutoring. So then one on one teaching. So that's great. Now his experience from his day job is in industrial sales, in oil and gas and he's great, he's good at it as well. So he wants to pursue these two ideas, teach music and figure out a way to do it at scale, my version of technology, and also grow in, and also grow that B2B sales consulting idea that he had. So my advice to him is a person, the person who chases two rabbits will end up with none. So decide, if you want to, if you think there's money in that music, in that passion that you have, then pursue it.

9:25But from what he said, it didn't sound like there's a whole lot of money to be had. So focus on what you have 13 years of experience in, which is B2B sales and consulting and then he knows how to sell in different markets and different regions international, I mean, that international trade, these are great skills. So this might be boring logistics and setting up businesses in different markets and and paperwork. It's long sales cycle, you know, business to business, contract, all that stuff. But there's a clear from what he's done. There's a clear market need that that he can, he can address and he has connections in different regions. I mean, he has everything set up for him. Now, the music, you can keep it as a hobby or if you truly think, you can make a whole lot of money from teaching, from giving music lessons, then that could be, that should be your focus.

10:27So it's not just because I'm passionate about something, it is about ensuring there is a need for what I offer. And a lot of times we're not 100% certain that the how the market will respond to my offer. So you don't have to, you don't have to go commit to it 100%. Although that's, I've seen people do it, but you can try it out. You can talk to people, you can speak to the research competitors, go to conferences where your potential buyers are, understand the market, speak with people who are likely to buy from you and understand the pain point. What is it that they're not happy with the current providers? And that will help you validate and crystallize the idea and validate that there is a need in the market for it. You might not have done that before. And I know it's difficult for founders because a lot of them around 70% or so, they come

11:28into entrepreneurship without any sales or marketing background or education. So they struggle with sales and marketing and they struggle with speaking with people and pitching and starting conversations. That's what pitching pitching is starting a conversation to understand what the pain points of the client is and then show them how you can solve those problems. So if you have a passion in one area, I'm not saying you, this regarded, of course you want to work on something that you enjoy. But if there's no one willing to pay for this, if there are no willing wallets, you're not going to succeed. So make sure passion is a component, but market validation and the needs in the market are there for you to make a living and hopefully get to financial independence. So real businesses are built on needs, not feelings.

12:29Another example, another story I'll share here is someone I spoke with recently and they're like a Google Sheet and Excel with. They go in and make sure these very, very advanced Excel functions are properly used and it's almost like a programming. So and he focuses on accountants and lawyers. And if you think about it, fixing spreadsheets and fixing Excel documents, she's not sexy. Is it boring? I don't know. I think so. But he enjoys solving problems. He enjoys bringing a smile to the client's faces. He enjoys going in with a client who's drowning in paperwork and then he throws them a lifeline. That is a bountiful business because it solves a high stakes pain point.

13:30Lawyers and accountants don't have time trying to fix these spreadsheets. If they're coming up accountants or CFOs coming up with an Excel model for a company and presenting this to the executives, they want to make sure this model is solid and has validation points and looks beautiful and all that good stuff. So it is not about loving number crunching. Most people don't enjoy that, including those in that field, but they love helping others achieve their goals and solve their problems. So again, always look at it from the client's perspective, from the person who's struggling with the issue that you're solving. In another book that I've mentioned a few times this year is by the founder of Ways, Uri Levine, he says, fall in love with the problem, not the solution. So in a way, we are thinking day and night about the solution we have, the offer that we

14:38have, the product that we're developing, but it's our baby. Of course, it's the startup. That's what it is. But the focus should be, the falling in love should be focused on the pain points that your clients are having, not on the business idea itself. So keep that in mind. Again, fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Because if you're not doing that and you're obsessing about just what you're thinking about and what you're developing, I mean, we first of all, there's this concept of the curse of knowledge. You know, so much about what you're developing, what you're building, what you've spent the last six months on. You don't see issues with it. And even when you try to explain it to people, you're speaking like your own language, your own jargon, you're not really connecting, you're not resonating with those who are

15:41on the other side. So focus on the needs, the wants, the wishes, the aspirations of your potential buyers and make sure what you're offering, what you're building, what you're developing is addressing those needs, wants, wishes, aspirations. All right. So that's one. Now the second thing I want to talk about here is how, how to find these ideas that are boring, but they are bountiful and they will help you establish and grow and build a sustainable business. So use what I call your skill inventory. Follow and I have a sheet, I have a spreadsheet, I'll link it in the description. What you have developed in terms of your personal experience, in terms of areas of expertise,

