Wednesday Wisdom: Curiosity vs. Passion in Entrepreneurship

Notorious for turning on Dave Matthews Band music when I drive anywhere, especially long distances, on a recent drive my mind didn’t need Dave’s beautiful sounds but rather wisdom from a feminine voice. Searching quickly through my iPod, I landed on one of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday podcasts featuring Elizabeth Gilbert, a New York Times best-selling author of Eat Pray Love. Liz, as she called herself over the airwaves, was sharing a public speaking engagement about passion that turned into a depressing experience for one attendee who posted a long letter on Liz’s Facebook wall.

Although Liz had been living her self-identified passion for years as a writer and author, trying to inspire everyone else to identify their one true calling, the attendee shared how she couldn’t identify a passion and felt hopeless after thinking everyone, including Liz, could and carried on their destiny every day. The critique made Liz pause, creating a reflective glance inward to evaluate if other people she loved and admired were successful because they chose only one passion to pursue in life.

Liz contemplated the life of her best friend and husband, both of whom did not have one passion they pursued; instead, they were like hummingbirds flitting in and out of new vistas, surroundings, and flowers that called their attention at the moment. Every dip, dive, and turn in their course led them to new, unique discoveries that colored their world in new depth and width opening the door to new experiences. Some “human hummingbirds” she knew actually found their true calling towards the end of their life journey after taking the roads less traveled.

Realizing she was wrong to motivate people to recognize the “one” thing that drove them forward in life, Liz now inspires others to be curious, taking the pressure out of not knowing what moves them instead of suggesting people add curiosity to their journey to enlighten their path. This made me think of women entrepreneurs some who start businesses built on a long time deep passion while others take the curious route dipping in and out of entrepreneurial experiences like hummingbirds gathering delicious nectar as they travel.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom might make you analyze your own perspective on passion and curiosity as it relates to yourself as an entrepreneur. Are you more like Liz, someone focused on making the world a better place because of one strong passion or like a hummingbird where diverse experiences have opened more vistas for you in business life? There isn’t a right or wrong answer, just a unique perspective to view your own world.