When we hear about success stories about everyday individuals choosing to take the path less travelled and supposedly, “pursue their passion”, we tend to misattribute passion as the reason why they’re successful.

But the truth is: passion doesn’t sell.

People don’t buy your stuff because you’re passionate. People buy your stuff because they’re really good.

So if passion is not a good judge of whether you should quit your job or not, what is?

I get a lot of questions from individuals who are seriously considering leaving their jobs and concerned over when is the ‘right time’ to do it.

To be honest, that’s a really difficult question.

The concept of ‘the right time’ is so ambiguous and personal.

Some people believe that it’s the right time when they get that intuitive urge from God.

Some people believe it’s the right time when their schedule coincides with the Universe’s schedule.

Some people believe it’s the right time when the economy is doing better. Or when the blue harvest moon rises from the West.

All very vague and largely unhelpful answers.

But upon reading the book ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You’ by Cal Newport, I found a really good answer.

In the book, Newport talks about a particular law…

The Law of Financial Viability

The Law of Financial Viability states that when you’re deciding whether to ‘follow your passion’ or ‘start your own business’ or ‘do what you love’, seek evidence of whether people are willing to pay for it. If you find this evidence, go ahead and do it. If not, move on. 

When I say ‘willing to pay’, I don’t just mean customers willing to literally ‘buy stuff’ from you.

‘Willing to pay’ can mean any form of transaction where you acquire funds – getting a loan approved, winning a scholarship, convincing someone to hire you or getting funded by an investor.

This makes the definition of ‘pay for it’ very flexible – allowing you to think of different ways you can earn cash – instead of just having blinders on and narrowly thinking from a ‘buy and sell’ perspective.

In summary: do what people are willing to pay for.

And I’m not talking about doing what YOU THINK people will pay for.

No.

The trick is to get real-life, concrete, measurable evidence that someone is willing to fork out real cash in exchange for what you offer.

You can’t guess your way to success.

There are many ways to get evidence: You can interview and study actual individuals who are doing what you love and making the kind of money you’d like.

Run your own independent market survey. You can let people try your service for free in exchange for consumer data.

Go nuts.

Make moves.

You can’t make money if you’re not willing to make mistakes.

The methods don’t have to be ground-breaking. They just have to work.

In the book, Newport states that when it comes to major decisions affecting your career – money remains an effective judge of value.

Business – in its most fundamental form – is about the exchange of value for money. Let’s go back to basics.

If you’re struggling to raise money with your current idea – it’s not that the idea’s bad, it’s just that the people you’re trying to convince are not clear about why they should give their money to you.

People say that to run a business you just need to learn to solve problems. That’s only partially true.

To run a business, you need to learn to solve problems that people are willing to pay you to solve.

Let me give you an example from my own life.

Before I called myself a ‘peak performance coach’ and have clients hiring me, I started as a public speaking coach.

I remember when I charged as low as $30 per session. And I put up my services on Carousell – the online marketplace.

I hardly knew what I was doing. And I certainly didn’t make a lot of money. But that’s where I got my FIRST customer.

And a few more after that. That’s where I had real evidence that public speaking was one area which I was absolutely certain people would pay me for.

I wasn’t thinking so much about making the big bucks. I just needed an entry.

I needed to test the Law of Financial Viability for myself.

At first, people hired me because I could teach them to speak confidently.

But as I started getting my first few clients, I started introducing the concept of ‘peak performance’… in addition to public speaking.

The topics were not what my clients had expected. But when I introduced them, they found them highly valuable.

In fact, they started telling me how the peak performance element made public speaking tremendously easier.

But the best part is: I actually enjoyed teaching peak performance way more than public speaking. It made me unique (read: valuable). People would pay a little bit extra for it instead of just paying to learn public speaking.

So I ran with it and never looked back.

There are many intelligent, highly educated and well-intentioned people who tried doing business and failed… simply because they ignored the Law of Financial Viability.

A simple rule to follow, that cuts through the ‘passion-to-profit’ b*s and gets straight to the basic question: are people willing to pay you to do what you love?

It’s not about making money and getting rich. It’s about regaining control over your life.

And being realistic about it.

Your time on Earth is precious. So it makes sense to focus your valuable hours creating valuable things that people can enjoy and benefit from.

I’ve always considered myself a dreamer. But effective living is not built on dreams. It’s built on good ol’ fashioned pragmatism.

You don’t need to be money-minded.

You just need to keep the Law of Financial Viability in mind.