ometimes inspiration comes from the strangest places. As I sat at the computer, ready to come up with a topic for this month’s article, I noticed Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It playing on Pandora. And then it hit me…

Love is more than just a four letter word. Rather than being narrowly defined in a romantic, emotional or marital context, a broader definition of love might also include altruistic qualities such as care, compassion, trust, authenticity, appreciation and giving. Do these traits have any place in today’s fast paced, left brained, high tech world of business?

The concept of love, in this broader context, is rapidly changing from an idea whose use has previously been viewed as inappropriate in a business setting, to becoming a vital advantage in today’s impersonal business world. Within a few short years, the implementation of many qualities often associated with love may very well evolve to become a minimum standard requirement for achieving success as an entrepreneur.

Using the model of The Big Ten Questions Every Client Is Thinking, Even If They Don’t Ask, we can find many parallels between each question and the concept of Love to developing a viable, meaningful mission, including many industry best practices.

For the next few months we’ll take a look at  some of these questions and relate it to the concept of love, blending many of the hard core, practical business applications of the head with the more subtle, evolutionary qualities of the heart, to see if we can form a new paradigm for becoming an enlightened entrepreneur.

What Do You Do For A Living? = Love What You Do

Formal surveys now report an all-time high percentage of people who overtly hate their jobs, ranging anywhere from 39% for workers between 25 and 45 years old, to an overall 80% of all respondents who reported job dissatisfaction according to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey.

Some of these surveys were taken in 2007, before the recession hit, when many respondents were fully employed and earning lots of money. Evidently, money can’t buy happiness, but it can allow you to be miserable in a much nicer part of town!

One theory is that many young people, including many entrepreneurs, got sidetracked in their career by choosing a major in college that did not suit them. Rather than being authentic and taking authorship for one’s life, and then matching it up with something in the work world, they looked for outside validation from parents, teachers, friends and very often, simply the lure of money. Without first being true to oneself, including one’s interests and one’s values, and then choosing a career that best suits them, it’s no wonder job dissatisfaction rates are at an all time high.

When I graduated from college, I signed on with AT&T. It took me less than a year to figure out that I was an entrepreneur at heart. I subsequently quit and went to work for a small Investment Banker, and within three years, left to start my own nationwide financial planning and investment advising firm. Today, 30 years later, I still serve as a consultant to that industry.

One of the advantages of working for oneself is that you can combine your passion with your paycheck.  While there’s no scientific evidence for the old adage, “Love what you do and the money will follow,” it sure sounds like a lot more fun to me. Working eight hours a day (or more) at a job you hate weighs you down and can lead to poor physical and emotional health. And while there are lots of people who have made a fortune doing what they hate, many of the most successful people I know, including Michael Jordan and Steve Jobs, will tell you that their secret is, “I love what I do.  I’d do it for free if they didn’t pay me.”

Money was never the issue. In Jordon’s case, it was a matter of becoming the best, and taking the game to a new level. For Steve Jobs, it was a vision for changing how the entire world worked, played and communicated. Both of them danced to a different drummer. They endured distractions, sometimes even hardships, faced tremendous pressures but stayed true to themselves at each step along the way.  (Listen to Steve Jobs Stanford University commencement address online).  While we may never reach the heights of these two great entrepreneurs, each of us can apply their wisdom to our own situation. 

Recently, I was advising an attorney whom we’ll call Heather. Heather had gone to school 30 years ago at the urging of her mother to become a lawyer. She was bright, articulate and passionate. Over the years, she ended up narrowing her practice to family law which included many cases on domestic violence. She would go to court, day after day, and fight for the rights of women who were being taken advantage of. It was a noble cause. The problem was she hated it.

By the time she got to me, many years later, she was burned out. She began to resent her clients because many of them were poor and she often had to wrestle with them just to collect her fees.  She was putting on weight and her health began to fail. It was obvious she had changed as a person and had outgrown her career. The entire legal system no longer resonated with who she had become.

However, she had invested a lot of time, effort and money into her career. How could she call it quits now? What would she do? Where would she go? How could she reinvent herself? Doubt had paralyzed her.

A common stumbling block to loving what you do when it requires big changes is the lifestyle one has already carved out. We would rather be certain and miserable than face the uncertainty of being open to all possibilities, trusting in our abilities and having faith that everything will work out. The truth is, things are desperately trying to work themselves out, and we keep getting in the way by resisting. How much more misery would Heather choose to endure before she would make a change?

Because there is no one right career, a good question to ask in cases like these is, “What would you do if you had all the time, money, contacts, energy and resources in the world? In other words, if you had all the freedom in the world, what would you love to do?

Heather indicated that her passion was gardening and landscaping and anything to do with being outdoors. In fact, she had landscaped the entire property in the old historic house where she was paying office rent…for free! In fact, she hated being inside in front of a computer, or in court all day long. It was no surprise to her why she had been so miserable. I reminded her of Michael Jordan’s and Steve Jobs’ quote above. The light was starting to go on.

The much harder part was convincing her it was OK to make such a dramatic change after having invested so many years in the legal profession. Heather’s case wasn’t difficult or lengthy. The material lifestyle she had carved out wasn’t particularly extravagant. In fact, as an independent attorney and entrepreneur she was barely breaking even. We both agreed she was better off taking a job at Lowe’s or Home Depot in the gardening department, or working for a local landscaper, and eventually start her own company when she had saved up enough money. She would start by immediately taking home more money than she was currently earning as an attorney. In addition, she would receive benefits.

Love it or leave it. Life’s too short. Make room for someone else who will do a better job and appreciate the opportunity. Celebrate the fact that you found out who you are and what you love to do. Then go out and do it.

We all like to do business with people who are happy. Why not BE that happy person to whom others are attracted? If you do what you love and you are successful, you’ll be rich and happy.  If not, you’ll just be happy.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? Just about everything.  God bless Tina Turner. I’m just grateful Pandora wasn’t playing the classic by B.B. King, The Thrill Is Gone

 Next Month… Part 2, Love Who You Do It For

  Max Bolka, author, consciousness-based business & personal financial advisor and Ayurvedic stress management consultant, blends hard core practical business applications of the head with the more subtle, evolutionary aspects of the heart.  For information, including his free monthly "Bolkabits E-tips," E-mail info@maxbolka.com  
Info 828-299-7038 or visit  www.maxbolka.com  
© Copyright 2012 Max Bolka.  Reproduction in any form by written permission only.