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Fernando from aiCarousels

How important is it to be passionate about the problem your business is solving?

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If I'm being completely honest, I have built a successful resume maker tool but I'm not passionate at all about resumes. Although it is really rewarding to help people in something as important as their job search, what I am really passionate about is building cool things online and the potential of building a lifestyle business that would allow me to be a time millionaire. But I always wonder how it would feel when both boxes are checked- when you are passionate about the problem you are solving AND passionate about building your own business. Sometimes what you're passionate about is not economically feasible- I would love to develop video games but the market is already saturated. Although having a successful business could leave room for me to use my free time to follow my passion. Then the line can get blurry- am I passionate about the problem my product is trying to solve or passionate about the result of solving that problem? I don't actually care about resumes but I work on it with passion because of the possible outcome ... what is the difference then? I'm sure there are plenty of people on this forum who have had a great money-making idea and went for it. But that's not necessarily in niche that you feel passionate about. What do you think is the extent to which a business can be hindered when the founder(s) have no passion for the problem the business is solving? Do you think it even matters?
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Ben Parkison
Honestly here's where passion and alignment have mattered for me: When a startup and team will live or die on execution. If you have a group of people and you're headed into the trenches to try to make some idea a reality AND the path to that reality isn't obvious - then, passionate leaders who can inspire that same passion in their teams in critical. If the path is set (you have the anchor partner/customer already in hand, you're deploying into an already thriving platform/community) then sure, you might be able to just run that plan, passion or no. But if your success is about a team of people each individually contributing in a bunch of different ways, over days and weeks and months, to pull it off - I wouldn't go into that situation with anything less than at least a leadership team that pretty starry eyed (and also smart, and grounded, and appreciated about what they're getting into) about what they're doing. It's not that somehow passionate leaders do their job better (I mean, I could buy that they do, but I also have seen that go too far). But passion and belief are contagious even for the most stoic personalities, and if your startup depends on a group of people continually showing up when things are fun, but also when they're scary, I've found that it's the magic sauce in a lot of ways. Plus, it's way more fun, in both success and failure!
Sunday Robotics
Helping and leveraging people creates enough passion, every creator should look for it. Without passion one cannot create the best and cannot compete.
Greg
Not important to me at all. What is important to me is demand. I am going to naturally become "passionate" about any subject matter that is making me money.
Jean
If you want longeviity, it is important!
David J. Kim
If your plan's just to have a small business passion is not necessary. However, if you're trying to build a rapidly growing startup you need passion. As a founder you will go through so many gut punches in your journey that just having the monetary motivation isn't enough.
Khasan
Its a huge advantage but not necessary I would say. To me, its more about being engaged. Otherwise, its all becoming boring soon or later.
Hugh Lagrotteria
It's a great question, @fer_momento, and one I think about a lot! On one level, people may just be passionate about starting their own business or building their own product, and that can be enough. This passion can drive you to work hard and create something great, even if you're not in love with the problem it's solving. However, I believe real passion is necessary for fulfillment long-term. If you expect to work on something for 5, 10, 15+ years at a time, you'll need to be passionate about that problem you're solving if you're going to see it through. I also think passion is necessary if you're trying to solve a difficult problem. Solving an easy problem can be, well, easy. When things are easy they don't require as much determination or resilience. Passion is needed when you're working to solve hard problems. Problems that beat you down, discourage you, and cast doubt on your ideas, creativity, and conviction. I think finding a hard problem to solve that you're passionate about is what entrepreneurship is all about. Like, I don't know, bringing a new video game into an already saturated market! Plenty of companies have succeeded as new players in seemingly saturated markets (Larabar, Raising Cane's, TikTok, Hint Water)... just need to find your niche! 🕹💪🚀
Xu Geng
Absolutely! Passionate can help you devote all of your energy and time into the business you are working. Also more and more people will be impacted by your sprit.
Jonathan Nass
This is an interesting point that I had thought about in the past before landing on a product endeavor that satisfied both sides — my passion for creating and my passion for the problem (making gift shopping less stressful). I think most people in this community share that first passion — the desire to create new things. I don't think it's bad to be scratching that itch by building something in an area you're not 100% passionate about. Because, regardless, it will be a great learning experience. And then with time, hopefully you can come across something that you're both passionate about building and passionate about solving!
Nat
Customers can smell it when there's zero passion, and it hinders going the 110% required to make a stand-out business. You can probably get away with it and still make yourself enough time/money for it to be worth it, but it's risky and unlikely to create a lasting brand. I would agree with many where -- passion for the problem / market is often more important than the product itself as a founder, especially in the early days. If you're too obsessed with the product, you're going to be less flexible to customer and market feedback, less likely to experiment. You're going to be a product in search of a problem, which I've seen fail in the VC space many times. "I am passionate about video games and therefore will find a problem to solve with one" < "I am passionate about this particular gap in education and believe the type of video game ____ is the the right solution" BONUS -- provided you're passionate about the problem, if choosing between possible solutions that seem fairly equally viable, definitely helps to choose a solution medium you're passionate about as well.
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