Are You Ready for the Passion Economy?
Photo by Nick Fewings
As unemployment has skyrocketed, many people are questioning their career choices. Since so much of our lives and the transactions of our day happen online now, it’s easier than ever to start a business. While this is exciting, it can also be overwhelming.
One solution seems to be catching on in greater numbers these days: pursuing one’s passion.
This idea isn’t new. The book, Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsh Sinetar was published thirty-five years ago in 1989. This was followed by a slew of similar books along with workshops to help you discover your passion.
What’s different now is that there is much more support. So much so, that some are referring to making a living doing what you love as the “passion economy”. With the ease of creating a website, access to thousands of customers via social media, the opportunity to share content via blogs, podcasts, webinars, and YouTube, along with the ability to sell homemade products on a multitude of platforms, it’s become almost seamless to turn your passion into an income-producing business.
Unlike the gig economy (doing tasks in exchange for pay), or the hustle economy (a good business idea plus enough hustle to make it work), the passion economy is about discovering your unique mix of intense interests, innate gifts and specific capabilities and utilizing them to provide offerings to the world. It has all of the ingredients necessary to remove the boundary between a hobby and work, and even further, actually provide people (and families) with a life that feels more balanced and rewarding.
Since the industrial revolution, work, for the most part, has felt like a necessary soul-selling drudgery required in order to pay one’s living expenses. The passion economy turns that whole idea on its head. In fact, it questions the very association between suffering and work, along with the idea that work must be the centerpiece of our existence until we retire.
Spending time engaged in one’s passion would mean that we aren’t just waiting until our days off to enjoy life. It would mean that there’d be no need to retire. For many, it would also mean that we could do it from anywhere, so that travel and variety would be part of the mix.
Sounds great, but where to start?
The first step, for some, is the most difficult: discovering your passion—something best-selling author Gay Hendricks refers to as your “zone of genius”. Hendricks defines this as “the set of activities you are uniquely suited to do. They draw upon your special gifts and strengths.” While this sounds amazing, it can still seem a little vague and difficult to pin down. He goes further by saying, “Your Zone of Genius beckons you with increasing strong calls as you go through your life.”
The second step, is to see how your passion can serve others. Your offerings, whether products or services or both, must ideally meet a need or solve a problem. If they do, people will gladly pay you for them.
The third step, is to decide how and where to share your offerings. This can be a brick and mortar store or office or it can be online. Perhaps it will be both.
The fourth and final step is to get the word out. It’s not enough to be passionate or meet a need. You also have to make sure that the people who will benefit from your offerings can find you. This requires building relationships with your audience and increasing your visibility using good marketing practices.
It’s obvious that this isn’t a quick fix or a get-rich-quick scenario. It takes some deep thought, drive, dedication, and yes, some hard work. However, the pay-offs are well worth it.
Imagine being able to live life on your terms, making your own schedule and spending time doing things you enjoy.
Imagine knowing you’re making a contribution and making a difference in the lives of others.
Imagine the feeling of offering something uniquely yours that represents your authentic creative expression.
If enough of us do this, it will transform the way we work, perhaps eliminating the idea of work altogether. In turn, that will ultimately transform our world.
Are you ready?