Love What You Do or Do What You Love

This sounds like an easy enough goal, but many people seem to end up doing neither. The key to happiness is to achieve one or the other to make your life feel complete at the end of the day. It’s because of this idea why so many entrepreneurs decide to take the risk to feel ‘they’ve accomplished something on their own terms.’ The risk with this idea is the possibility of failing. For example, if you’re a 5’2” male that wants to be a basketball player with less than a 20% three-point percentage, I have some bad news for you, more than likely, you probably won’t play in the NBA. This is a case of failing to “love what you do” because of some ‘matter of fact’ issues that exists.

It’s rare to ‘love what you do’ from your first childhood dream that involves massive competition and a heavy requirement of physical activity. In this scenario, this doesn’t mean you couldn’t potentially coach an NBA team one day. Look at Jeff Van Gundy (who’s 5’9” and only played in Division III Basketball) he became an NBA coach, although never playing a minute in the Pros. This is an example of “do what you love.” Jeff Van Gundy was smart to understand his abilities and limitations at a younger age to know that he could not possibly compete at the level he’s always wanted, but he could be as close to the court as possible by being a coach. This is no different than being an entrepreneur or just being another person looking to enrich their lives somehow.

As an entrepreneur, become creative and open to determine ‘maybe I don’t need to open a business to reinvent the wheel, but maybe one that improves the wheel.’ That’s what Yvon Chouinard did with his company at Patagonia in regards of hiking equipment which turned into a successful clothing store. In an interview conducted by NPR’s “How I Built This” podcast he explained that he always felt he could “do it better” than someone else. With his passion for hiking and climbing, he ultimately was capable of being able to ‘love what he does’ with the hiking gear, and ‘do what he loves’ with his clothing store which is to make them better for climbing.

You may ask, well what about you “Mr. Guy who’s telling me how to live my life?” I say this. I found out that some of my passions have yet to come to fruition due to some self-development, which I feel is required. One of my passions is to learn. As cheesy as it sounds, I love to learn, which is why I’m enrolled into a PhD program for International Education and Entrepreneurship. I have a desire to learn more and potentially get more degrees. So, how am I able to achieve ‘doing what I love?’ by working for a company that will pay for my education?

This leads to the final question some may have; how does this picture relate to this blog post? As I’ve said, I have a great passion to learn. You can see that my twin sister and I are walking with our parents. You can probably tell, we’re not the best walkers by our stances and how young we are. One thing you can see is how happy I am to be walking. My thought is this: I love to learn because I believe it shows how my capabilities go beyond my current skillset. Unlocking that, to me, is the most amazing feeling which is represented through this picture.