Some people ask me why I didn’t opt for getting a real job coming out of college. Looking back now, it was probably a combination of exactly 10 things. A glum economy was one, a bad back was two, a great and supportive sister was three, and a deep burning passion was/is four to ten. I wanted to start a business because the single biggest lesson I learned from college is that passion drives happiness. I asked myself, if I wanted to be fully happy, shouldn’t I do be doing things that I really enjoy and am passionate about? It was pretty obvious at that point, that joining the corporate world would have definitely not allowed me to do so. I’ve heard too many people complaining about work and how it’s so unstable, tiring, boring, and how they wished that they tried to start a business BEFORE they started to settle down. I’ve also learned from my father that sometimes, even if you work hard for 20+ years straight for the same company, you can still be left with nothing, not even a compensation package.

On a random day of discouragement from the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, I had a resonating conversation with one of my best friends regarding my ventures. As I struggled to find the right words to express what I’ve felt for the past few years, he told me:

…you want to do things how YOU see it, not how everyone else does it.

It lingers in my head everyday, because I realized that the disgusting feeling of bottled up frustration deep in my chest was just that, immense dissatisfaction. At that moment, I also realized that it was normal. I was only frustrated and unhappy because starting and growing a small business is a very intimate thing. Once you put your whole heart into it and if it’s not how you want it, you’re going to be downright miserable until it is. In a recent blog post at 37signals, they highlight the connection between small business and passion, and the boom of small businesses worldwide:

…But people press on because it’s their passion. Small businesses are about passion and that’s why they’re so important. Passion and curiosity drive great things.

On that note, I encourage all of you, especially those of you who are young, to start deciphering exactly what it is that you are truly passionate about. As hard as starting a business is, it’s harder to fully discover your true passions in life. Some are lucky to find it early and most aren’t able to find it until later in life. You better start thinking about it now.