Years ago when I was recovering from the failure of my first product I was asked a pointed question by one of the members of the founding team of the startup that I was currently working…
‘How passionate are you about our mission?’
This question really made me think. It was a simple question but the answer felt complicated.
Here I was on one hand excited to be working with a great team, but at that moment I realized I really wasn’t passionate about our mission because it didn’t connect with me so I thought to myself, how much does that matter?
What I’ve come to realize is that is matters A LOT.
If you’re not passionate about what you’re building then you need to stop because it won’t get easier, it will get harder – MUCH harder.
I’m pretty strongly against the struggle porn of the startup world, but have to admit that I’m no stranger to the occasional looooong day and those long days are a lot longer if the passion just isn’t there.
This is just another reason why I’m such an advocate for productizing solutions to your own problems. If you’re solving your own problem, the passion should be built in.