16:45sectors you've worked in, healthcare, tech, hospitality, maybe you know a specific market really well, you know the movers and shakers and you know the buyers and suppliers. So list everything that you have accumulated over the years. There's no, there might be some skills that you need to, sorry, so list the experience, the expertise. Also, what I would call soft skills and hard skills, you're a good communicator, you are a good presenter, you are an active listener, all these, especially if you've been in a relationship for a long time, like I've been, you learn how to develop active and active listening skills that will help a lot in relationship, same thing in business. So list the thing that you're very good at, what I call soft skills, also list hard skills, the technical skills that you have in your area of expertise. So once you have those listed, add one more column, also your network, access to potential

17:51employees, to potential buyers, to partners, business partners, that is suppliers, vendors, influencers in your space, all of that is part of your soft assets, I think as as as a read halfman called them. So make sure you develop all of that and that is one side of the equation. The other side of it is also another variable is the market need, which we talked about earlier, understanding what people are looking to solve. So between doing that exercise in terms of assessing your skills, soft skills, hard skills, your network, and then understanding the needs of the market, then you're in a much better position to bridge that gap between what people are looking to solve, between the problems that people have and the solution with your skills. So don't look just for a magical idea that that feels good, but start with this inventory.

18:59So as I said, and I have the spreadsheet that you can use it to develop your own your own for your own skills and use that as a first step going forward. So you might also add to that, especially with the fast pace of tech technology improvements and with the fast paced of of AI, we can't keep track of things, you might identify a gap in skills. So for example, let's say you're an HR, you want to do an HR consulting company. So you understand how to set up systems for hiring, vetting candidates, you understand how to also once candidates are hired, how to onboard them so you can set up an onboarding system for your customers, you also know how to set up processes for ensure employees

20:07issues are addressed and how you improve retention. All of these are benefits to companies. So you know all of that really well and you have five years, 10 years of experience in that space. Now in this day and age, there are a ton of AI tools that can support these processes, whether it's vetting the candidates in the interviewing process, whether it is collecting input, whether it is automating some internal processes. So you would identify if I were you in that space, I would identify what other AI type tools and AI skills that I could use. Not I'm not talking about programming, that's a different that's a different thing. I'm talking about for services and consulting businesses, you can identify, you can identify a list of the top three tools or five tools that are that leverage AI to help companies vet and hire the right candidates, right? There are three to five tools that help improve the effectiveness of onboarding.

21:14There are three to five tools that help companies track and measure the performance of their employees and also set up a performance system. Some of it might be AI related, some of it might not be, might not be AI related. So take time to learn these tools, a lot of these tools have three demos, you can get a free account, you can ask for a sales demo. So you as an HR consultant, when you're going to companies and you're showing your expertise, you're adding to that, that you also, there's the new thing that's called AI that is now impacting, that is embedded in everything, we do almost everything we do and that you have a good handle of using AI to make things more efficient, to help companies do things faster, to help, to do things faster than the competition. So that will be instead of this being a gap on your resume or on your about us page,

22:15take this and advantage for you, that is you are keeping up with technology, you are keeping up with AI, you are keeping up with what is happening in the market. So that is something that's really, really important. As you do your own inventory, you identify the problems that your market has and then in that you might find that there are a couple of skills that you don't, Jesus don't have and you have to invest time to learn those skills. So that is on the concept of finding these boring ideas and doing an inventory of your skills. Now one thing I want to bring up here from IKIDO, from Marshall Arts is that there's a quote by one of the direct students of the founder of IKIDO, Saito Sonsa, he says, that people think light of basics, people think light of basics and are attracted to fancy

23:22techniques. Nothing is enjoyable in the beginning but with this as a basis it eventually becomes enjoyable. So a lot of times IKIDO, there's a lot of throws, high falls, people want to be, you want to throw the attacker and they do a hard flip and hard fall and it looks awesome. It's also effective in certain situations. But what he's saying is that don't think light of the foundation of the basic and some techniques might take you 10,000 reps to master and as you focus on the basics and some teachers don't like to call them basics, they call them the foundation. As you focus on these foundational elements, your technique becomes better. You are more aware of the minute details in height and weight and angle and distance

24:23and that focus on the foundation will enable you, although it might be called boring because I'm doing the same technique, the same foundational technique all the time, but enables you to have a very strong foundation will enable you to do these advanced techniques with ease, with flow. That boring reps will manifest in some advanced ways without you knowing that. So a bit of an attention to here with IKIDO, but we talked about the skills inventory and about identifying the things that are needed in the market. Now passion is not absent. If you've been following here and for those of you who are joining in a bit late, let me know if you have any questions we're talking about. Boring is bountiful and how passion is optional.

