[...]   photo by Leo London One of the most damaging myths perpetuated by our society is . . . The Myth that if You Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow There is this insane myth in our culture that if you do what you love, the money wil…

Great point. Many years ago I spent countless hours teaching myself web design and development. Loved it, was a passion and a hobby. Then my current employer created a “web developer” position for me… I remember feeling scared… OH great, now I get a chance to have my dream job… what happens if I don't like it anymore.

Well, I still like it many years later. But realize now it's not where my passion and Strengths are. I really love creating, writing music, blogging, but have felt that if I Business-ify it, I'm selling out.

I don't want to be just another dude out there on the internet selling information products that “guarantee to make your life better.” If I'm really sincere about helping others, won't I create these products and give them away? It may take years to even become self-sustainable in doing just that, if ever, but isn't that the approach Leo at Zen Habits took.

I don't want to be rich, just location independent so I can live wherever I want… someplace warm where I can SCUBA dive anytime I want with my wife. I desire to live simpler with less, but more warm weather is all…

Ok, I know I'm rambling… but creating a business model first seems to distract from my purpose, to help others. Funny I'm saying that since I'm in my last week of my MBA program. Although, I do see the angle of: If I can create a business out of my passion, I can quit my day job and devote more time to helping others. So that's a good thing.

And Clay, just had to say, when I first started watching your videos I thought… “OK, here's a dude that apparently lives in an apartment (which looking at your fridge and things behind you in your videos isn't decorated to great) and telling us how successful he's been in business. Yet appears to be living in a one or two bedroom apartment… hmmm” But your honestly and genuine nature is really appealing. And I really admired what you said in our BILT about NOT making money off peoples pain and suffering, or at least not without an honest attempt at giving them something of value that helps them. Integrity, that's cool

So how does one do the due diligence you are talking about?

Any tips?

One point I'd like to add to the discussion is that I think a lot of people get caught up in those first pennies, and they work harder and longer to keep acquiring pennies, when they should be re-vamping and re-working their business model to start making dollars.

And then a point of emphasis I'd like to challenge is the notion that you should talk with A-listers moreso than your peers. In my experience, which isn't as vast as yours, you can certainly talk with A-listers, connect, etc. but your peers are the ones that have MORE TIME for you. They're the ones that can more frequently brainstorm post ideas, read over a post, etc.

They typically have more time and smaller networks so they can give you more time. In addition, A-listers don't always have a lot of incentive for helping you get to the top, but you can form partnerships with your peers to help you support each other and both get to the top. For example (and I know it's a bit different niches), but Project Mojave isn't co-ran by Frank Kern, Mike Filasamine and Chris Surfrider. It's helped run by people that are more or less your peers, no?

Again, awesome insights and I look forward to contributing to the discussions more in the future.

The problem I see is with the business element. If people don't groove on business how do they follow this advice?

If business is about doing the marketing and admin and all the rest, when do you get to do the passion (the job part)?

I think there needs to be some room for doing what we love (the passion). We want to do what we are passionate about – I don't see how making it a business lets this be (except for those whose passion is business).

I hope I have explained my problem clearly – I absolutely agree with a focus on the bottom line. I just want to see how maintaining passion fits with this.

“Knowledge is Power” (If knowledge was power there would be no smokers or overweight people).

We need to weed out these “half-truths” from our minds if we want to build successful businesses.

Thanks for this eye opening post.