Ask HN: How many entrepreneurs out there are really passionate?

That said, once you identify a sector in which to make money, you need to master it. With mastery almost alway comes at least an appreciation or affection for a subject.

1) Entrepreneur Joe might have a good idea for a business but "Joe lacks passion" is code for an intuitive hunch that Joe is going to flake out and get distracted.

2) Alice might need something (investment, a business deal, etc.) and "Alice is passionate about this" is code for "Alice is completely screwed without this deal. She is highly motivated to perform. We've got her by the balls, so to speak."

3) Martin might have a great idea and the drive to do the technical work, but "Martin lacks passion" is code for "Martin can't dazzle people into uncritically buying from him." (This is part of the "passion is contagious" bs meme.)

4) Kate might have a start-up idea that looks great on paper, but it would require her to really drive a few initial employees very hard. "Kate lacks passion" is code for the hunch that Kate is not sufficiently sociopathic to abuse employees into a submission that is against their own best interests.

People in tech business circles use the word "passion" with about as much care as they use the word "fantastic". As a first approximation, it means "uh... I thought I was supposed to be making some noise or other just now and that word is what came out of my mouth".

The rocket needs a destination to aim for even if it never get's there completely.

I think it's better to decide on a particular market with some definitive action like starting a company or large side project, and if it fizzles out, avoid identifying with it. Being identified with a market that you don't know about doesn't impress genuine entrepreneurs.

Curiosity is different. It's good to be curious. Surprisingly, trying to be curious has worked for me. So has dealing with some of the many things that can get in the way of natural curiosity.

You need to be passionate about building a company, not an idea.

Because you will change the idea, and if your passion isn't in running a company you're dead. The groupon guy doesn't care about group buying, he cares about building a company with x culture etc.

There's no substitute for discipline and hard work, not even passion (though it may make it less painful).

I came to conclusion that I'm passionate about the "game"! Not money, not the product but figuring out the game of:

1. how my domain/system works

2. where is money

3. who are players, their motivations

4. how do customers/users function

trying out different hypothesis (gaming) for each of the above and seeing data and learning the GAME!

Once you KNOW THE GAME, you can use it anywhere else.

PS: Wall St 2 reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzPFCKDexok

Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

See no.24 - http://changethis.com/manifesto/6.HowToBeCreative/pdf/6.HowT...

Sorry the blog post seems to have disappeared, all I could find was the PDF.

It is so good, I must quote all of it:

Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

Inspiration precedes the desire to create, not the other way around.

One of the reasons I got into drawing cartoons on the back of business cards was I could carry them around with me. Living downtown, you spend a lot of time walking around the place. I wanted an art form that was perfect for that.

So if I was walking down the street and I suddenly got hit with the itch to draw something, I could just nip over to the nearest park bench or coffee shop, pull out a blank card from my bag and get busy doing my thing. Seamless. Effortless. No fuss. I like it.

Before, when I was doing larger works, every time I got an idea while walking down the street Iʼd have to quit what I was doing and schlep back to my studio while the inspiration was still buzzing around in my head. Nine times out of ten the inspired moment would have passed by the time I got back, rendering the whole exercise futile. Sure, Iʼd get drawing anyway, but it always seemed I was drawing a memory, not something happening at that very moment.

If youʼre arranging your life in such a way that you need to make a lot of fuss between feeling the itch and getting to work, youʼre putting the cart before the horse. Youʼre probably creating a lot of counterproductive “Me, The Artist, I must create, I must leave something to posterity” melodrama. Not interesting for you or for anyone else.

You have to find a way of working that makes it dead easy to take full advantage of your inspired moments. They never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long.

Conversely, neither should you fret too much about “writerʼs block,” “artistʼs block,” or whatever. If youʼre looking at a blank piece of paper and nothing comes to you, then go do something else. Writerʼs block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you SHOULD feel the need to say something.

Why? If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough. In the meantime, youʼre better off going out into the big, wide world, having some adventures, and refilling your well. Trying to create when you donʼt feel like it is like making conversation for the sake of making conversation. Itʼs not really connecting, itʼs just droning on like an old, drunken barfly.

Might try asking yourself - what's one problem that makes you upset/annoyed/frustrated? What can you do to fix it?

If what's driving you is an attachment to a particular solution, then if the solution doesn't work, your commitment to the entire endeavor evaporates.

But, if your attachment is to a market, you stay motivated and have a much easier time pivoting as needed and surviving until you find the model and solution that work.

Now I don't think it's wrong to be passionate but it's definitely a key factor whether your business is successful or not. It all comes down to hard work, execution and a little bit of luck.