In 1998 I ´Followed My Passion´ and was bankrupt in 6 months – with a mountain of debt.
I started a company that offered canyoning trips to the Spanish Pyrenees.
It made perfect sense at the time—I am passionate about the outdoors, and after years of working as a guide, I figured I could turn that passion into a business.
Just one tiny problem:
I knew nothing about business.
But how hard could it be, right?
Well, it turns out it’s very hard.
I partnered with the wrong person, someone who was as clueless about business as I was.
I had no understanding of marketing, sales, or finance, and it showed.
We did manage to guide some trips, and we definitely had fun, but after six months, the business went bankrupt.
We were left with a mountain of debt.
Sure, we had shiny full-color business cards, the 9 person van and even pop-up mobile phones in an era when hardly anyone had a cell phone.
But none of that mattered, really.
We made every rookie mistake you could imagine.
Did I learn a lot from the experience? Absolutely.
One of the most important lessons was this: running a business is about much more than the thing you’re passionate about.
It’s about sales, accounting, customer service, marketing, and logistics.
It’s about problem-solving, managing people, and staying afloat in tough times.
Ironically, the more you dive into your business, the less time you spend doing the thing you were originally passionate about ;-).
The harsh reality is that the phrase “follow your passion” can be misleading.
Just because you love something doesn’t mean you’ll love running a business around it.
In fact, many entrepreneurs spend the majority of their time handling “the other stuff”—the parts of the business that have nothing to do with their passion.
After a while, it can feel like a job, draining the joy from the very thing you once loved.
That’s why sometimes, instead of building a business around your passion, it’s better to focus on building a business that works—one that makes money and creates opportunities and preferably Time- and Location – Freedom.
Once you’ve established a business that runs efficiently, you can use your free time and resources to pursue your passions without the pressure of turning them into a livelihood.
In the end, running a successful business is about more than just passion.
It’s about skills, strategy, and making smart decisions.
So yes, follow your passion—but don’t feel like you have to build your entire life around it.
You can have both: a profitable business and the freedom to enjoy what you love in your own time.
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About the picture: Following my passion….but not building a business around Enduro.
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Don´t follow your passion
