When Passion Becomes a Prison: A Cautionary Tale

I always admired people who knew what they wanted to do in life, and did it.

Like the kid in 4th grade, I forget his name, was it John..?

He had a lisp. And always had the best lunches.

Anyways, he wanted to become a Doctor.

When we shared what we wanted to be when we grew up - his was “Doctor”.

And guess what he is now?

A Doctor.

Well done, John.

(There’s zero chance he’s reading this right now btw…)

But one thing I always wondered is - is John happy?

Like, does he actually enjoy being a Doctor?

Or is he just doing it because he spent 10 years (and a couple hundred thousand dollars) in schooling for it.

Like, the sunk cost fallacy; to continue investing in a decision based on prior investments (time, money, effort) rather than on current rational evaluations of the situation.

I hope he’s happy.

Seriously, I do.

But for me?

I don’t think I could do that, honestly.

I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life… and my businesses evolve as I evolve.

My first business ever was selling golf balls that we’d collect from the river next to the golf course.

Golfers would shank it into the river, we’d wade through in boots collecting them, wash them by hand, then set up a stand on the 3rd hole and sell them back to the golfers as they passed by.

The golf course didn’t like it much.

They even chased us off every day in the summer, claiming we were “stealing their business”.

Pshhh. Anyways.

What I’m trying to say is - as entrepreneurs we have an amazing opportunity to have our business evolve as we evolve.

In the online education market, this can look like supporting your customers on the logical ‘next step’ of their journey.

→ What might start out as teaching someone how to make a boat load of money, might evolve into teaching them how to “be happy with what they have”…

→ What might start out as teaching someone how to shoot a proper slap shot in hockey, might evolve into helping them get recruited to college, which might evolve into helping them start their own business training young hockey players…

This not only allows you to evolve, and teach what you are most interested in, but it also provides a logical ascending product suite.

They start with Product #1 → Then go to Product #2 → Then go to Product #3 → Etc.

This might take place over the course of a year.

Or it might take place over the course of a lifetime.

In my online basketball training business we had about a 2 year window that our customers would be with us… before becoming disinterested in basketball and moving on.

I have a friend in the Golf niche, and his window is more like 20 years… because his audience is older and you can play golf well into your sunset years.

Q: What is your market 'window of interest'  in your business?

Understanding this can help you craft offers to take your customers through their developmental journey within that specified period of time.

Ex: We would aim to promote all of our core products within our 2 year window. That way they had a chance to buy everything they needed and use it before becoming disinterested in basketball and moving on.

Q: What is the logical next step on their journey?

Understanding this can help you create products that match the natural journey your customers are bound to go on.

Ex: We sell an online jump training system for basketball players. It starts with the foundation using bodyweight exercises, and then progresses into very advanced exercises using weights.

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Some questions to ponder this weekend.

Oh, and if you have time this video is a super interesting watch on a Neurosurgeon who left his job because he… well I won’t spoil it… but he explains just how hard it was to leave (career lock-in).

FYI - No, this is not John.

Have a great weekend.

- Adam