If this is your first time reading, I recommend you start with a new B2B SaaS venture.
tl;dr This is my first update of biweekly posts for my B2B SaaS venture challenge. I discuss how I plan to start my own B2B SaaS business, how idea extraction is the hardest part, general criteria to pick a market, the problem with the “follow your passion” platitude everyone says and the highs and lows so far in the first 2 weeks of this challenge.
To be clear, I am not starting completely fresh — this exploration actually started December last year.
In the spirit of transparency, I am following Dane Maxwell of The Foundation and his approach to building a successful B2B SaaS business.
I. General plan of attack
II. Idea extraction is the hardest stage
III. Picking a market
IV. The problem with passion
V. Highs and lows these past 2 weeks
VI. Lessons learned
Whereas the craftsman mindset focuses on what you can offer the world, the passion mindset focuses on what the world can offer you. This mindset is how most people approach their working lives.
There are two reasons why I dislike the passion mindset (that is, two reasons beyond the fact that. . .it’s based on a false premise). First, when you focus only on what your work offers you, it makes you hyperaware of what you don’t like about it, leading to chronic unhappiness. This is especially true for entry-level positions, which, by definition, are not going to be filled with challenging projects and autonomy—these come later. When you enter the working world with the passion mindset, the annoying tasks you’re assigned or the frustrations of corporate bureaucracy can become too much to handle.
Second, and more serious, the deep questions driving the passion mindset—’Who am I?’ and ‘What do I truly love?’—are essentially impossible to confirm. ‘Is this who I really am?’ and ‘Do I love this?’ rarely reduce to clear yes-or-no responses. In other words, the passion mindset is almost guaranteed to keep you perpetually unhappy and confused. . .
– Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, on why “pursue your passion” is dangerously destructive and to focus on being a craftsman instead
[Read more…] about Weeks #1-2: My plan of attack, picking a market and the problem with passion