Passion - a key to success

I always ask entrepreneur some questions “What made you startup?”, ” Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?”, “What drives you?”. I am keen understand the entrepreneurial mindset in order to gauge their intentions.
I get all kinds of responses. Let me list down some of the popular ones.
 Entrepreneurs often say:
- I am in it because of money and fame.
- Want to be by own boss and have freedom
- Quite a few says that they are really sick and tired of their mundane job or their managers and this is the only way out.
- Some even complain that their job doesn’t allow them to have a work life balance and entrepreneurship seems to be a way to attain it.
- Some just get in to it because its fashionable.
With the ninth year into my entrepreneurial journey, trust me when I say this. “All the reasons stated above are not the right ones.”  In fact they are extremely wrong motivations to start your own startup.
We have a perceived notion about entrepreneurs. We relate entrepreneurship to money, fame and success. But no one really sees the sacrifices, the hard work, the struggle and the relentlessness behind it. Forget about the money, you won’t see it for years. On an average, even the successful ones takes 2-3 years to monetize their business and I am being extremely optimistic about it.
 No you don’t become your own boss. You end up having multiple bosses and they are called clients as you are accountable for each and every one of them.
If you think your job is stressful, wait till you startup. You do not get a better work life balance in a startup. Work = Life, that’s the mantra of entrepreneurs. That’s the work life balance. You drink, sleep, eat, dream about your startup. And you are going to do that for years. If you think that entrepreneurship is going to be easy, you are kidding yourself.
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*Entrepreneurship is extremely hard, but for some of us its even harder not to be an entrepreneur.*
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If we start with the wrong reasons, we can never pull through the tough times. When things gets difficult, you do have or get enough money, fame, time or any other things you are running after.
So we must ask ourselves, what is the real reason that drives entrepreneurs?
The one and only thing that keeps you motivated as an entreprneur, day in and day out, is Passion. Passion to create something new, passion to change the world, passion to create jobs and wealth for other people and passion to solvea real life problem. And passion is one such thing which you can’t fake.
Entrepreneurship is never a statement of fashion, its rather a statement of your passion.
Everything else is a byproduct. Be irrational, be illogical but make sure you have enough passion to fuel you through your entrepreneurial journey. Passion is the only thing that can keep you motivated during the toughest times.
So ignite your passion and start your journey.