25:25Skills and sacrifice are not. Skills and sacrifice are mandatory. We're not covering, I'm not speaking a lot about sacrifice today. That's a topic for a different time. But in terms of skills and in terms of committing to this idea, even if it's boring, that's where potentially your six figure or seven figure business is. So now, before we wrap up here, I want to spend a little bit of time on redefining where passion should exist in your business. You can think of passion and redefine it in your own mind as the outcome, not the activity. So think about an idea that you love and your passion about and an idea or something that you really don't enjoy working with. So that's the beginning, that's the starting line.

26:26But as you start to work through developing your service, your offer, as you start to go out and market your product, your service, as you start to go and to network, as you start to send proposals and learn how to negotiate and learn how to handle objections. All of that, those are steps in the process of building and growing a company. And it doesn't matter what you're selling. And whether it's an idea you're passionate about or it's an idea that you hate these steps are the same. So the passion will come from the outcomes, from winning proposals, from solving problems. But you'll be in the grind of marketing and selling and implementing and dealing with unhappy employees and unhappy customers. Like, that is where you'll be spending most of your time, not on this passionate idea

27:27that you had. So what I want to emphasize here is that you want to, it's a mindset shift, passion for getting things done. Passion for the problem and you love solving those problems and those puzzles and create order out of chaos. Passion for the freedom. You'll love that this business buys you time with your kids. Initially, you might have to sacrifice some of that time. Of course, take care of the kids and the spouse at home and the important relationships do not, you have to take care of that. But you might have to sacrifice some leisure time. You might have to sacrifice some hobbies. Bring down hobbies from four to just one. Stay fit, of course, be active. But the freedom that you are aspiring to have, that will be the passion. Working for that, working for that moment in time where everything that you've put into

28:31this business will pay off. Also, passion for the service. You love seeing the relief on your client's face. I've seen this myself. We used to sell analytics solutions, marketing and analytics solutions. So when a CMO, a chief marketing officer, CMO, or when we have a director of marketing coming to us and they're in a very difficult situation, they have data. They're spending money on these marketing campaigns and they have no idea what's working, what's not. Are people coming to my website or downloading my app? Are they engaging with my content? Are they buying? Is this all these efforts I'm putting into marketing? Is this leading to results? Is this campaign and this messaging and this offer? Are they doing better than this other campaign and this other messaging and this other offer? People struggle with this and sometimes their job dependent and their job's dependent

29:36on getting answers to these difficult questions. So when we come in as analytics consultants, when we came in and helped this individual get more clarity and visibility into their data, it felt great that we helped clients achieve their goals. So think about it. That, excuse me, the passion is not about the idea itself. You want to develop passion as the outcome, passion for the solving the problem, passion for the freedom that you want to have and then passion for the service and bringing smiles on your client's faces. So those are really important things. Earlier, we covered how passion is, how, sorry about this. We covered that.

30:37Look at this. My allergies are acting up big time. Let me just pause for a second. Okay. Sorry about that. We covered a few things. One is that. Sorry about this. Okay. I'm all good now. The needs of the market versus feelings, you know, we love an idea, but there's no one willing to pay for it. We also, I also covered this concept of falling in love with the problem, not just the solution, the solution that we're developing, we're spending time on, we fall in love with it, just like it's our baby. Also we talked about the inventory skill, the, the, the, the, the, doing an inventory for your skills. And then what I want to wrap up with here is that I want you to leverage tools and templates.

31:39I have, I have four you ready. You can download what I call the 10 plus five where you go and, and, and if you have an idea, before you put your job, before you start your LLC, before you take money from your savings, go and talk to 10 people. That's what I call the 10 plus five, 10 people and then research five competitors. And see that people are willing to buy this from you. See that the way this problem is being solved by other providers leaves much to be desired. And that's where you can stand out. If, if you speak with 10 people and five of them said, this is how, this is how, this is how much money I'm paying for this problem to be solved. And I'm not happy with any of the providers. This is your opportunity because if the other providers are delivering a service at high price or they're taking, sorry.

32:49Or they're taking a whole lot of time to deliver a service. You can deliver cheaper, you can deliver it faster. All of those are advantages for you. So when you do that research on your, talk to your clients, that is the 10 clients. And then research five competitors, you also understand from the competitors how they're positioning, positioning themselves. And you can, you can think of that as that to identify what will make you stand out. So we'll wrap it up today, especially since my allergies are acted up. And if you have any other question about starting a business, growing the business, vetting the idea, if you're not sure if the idea is boring or not or how to deal with an idea that's boring, but, but there's has a lot of potential. Don't forget to check out our channel channel at startupaffairs.com on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn and I'll be more than happy to answer your questions. See you next time.