CREATE with PASSION: 10 Rules To Thrive

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is: Do it because you can't help it. Over to you, Sir Paul McCartney.

What's your inspiration to write? I mean, it must be very difficult for you to have any material ambitions. Yeah, but it's never really been a material ambition, you know. I mean, I remember we did used to sit around when we were just starting, and we'd started to get our glimpse of number ones, and we did sit around and kind of think, okay, now we'll write a swimming pool. Yes, you know, let's write a swimming pool, and let's write the garage, and let's write a car to go in it, you know. But that was never really the big incentive. I don't think that's what made us write the songs. So now that part of the incentive isn't particularly there, you know, because I've got the car and the garage and that. But I don't really think it was ever what I was writing for, or else I probably wouldn't write now if I didn't feel like that. I sort of write because I can't help it and because it's a bit of a hobby still for me. It's something that if I'm in the mood, I really like to just go and do, you know.

This is a message I resonate really strongly with because I will create things just for the sake of creating, even if I know it's never gonna get used. And I think of examples, either creating my own or creating for clients I'm working with. I look at Sage as an example. You guys have seen kind of the monthly Hangouts that I do with Stephen Kelly. I'm always sending them stuff that I know they're never gonna use, even though I secretly hope they will use, right? I wanted to rename their conference from Sage Summit to something more powerful and more impactful. I wanted to create some marketing materials for them and new campaigns that would touch people on an emotional level. And I'll sit there for hours working on this stuff, creating entire campaigns and names for them and send it off to them and it never gets used. And most people would think, oh, that really sucks. Why would you keep going? Why would you keep doing that? And it's not the end result that I'm after. It's not them actually using it that I care about. It would be awesome if they actually took one of these things that I've sent them and run with. For me, it's much more— I enjoy the challenge of doing it, and I enjoy the creation process. I'm driving home from taking my parents to the airport, and I'm thinking about this, and I just need to get this idea out of my head and into Photoshop and off to them, or I won't be able to sleep. I won't be able to function. It'll just be on my, my mind all the time. And so I think too many entrepreneurs or wannabe entrepreneurs get started just thinking about what that end goal is gonna be, right? I'm making this so that I can get this, and you don't enjoy what you're doing enough, right? You do crappy work, you do work just because it's an opportunity, you do work because it's gonna help you get rich quick, right? That's why you take it on. And then you don't actually enjoy the work. If you look at entrepreneurs or the successful ones, they enjoy the process. Yes, they may enjoy the result, but they enjoy the process too. I enjoy making videos for you guys. I enjoy jumping in the comments with you. I enjoy running Toronto Dance Salsa, right? I enjoy the stuff that I'm doing. And you should enjoy the creation process and create because you just can't help doing it. You would do it even if you weren't getting paid to do it because you love it so much. So the question that I leave for you guys today is, I wanna know what you just can't help but do, that you would do even if you weren't getting paid for it. Leave it in the comments below, I'm gonna join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching, have an amazing day, continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. <LYRICS>I wake up every morning, with espresso, keep me going.</LYRICS>