THE POWER OF YOUR PASSION

If you love it, if you love to do it, then you have passion for it, this is not a difficult topic to discuss. How important is passion for an entrepreneur? Passion is one of the most vital resources that is needed for success in life and it comes naturally to human from birth, at least one thing will make us passionate, that is a sure thing, the question is how much can we believe and follow that passion of ours. For an entrepreneur, vision comes first and passion follows, vision is like the sand for construction while passion is the cement, mixture of the two at good proportion will make a good concrete when you add water.

There is a popular analogy about success in start-up businesses that says: For every 10,000 businesses that is starting up, only about half will survive after 5 years and only a few will be in business after 10 years. This is a good explanation for passion because only those who have passion will stay with the vision long enough to achieve a significant success. Well, maybe we should note the relativity of "significant success". What is significant success to you? it may mean something different to another person, but generally, it takes around 10 years for a dream to mature, be it in music, business or sport. 

Wizkid started music "passionately" at a tender age of 11, although he had a phenomenal growth, with lots of ups and downs which he was very quick to resolve. From a distance, I can guess that his ability to make quick decisions and take necessary risks really works for him. By 21, he was already among the heavyweights in african music, top 5 in Nigeria and a great export from the african continent to the world with lots of awards both home and abroad.

If somebody is less skillful, less creative or financially low, but has great passion for what he does, he can still survive the test of time long enough to achieve a significant success. But nobody can go far with less passion even if you have all the money and resources. Look at it this way, there are many situations where family and friends invest in an entrepreneur's project, but who will want to invest in a business that even the owner has no passion for? You have to convince people that you believe in yourself so much that they are infected with our passion and have no choice but to support your movement.

FINDING YOUR PASSION

When I was younger I took time to build my courage and boldness to do things the right way, although very unpopular because back then, it was negative vibes everywhere. If we complain of corruption now, I wonder what we could call it then. I grew up in a low class family and my parents tried their best but it seems I still have to do more myself. I grew up seeing myself as a smart creative chap, average in my academics but super skillful and good with my hands, I was good in arts, it was my passion.

In my secondary school days, I was in science department and was passionate about my scientific projects so much that I represented Lagos State in a national JETS competition in Umuahia, Abia State. Immediately after secondary school at age 17, I began Quadoowear and I have been passionate about it even till now.

I never  did anything just for the fun of it, everything I have done in my life has been things I get passionate about, I am always tempted to do other things that I am not passionate about just for the money but anytime I tried that, I don't get a good feeling with myself. 

I can say that I have had different times in my life doing different things I am passionate about but all these things didn't make me deviate from my grand passion, and that is to find meaning to my life and to help other people find meaning to their theirs through empowerment. Now I am passionate about basketball but my major passion or say the dominant side of my passions that I possibly chose is humanitarian. I can remember sometimes back when I was talking with my brother  and he was asking me what I will like to do when I grow up and I replied  "I just want to help people". He was not sure that was the reply I was meant to say, so he asked me again "what will you like to do as  a job to feed yourself and your family?" but now I am confused because I have already told him the answer. Who does that?! I didn't know how to earn a living and feed my family by helping people but I believe from deep down my soul that I have passion for people. I had other passions that can give me more money faster but the humanitarian part of me just makes me very comfortable. 

ADDING PASSION TO PURPOSE 

This is where you construct and create yourself, what use is a passion that serves no purpose? This calls for some  "intellectual engineering", you will see yourself being revealed some cognitive endowment (intuition, spirit of discernment) to make your dream whole. Can somebody have passion for doing evil? I don't believe that is possible or normal but it is good for me to encourage you to add your passion to a life of meaning , progress and positivity.  Add your passion to good values and principles because I believe that a life lived to better the life of other people purposely is a life well lived, that is the power of your passion.
Let no form of fear stop you, you have nothing to loose by following your passion. 
Just a hint or an advice from me; try to make "self improvement" your thing. Self improvement is one art that softens how life feels on us, especially when we feel the hard part of life. In your worse times, when things are looking bad and you are thinking of giving up on your dreams, self improvement is always there for you. When you improve yourself always by learning each day of your life, you will always find a way out of your down times.