Most parents teach their children to follow a simple success formula. First, get a good education. Second, land a well-paying job. Third, get married, raise a family, and live happily ever after.
While this plan appears simple and sensible, it only works for a few people. Even if you jump through all the hoops–do well in school, get a great job, and marry the love of your life, you feel discontent and unhappy.
This success formula is broken for one simple reason—you are not in charge. In school, you had to follow a preset curriculum. At work, your corporation spells out all the rules of engagement. In marriage, you must strike a fair balance between your will and that of another person.
The way to fix this glitch is to decide to work for yourself. Here are some ideas on how you can get back your personal power:
Follow Your Passion
You are unique. Out of 7.5 billion people on the planet, there is no one else like you. No molecular arrangement in Earth’s 4.5 billion year history has been like you. None of your ancestors, dating back 6 million years, was like you. You are about as unique as it gets.
Honor your unique blend of sentience. Although you may have many things in common with other people, you will never be happy unless you respect and follow your passion. Trying to be like everyone else is the primary reason billions of people are unhappy. They are on a hopeless quest to fit in.
When you follow your passion, your mind, and heart light up. In Sanskrit, your right work is called dharma; it is work only you can do. Others may be in the same line of work, but they can’t do it the way you can. For instance, no one could have revolutionized physics like Einstein. He saw the relationship between space, time, and gravity through the filter of his unique mind. He reintroduced us to the Universe. So, regardless of whether you start a home-based business or a brick-and-mortar business, you should start one that fires you up because it aligns with your passion.
Find a Good Idea
How do you get your untapped creative juices flowing? How do you generate ideas for a business?
Here are 3 ways to generate new ideas:
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses and then work to build on your strengths.
- Analyze marketing trends and find one you resonate with. For instance, you could build a business around popular cultural trends like cocooning, fantasy adventures, ergonomics, fighting pollution, or vigilante consumerism.
- Reflect on your own work history in a corporation and think about what was missing and supply that unmet consumer need.
All you need is a good idea. You don’t need to be a designer or a developer. You can outsource the technical details to design and development services. If you already have the technical skills, they will help refine your idea, and if you don’t have the expertise or resources to make your own product, they will fill in the gap.
Focus on Mastery
Assuming that you’ve identified your passion and monetized it into a business that hits the sweet spot between what you love to do and consumer demand, then the next thing you must do is to focus on mastery. What do all rich or famous people have in common? They are all remarkably good at one thing, doing it better than anyone else. This principle applies to any field of human endeavor: sports, entertainment, business, science, art, and so on.
Most people are dilettantes. They try something for a short time and then give up. They might lose interest after the novelty wears off or after they’ve hit a few setbacks or get stuck on a learning plateau.
Masters are different. They study and practice consistently. They are consistent whether they are winning or losing, making progress or falling behind. They change the world.
In summary, when you work for yourself, you find happiness.
