Passion or Discipline: Which is More Important When Starting a Business?

Starting a business is not like a job. You do not leave the business you are working in to go home and sit in front of the TV. You do not simply pick up the phone and tell your boss, "I need some time off." We will look here at what provides more "fuel" when starting a business to get you through the tough times - passion or discipline?

Of course, the person with the hand up at the back of the class is going to say "why not both?" and they are absolutely right. However, the point of this article is to look at the attributes of both qualities by comparing them.

Many believe that having the passion for the business they are working in is more important than the discipline or the technical skills needed to run a business successfully. I would agree that passion is important, but without discipline, you will find yourself constantly doing things that are not in your best interest. As a result, you are in danger of losing focus as passion can take you in all kinds of directions. You can find yourself veering off on a tangent for days and weeks and losing the core focus of what you setup a business in the first place.

If you have the passion to succeed, then it is very important to be disciplined and to stay focused on the tasks at hand. Discipline does not deny your passion - it acknowledges the importance of it without letting it get out of control.

Discipline is something that you work on day in and day out. it's about maintaining the commitments you made when you started the business. The first few months will be the most trying, because it's inevitably a time where you're putting in a lot of effort for not much immediate reward. At this stage, you must stay focused and be unwilling to give up.

It is very easy to get distracted and lose focus on your work once you begin. There will be times you will doubt yourself and be unsure whether you made the right decision or not. Stay focused on your goals. Staying focused requires discipline and determination. But if you are up to the challenge, you will achieve your goal of starting your own business.

So the answer to the question is discipline. Discipline tempers your passion. It channels it and governs it so you make the most of it without it taking you in the wrong direction Consistency and patience are also important traits to have as you start your new business.

Having the motivation to build a business is also important. This is a third quality that isn't truly a synonym to "passion", though it shares a lot of attributes. Motivation is about reasons why you started the business in the first place. It's big picture thinking. You need those big goals to take you through the lean times.

However, it's important to set small goals too - daily goals. This spurs you into action, and ensures you reach certain milestones each day.

Consistency (via discipline) in your actions is a very good way to ensure progress. It's the calm and steady voice in your head that tells you to keep going and stay focused. So many businesses go broke because they're lead purely by passion. Remember that discipline isn't some "opposite" to passion - it's the steadying hand that harnesses the passion in a controlled way.


Article kindly provided by debttrace.co.uk