You’ve probably seen one of these — a venn diagram that presents the path to meaningful work. They come in different varieties. Perhaps the one you saw has three circles. One represents what you’re passionate about, one represents what the world will pay for, and one represents what you’re good at.

If you can achieve that tiny overlapping space in the middle, congratulations! You’ve made it!

Some diagrams have two circles, some three. The Japanese Ikagai has four, adding to the mix what the world needs.

These diagrams are ubiquitous in the business and coaching world, and they set a pretty high bar for job satisfaction. As a result, many entrepreneurs believe that being led by their passion is a prerequisite for starting a successful organization. Definitely for starting one that they’ll enjoy running.

The problem with this narrative is that passion does not equal success. In fact, I would argue that too much passion in a business leads to failure.

The problem with passion

Let’s be clear that we’re talking about words, and we can interpret words in many different ways. What you mean when you say passion may be very different from what I mean.

What I’m talking about here is the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition: a strong and barely controllable emotion. It’s that heightened feeling you have that makes it hard to think logically.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with passion, with having barely controllable emotion. I do think that running a business with passion as your guide is a great way to watch your business fail.

Growing a business requires practicality, groundedness, measurable strategies — not passion.

I once worked as a software developer for a company led by an extraordinarily passionate entrepreneur. Unfortunately, we never built a sustainable business model, and the company crumbled over time.

Years later, that entrepreneur re-emerged to build two socially impactful, mission-driven businesses. His passion was exciting to the community, and many rallied around him to help.

There was a problem — no measurable financial results or sustainable business model. As reports of impending failure began to surface, the excitement turned to frustration, anger, and resentment. The fallout was ugly and completely unavoidable.

The entrepreneur built and led the business with passion, but he should have built it by focusing primarily on how it would make money, sustain itself. We make far fewer mistakes when our decisions are based on a clearly measurable analysis. We make lots of mistakes when we let passion drive those decisions.

Plus, for almost everyone, passions are ephemeral. Remember that year you spent completely entranced by Mongolian throat singing? Some passions don’t fade, but many will.

If that passion fades, the drive to successfully run your business will have to come from somewhere else.

So I can’t like what I do?

It’s a common misconception that not being passionate about what you do means you can’t like it or enjoy it.

False.

If you’re going to spend a significant portion of your waking hours doing something, then you should absolutely like it. Enjoying something and having passion for something aren’t necessarily the same.

Many successful people find happiness — perhaps even joy — in doing things well. Whether it’s managing their staff or producing a perfect product, the tasks themselves have meaning.

In his book Indistractable, Nir Eyal talks about how to invest in work that we don’t find “fun.”

“By relinquishing our notions about what fun should feel like,” he says, “we open ourselves up to seeing tasks in a new way.”

Eyal encourages the reader to focus on tasks themselves — on their variability, their “hidden beauty.” By paying attention and finding challenges you didn’t notice before, you can create novelty in even the most mundane tasks.

Eyal isn’t speaking directly to the question of passion, but his advice is useful in this context. Every job will have elements that don’t engender passion, that may not even be enjoyable. If you write those off as unimportant because they don’t fuel your passion, you’ll likely watch your company fail.

Finding pleasure and fulfillment in the business of running a business can lead you to a happiness that’s much more solid than passion.

Putting passion in the corner

Perhaps you’re already there. You turned your passion into a business. Now what? Doomed to fail?

Not if you learn when to tell your passion to take a back seat. Passion itself isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that in a business context, decisions made from a place of passion are often bad decisions. They ignore facts and difficult realities.

Here’s what you need to do to run your business with logic and pragmatism — whether you’re passionate or not.

Create SMART goals

It takes guts to start a business, but it takes clear goals and a strategy to make it successful. I've spoken and written about how important it is for an entrepreneur to have clear and measurable goals — for themselves and for their business.

An entrepreneur who knows where they're headed is more likely to get there.

SMART goals (Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Relevant-Time-based) can be challenging to create, but without them, you don’t have a path to follow. You end up relying on your gut and serendipity (which are as uncontrollable as passion).

