Doing what you love is a trap. It is a major pitfall for anyone trying to start their own business. Don’t get me wrong! You need passion in order to do something day in and day out for years on end non-stop, but your choice of business should not be driven by it. Your choice of business needs to be guided by an external need. Gurus love to tell you to "do what you love", "follow your passion" and other feel-good self-loving mantras. Do you love knitting? Or watching tv all day? Or underwater basket weaving? Great! But don’t expect people to pay you for these things if you are not fulfilling a need in the marketplace! Your personal motives and reasons to starting a business are absolutely irrelevant to the marketplace. Doing so is a predictor of failure. In fact, I don’t think you need to have a passion for a specific industry before you even start a new business. What you do need is knowledge of the industry and a demand for whatever product or service you are creating for that industry. Your passion does not necessarily have to be the industry itself but can simply be from seeing the business grow. For example, I doubt that those in the waste management industry are passionate about picking up garbage and disposing of it in an environmentally safe manner. No, I bet their passion is more about watching their business grow, having sales, and exceeding their benchmark year after year. You see, after you pick the right industry and fulfill a need in the marketplace, your passion for the business will naturally grow. Remember, there is a distinct difference between a business vs a hobby! In business, the marketplace’s needs and demands come first. With hobbies, your passion and self-interests come first. Self-centered "do what you love" entrepreneurs have businesses that drown in over-saturated marketplaces and often do not solve any genuine needs or problems. They compete with other self-centered businesses and compete on lowest prices until nobody makes a profit anymore. This is just bad business practice in general. So what the markets REALLY care about? Solutions of all kinds! Value! Convenience! Satisfaction! Mindless entertainment! Feeling good! Looking good! Making money! Saving money! Problem avoidance! Finding the solution to the above for your customers should be your only passion. Ask yourself these questions: What do you need to do to solve the problem? What do you need to learn? What do you need to research? What are the first steps? Second? Third? Let the solved problem guide you. After you put your solution to market, what does the market echo back to you? Assess. Adjust. Act. Rinse. Repeat. So before create a business, stop and ask yourself this question. Are you getting in business to become a producer and a problem solver? Or a selfish person who only cares about his own self-interest? If you quit doing what you love and start doing what the market wants done, the end result is that you will get what YOU want and everybody benefits.