Follow your purpose, not your passion

I made a rookie mistake when I set out to start my first business — I followed the mantra of “follow your passion.”

It was 2016. I was working my first job in content marketing after leaving journalism at a fast-growing, venture-backed startup on a mission to get rich solving modern-day problems. I was having a blast and learning a lot. But there was one issue: the timing was all off.

The startup hired me when I was five months pregnant with my first baby. By the time I was 9 months postpartum, I found myself facing all the usual issues of an unsupported and under-resourced working mom in the U.S. 

I was pumping milk in a broom closet and outsourcing care for the job that I realized I actually wanted to be responsible for — raising my own child. I wanted to work and take care of my baby while she was still a baby. Working for myself was the only viable solution.

But first, I thought to myself, “I need to figure out what the hell I want to do.” That, I later found out, was the wrong question to ask. 

Starting off with figure out what I “wanted” to do was my first mistake. 

The epiphany occurred as I juggled work and breastfeeding in the startup’s makeshift nursing room, flipping through a Bon Appetit magazine. An article about all these people called “influencers” who were making money off Instagram by documenting their life caught my attention. 

I immediately thought to myself, “I could do that.” So, I did.

I left my job, started researching what I needed to do, and created a business plan for how I was going to make money influencing online. (This was still the early years of what everyone now refers to as the creator economy.) If Sally in Minnesota could make a million a year sharing her parenting, so could I.

I needed a niche, so I picked cooking. I had a writing and culinary background — a food blog would marry those two things. It was perfect.

I started my food blog, taught myself how to edit and shoot, and built an online following across Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to drive traffic to my site and other services. Six months in, I started making a decent part-time income from all of it. 

Once again, things were going great. This time, the timing was just right. But then, I ran into another problem.

Despite the financial stability, my business lacked a profound, meaningful mission. The content felt redundant, and I yearned for a purpose beyond personal convenience. While my blog offered culinary inspiration, it lacked novelty in an already saturated market. 

It turned out that my passion-driven business was all about me and provided little value for others.

By following my passion, I built a business for myself and not for anyone else.

After about three years, I pivoted away from the food blog. I built another business that served a greater purpose of helping postpartum women and merged it with a brand built on a foundation of true impact.

Not only is it successful by all measures, it’s helped hundreds of new parents that were in the same position I was in as a new, under-resourced working mom.

Success lives in purpose, not passion.

The phrase “follow your passion” is flawed advice. The better advice is figure out what you do, and find a way to turn that into the work you do. 

But the best advice — the one that worked for me, at least, as well as countless other businesses whose stories I’ve told — is figure out what you can do for others.

Building a venture with a mission to create a meaningful difference in people’s lives gives you the best head start.

Your purpose can be your passion, but your passion is not always your purpose.

It took me three abandoned business ideas and a lot of trial and error before I figured that last one out. And it’s one of the main reasons I only work with purpose-driven brands. These businesses have the most important piece figured out — the rest flows from there.

Now, my purpose is to work with purpose-driven people and businesses. Whether through their own channels or earned ones, I help small businesses on mission tell their purposeful stories.

If you’re just starting out building a business, I hope don’t make the same mistake I did. Whatever you’re building, make sure it’s not just for yourself. 

And if you already have that purpose part nailed, I’d love to work with you.