Know your numbers

With a new coaching client, the first big thing we do (after setting goals) is focus on understanding the numbers. You’ve heard the expression, “numbers don’t lie.”

When it comes to your business’ financials, that’s true. The P&L and Balance Sheet together clearly show the health of your business. You learn and grow by understanding your customers, where revenues come from, your costs and margins, and your marketing effectiveness.

You must focus on financial awareness and making decisions based on numbers if you want to have a sustainable and growth-oriented company.

This is a place where passion can really get in the way. I’m frequently surprised by how many people start businesses without understanding where the money will come from to run the business.

I’ve seen organizations that were so passionate about the quality of their product or the availability of their service that they simply ignored the numbers. Offering a high-quality product is wonderful, but if you can’t produce it at a price people will pay, then your company will fail.

To be clear, I’m not saying that you have to be 100% profit driven. This same advice applies to non-profit organizations and social impact companies. The numbers have to work. You have to be bringing in enough to fund your initiatives, whether they’re profit-based or not. Your business model still has to be sustainable.

Get an unemotional, outside-in perspective

We work inside of our businesses every day. It can be hard for any of us to step back and see things unemotionally.

You can get an outside-in perspective through coaching, as well as through advisors, peers and Boards. Be sure to have a few people who can help you see your business without the emotion that you and your insiders inherently have (insiders usually include employees, consultants, investors, and family).

Although at times, an insider can have a less emotional perspective than a founder.

When I was the COO of CDNOW and we were starting to go through some hard times, I watched the stress our CEO was under and its impact on him. I was thankful that I didn’t have his job. We were losing money in a stagnant music industry with fierce competition and a crashing dotcom capital market. We were about to lose hundreds of jobs and years of hard work.

We ended up selling, and I was offered the CEO role when our founding CEO exited. I took the job. Insane, right?

Guess what? Despite the overwhelming challenges, difficult decisions to make, and constant harassment from our acquirer, I found myself comfortable and confident. We quickly saw success, right-sized the company (from 575 to 350 without significant impact to revenue), building focus, shifting marketing and pricing, quickly improving the bottom line by $40 million.

When I look back now, I know why. I wasn’t emotional about the company or the business. The music industry wasn’t my passion. It’s not that I didn’t care about the company or the hundreds of people on our team. I was tremendously committed. I just didn’t give birth to the company. It wasn’t my baby.

I was able to enter the role of CEO with an unemotional perspective on how to survive.

Make firm commitments to yourself and your loved ones

Our businesses don’t operate in a vacuum. Even when we’re trying to make decisions based on rational and measurable factors, we’re all human. Even entrepreneurs.

A passion for your start-up or new business is exactly the thing that leads entrepreneurs to stretch a venture past its breaking point — and in doing so, cause damage to your personal life or financial well being.

When I meet new entrepreneurs, I encourage them to write out and commit to some specific metrics. For instance, I’ll try this for three months. If we’re not breaking even, I’ll look for a new job. Or We’ll invest $30,000 of our own money into this. If by the end of six months, we haven’t made it back, we’ll close up shop. Some fixed time and investment to achieve a measurable outcome.

Making the decision to stop is emotional for anyone, no matter how reasonable you are. If you feel like you’re giving up on your passion, it’s even more challenging. Making firm commitments to yourself and to your loved ones (like your spouse or significant other, who’s wondering when you’re going to start bringing in some income again) keeps you honest when the emotion is hitting hard.

Final thoughts

I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting that we should live lives without passion — or that we must banish our emotions when we walk into the office.

Emotions are human, and trying to ignore or silence them will only cause them to rear up more. The key is to be aware. Be honest about where your emotions or your passions might trip you up. Have plans in place to ensure you’re operating in the best interests of growth and financial sustainability.

Passion should never be in the driver’s seat when you’re starting or running a business.

I know many in the entrepreneurial world disagree with me. What do you think? Share your take in the comments below. Or contact us to talk about how to set aside passion and focus on measurable success in your own business.