Originally posted on the i2E blog

One of my first times traveling abroad was to Brazil, where I had a chance to experience a new culture with new foods and music. I was there during one of the World Cup tournaments, and it was an awe inspiring event to watch as pretty much the whole country shut down to watch these soccer games. It was entertaining to hear the elevated tones of the announcers as the ball past midfield and work into a fever pitch before exploding in a shout of “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!!!” as the player did a version of a touchdown dance before being mobbed by the rest of the team. The passion for the game helped me appreciate a sport that I had not paid much attention up to that point, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

Previously, I asked you to consider what you really want from the entrepreneur experience. Something that frequently comes up when you begin to reflect is the question of what to do that gives you purpose or that you are passionate about. You hear that kind of advice a lot when it comes to start-ups and careers in general — do something you’re passionate about.

This was always a frustrating piece of advice as I considered what to do with my life because I didn’t think I was really passionate about much. I thought this way because I didn’t really do anything that produced this intense emotion that I ascribed as passion. As I have talked to aspiring entrepreneurs and others who struggle with career choices, I realized I wasn’t the only one.  If you already know what you’re passionate about then I hope you’re getting a chance to actually be involved in it on a regular basis. I hope to share a few ideas that might guide those of us still looking for our passion.

In the start-up world having a passion for something becomes important because it requires a lot of time and effort and you need internal motivation — that’s why the desire to get rich isn’t necessarily the best reason to do a start-up. It may take a while before that happens. In the mean time, if you don’t like what you do or who you do it with, it can get old really fast. So how do you identify what you’re passionate about?

One of the first things you can do is think back to when you’ve felt the most accomplished or the most energized. In fact, don’t worry about narrowing it down. Come up with 3-5 experiences and write them down (it just easier to look at your thoughts when they’re outside your head) or tell someone. Then notice why you felt that way. What you were doing? When was the exact moment you felt the best? Was it the accomplishment? The activity? The fact that others complimented you, or because they praised the result?

This exercise is meant to help you determine some of your internal drivers. A similar exercise is to reflect back over the various jobs that you’ve had or roles that you’ve played and look for a pattern. What are things or activities that you naturally gravitate towards doing even if it wasn’t part of your job? Think about your ‘to do list’ — what are the things you want to do instead of have to do — chances are they may not even be on the list because you’ve already done them.

Now these memory exercises assume you’ve had those kinds of experiences. If you haven’t, then your assignment is to write down five things that sound fun or enjoyable (it doesn’t have to be roller coaster-thrill fun to be a passion) and do one of them or at least talk to someone who has (a little vicarious learning). After you find your passion, then you can worry how you’re going to leverage that into a business. For now, try to find that thing that makes you smile when you think or talk about it — even better if it makes you do a dance like you’ve just scored a “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!!!”

Note: this post was originally written for the i2E blog.

Last time I wrote about how to start a business when you don’t have a good idea that hopefully encouraged you to take a step on your entrepreneurial journey. I want to throw in a little word of caution, consider it a sign post to help avoid heading down a dead end road when your mental GPS tells you to make your first turn or two. I’ll discuss some ways you can sift through different ideas before you invest too much time and resources.

So you’ve come to realize that you first idea doesn’t need to be perfect or even really good to start something. Good for you, however, the right ideas really do matter especially if you can tell a story around it. Let me give you a few simplistic definitions to clarify.

• Creativity = coming up with a new idea
• Innovation = doing something with that new idea
• Entrepreneurship =getting someone to pay you for what the new idea does

If your idea doesn’t do something that is valued by someone or rather by enough people to make it worth doing then you don’t have a business. That is why the right idea matters because it must create the right value in a way that is worth it to you. The story part just helps others realize the value that you knew all along.

Now the strength and weakness of entrepreneurs is their willingness to take action off of only a few points of data or observation (sometimes based only on a single thought).  It allows them to be nimble and more responsive than big business but it also causes a lot of false starts.

So how do you know if your idea is worth pursuing?

Well the first thing in case you haven’t done it is to do a quick internet search (Google, Amazon, etc.) to see if anyone is currently solving the problem you think you’re going to solve.  Even if there is someone out there you may be able to build a better mousetrap or find a niche within the larger market. Also don’t forget to check out the US Patent Office. The USPTO system isn’t extremely user-friend but you can find some other sites like Sumo Brain or patsnap that professional legal folks are likely to use.

Beyond that perhaps one of the best ways is to identify a few different ideas that you might be interested in and map out some of your assumptions about how you imagine the business working. I’ll cover the different kinds of assumptions or risks in the future but initially you’ll want to be able to answer a few questions about the customer since without them you don’t have a business.

• What is the problem you think you can solve?
• Who do you think has this problem?
• How do you find them?
• Who will pay you to solve the problem? (they don’t need to be those who have the problem)

Assuming you can answer these questions go out and find out if you’re right or not. The easiest way to find out is to go talk to the person you think would buy it. I know, I know everyone will want it or maybe you aren’t clear about who your customer is. If either is true for you then you may want to leverage social media to see if you can get anyone’s attention. Here’s a fairly detailed example of how to quickly test and validate your startup idea. That being said there is no substitute for face to face interaction. Remember you’re listening for a problem or pain-the bigger the problem the bigger the opportunity.

Now you may be tempted to worry that you don’t have a product or aren’t ready to talk to a potential customer because you want to make a good impression.  That is understandable after all you want a good brand experience but consider if you head down that road and spend the next however many months and money building something only to find out when you do talk to a customer that they don’t care. When you’ve reached that dead end it won’t matter what kind of impression you made even if your mental GPS tells you to keep driving through that brick wall.