As an entrepreneur who has made the leap to leave corporate jobs twice (first NASA, then Disney), I completely understand tempering dreams of being my own boss with the reality of a day job that pays the bills. However, I think there is an important opportunity that you didn’t address. So many people fear they cannot achieve their dreams because they’re unrealistic, and have convinced themselves that they can ONLY make money doing something else which they don’t really like. But the reality is there are lots of opportunities to get “day job” type work that is aligned with one’s passions and interests. And I agree, most humans will never be truly passionate about all aspects of a single job — I do not enjoy budgeting, but it is a critical part of running my business, so I do it — but it is attached to my greater purpose and my greater why — and that is the point. I cannot honestly say I like looking at budgets or budget meetings inherently. However, I can say that I have big dreams about sharing important messages with the world, and my ability to expand my reach depends on my ability to effectively manage my finances and make useful decisions about how to grow the company — so yes, I want to do the budget. If I was doing the budget for a business that I didn’t believe in, it would be far more painful. I think one mistake young people make is jumping straight into entrepreneurship when they have not cultivated much expertise or experience in the area. They leave an unfulfilling day job that is unrelated to their passion and just try to jump start something with very little experience. Running a business is tough enough with so many “new” skills and knowledge sets to integrate — you don’t want to also be a novice at the main service you are offering, too! But if people can find roles that are related to their dream career, everything has more meaning. For example, if somebody is bartending at a theater and wants to be a performer — they’re close and they have opportunities to network strategically. Anyway, I think it’s important to identify passion and/or purpose and build that in because we tend to spend way too much time working to not enjoy it MOST of the time.
