Everything.

Love is at the core of entrepreneurship.

Love is what drives true entrepreneurial endeavours.

Love is the reason why you think that idea of yours is going to change the world.

Love is the reason why you gave up everything else to chase your entrepreneurial dreams.

Love is why you are risking everything you’ve ever known and owned in pursuit of an idea.

Love is why you jump out of bed in a scurry to pen down an idea that you conceived in your sleep.

Love is the source of your passion.

Love is the fuel for your creativity.

Love is the energy we use up for creation.

Love is the source of inspiration for ground breaking innovations and inventions.

Love is what keeps you going when everything else fails.

Love is what makes the journey worthwhile.

Love is what deepens your commitment to your idea and business.

Love is your springboard for business success.

Love is indeed the killer app.

Love is the magic formula that attracts market dominance.

Love is the secret to exceptional business performance.

Without love, our entrepreneurial lives will be sour, insignificant and unfulfilling.

Without love, an entrepreneur is like a soldier at war without a mission.

Without love, an entrepreneur is like a treasure hunter without a treasure map.

Without love, an entrepreneur is like an electrical current without a voltage regulator.

Without love, an entrepreneur is directionless.

Without love there’s no point being an entrepreneur!

An Entrepreneurial Case Study Of LOVE

Exactly 10 years after tribal leader Steve Jobs and his partner Steve Wozniak, worked very hard to build Apple Inc. from a garage, Steve Jobs was fired by the board of the company he founded.

Here’s how the funny story happened.

In 1983, Steve Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple’s CEO, asking,

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

In May 1985, following an internal power struggle there was a vote and it turned out that the board members were in favour of John Sculley whom Steve Jobs’ had brought in earlier to help co-run the business.

So at age 30, Steve Jobs was publicly dismissed from his own company. Unlike most people, who would have simply settled down to begin to enjoy the fruits of their labor, Steve Jobs saw this as an opportunity to start from the scratch doing what he loved.

According to him, he might have publicly lost his job, but he didn’t lose his work. A job is the duty you perform for a company based on the position you occupy. Your work is the duty you perform for yourself based on the joy you derive from it.

A twist of fate

Steve Jobs never got deterred but went ahead to do the things he loved. As a result, he built over from scratch; two great companies – NeXT and Pixar Animations.

As fate would have it, one of the companies he built, NeXT invented a software called OPENSTEP which became a huge success in the market. Eventually, Apple purchased NeXT on December 20, 1996 for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock, and much of the current Mac OS X system is built on the OPENSTEP foundation. In the end, the same board that fired Steve Jobs had no choice but to ask him to come back and take over the affairs of his first love; Apple Inc.

This event earned Steve Jobs the title of the greatest comeback kid in business. As a proof of Steve Jobs love for his work the dying company bounced back to life as Steve pioneered the lunch of an unusual invention iPod. Fast forward to today; Steve Jobs is still coming up with brilliant ideas such as the iPhone, iPad, itunes, and so on as a result of his love for his work.

During his popular Stanford University commencement address of 2005, Steve Jobs shared three lessons from his life, all of which contributed to his entrepreneurial success. At the core of these lessons, is no other factor than LOVE FOR THE WORK.

Why Does Love Count?

The journey into entrepreneurship begins with the conception of an idea. The idea can be in any of these two forms:

1.       Problem Recognition

2.       Solution Creation

Problem Recognition:

This refers to when an entrepreneur identifies a particular problem plaguing the members of a particular society. An idea that is inspired through the recognition of a problem leaves the burden of finding a solution to the identified problem on the entrepreneur.

Any idea that falls under the problem recognition form is what is known as innovation. The problem identified inspires a more creative solution to the already existing problem. Innovations are usually an improvement of an already existing solution which was not yet fully explored.

A typical example of an idea that originated as a result of recognizing a problem is the creation of laptop computers. Computers already existed but they were fixed and posed a mobility problem, recognizing this problem led to the innovation of laptop computers.

Solution Creation:

This refers to when an entrepreneur conceives an idea that serves as a possible solution to an unknown problem. An idea that falls under this solution creation form leaves the burden of matching the solution created to an unrecognized problem.

Any idea that falls under the solution creation form is what is referred to as invention. They are simply thought out from thin air and suddenly people wake up to the realization that such an invention was actually needed.

A typical example is the idea of creating the iPod inspired by Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. Whoever knew people had a problem with how they were currently listening, buying and storing music? The iPod came along as a pure invention and the market suddenly realized they needed such a device. The same thing is true of Facebook and Twitter.

Regardless of what form an idea is, the source of every idea be it an innovation or an invention is passion and the root of passion is love.

What is Passion?

Passion is the love for creation.

Passion is a strong desire you have to do something you deeply care about.

The essence of passion is creative expression. The best expression of passion is taking creative actions.

Without taking an action to create something, a person cannot be regarded as having passion. The urge to create is the evidence of passion. Why? Because passion is what fuels our creativity. Your creativity is limited by your passion. The extent to which you explore your creativity is the proof of the passion you possess.

Tapping Into Passion

The only way to naturally be in alignment with your passion everyday of your life is to dedicate your life to the service of doing what you love. Until you find and commit to doing the work you love, passion will be replaced by frustration.

Doing what you love is how you tap into and unleash your passion. And the more passion you are able to exhibit, the more creative ideas you are able to come up with.

When your work doesn’t feel like work anymore but rather feels like play, know that you’ve found the work you love and getting ideas for innovation and invention will no longer be difficult because you’re driven by passion.

Over to You

–          How has love for what you do, helped you in coming up with unusual ideas in your business?

–          Do you see Love as the core of all that we do as entrepreneurs? Kindly share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.