Most entrepreneurs don’t start businesseses to become curmudgeonly, cynical cranks. On the contrary, most of us do what we do because we crave freedom and enjoyment from our work. We want to be happier.
Of course, many of us lose sight of this goal along the way. I occasionally catch wind of businesspeople who’ve fallen off the happy wagon—they get disrespectful to people around them, start fights to drum up press, cut corners.
It’s bewildering. Because the crankier we get, the less effective we become.
Fear
In the short time I’ve spent doing web work, I’ve noticed an undercurrent of defensiveness that cuts through the industry. I see it in mini spats on Twitter and in design reviews. It inspires silliness—even occasional meanness—in otherwise intelligent, rational human beings.
I’ve seen this defensiveness once before, in grad school. There, everyone was so terrified of being called out in public, of being exposed as a phony, that only the loudest folks spoke out in class. The people who loved the megaphone set the tone.
Creativity
Beyond being a huge downer, the problem with defensiveness is that it grows from fear: the terror that you won’t succeed or that someone will shame you. And the problem with fear is that it destroys creativity.
The best thing we can do for the ourselves and our companies is grow our businesses according to what we know is right. By right I don’t mean perfection, or what every one else says is right: I mean using our own common sense and employing our unique talents to create stuff that’s good. I mean thinking creatively. Following the golden rule. Taking action when inspired—not just because we’re scared.
Love What You Do
If I sound like a kindergarten teacher, it’s because that’s how I feel. I run two businesses. If I listened to every piece of advice on how to not screw up or internalized all the negative crap that gets passed around, I’d hate my job.
I would rather love what I do.
5 Comments
Nice post Tiffani. Fear brings out the true side of a person. Love shows us what we can be if we fully overcome our fears. Fear breeds this hate you speak of..
This is why we have the saying “there is a thin line between love and hate”.
Hi Tiffani, great article. Always nice to remind ourselves of this from time to time.
After reading this, I’d be interested to hear what you have to say about applying this to projects we don’t necessarily ‘believe in’. (It’s a problem I have more often than I’d like to admit)
I remember when I used to write like this…. Sigh.
I totally agree with the sentiment here, for sure… it’s just not always as easy as “doing what you love.” Not when you’re running a business anyway. Unless, of course, you love running businesses. In that case you’re probably golden.
For me the running of the business was something I felt obligated to do (which, IMHO, in our age of ridiculous entitlement is underrated) for many reasons. And as you know first hand it made me defensive, cranky and much worse. Clearly I wasn’t doing what I loved.
But what brings people low is often much more than simply not doing what they love. I know many, many happy people doing a job they’re not happy with and I know quite a few people doing work they love and not being happy about it. I don’t know why that is… only that it’s not as simple as it could, and probably should, be.
Anyway, didn’t mean to bring things down, the main point is positive and true. Do what you love!
Kyee: Word. I really like thinking about what could happen if we turned every negative thought into an action or a step toward making the bad thing better. Haven’t perfected that myself of course.
Ted: Yah, good question. I’m not sure I’ve got the solution for projects I don’t believe in—I think going in with a full awareness of what you’re doing, and why, can help maintain perspective. Setting our expectations too high (“I will love every single project”) might be why we hate some of the work. Thanks for the thoughtful question.
DKR: I like it—transforming the idea of “loving what you do” into “doing what you love”. Hadn’t thought of it that way, but it really makes sense. Like I was saying to Ted, I think it’s really hard to find the right balance of expectations. Like, how much should we expect to love our jobs? I’m still working my way through that idea. Thank you for the kind words and thoughts.
Tiff: Totally. It’d be great if we could all love what we do. But, let’s face it, it can be hard. Sometimes impossible. If we could all simply do what we loved to do, well, then we’d all be happy.