Pursuing Passion and Ambition for Personal Development

I was in ninth grade when I did my first dance. I did a solo routine in front of very limited crowd. It was magical.

When the performance ended I stood there and everybody applauded. I just stood there absorbing as much as I can. I was the happiest. I was thinking this is best night of my life and nothing can be compared to that feeling.

True story.

That night gave boost to my passion: Dancing. I started rehearsing more. I used to dance in front of television copying the latest hook steps of all the songs and doing my virtual choreography for every song in my mind. But soon those afternoon practices turned into study classes and heavy home works from school.

When it came time to apply for college I was so far away from passion that I ended up taking my degree in computers.

Do I regret that? No.

Overtime I realized dancing was not my passion, it was more a stressbuster for me. I enjoyed dancing and that was it. My ambition was different.

My ambition was to become a business man. I didn’t know that all along. I wandered into different lifestyles and job to search for that satisfaction but all in vain. About 2 years ago I started asking myself questions like

 Do you love what you do every day? Do you have dreams and aspirations to do something else? What is it? How are you going to get there?

And one fine day I decided to listen to my inner self. I left my job and decided to go into a fulltime startup. The force was so strong that I stopped caring about “What ifs”. I decided to  make my ambition my passion. I simply gave my resignation and decided to jump into the sea.

Of course I still had to learn swimming and in process of that I was drowning, suffocating and continuously trying to stay above the water, somehow I survived and it was the best feeling ever.

In the midst of introspection I came up with the criteria I needed to remember and follow.

First, listen to yourself. Listen to your dissatisfaction.

We’ve have always been taught to be satisfied with what you have. Stop. Don’t do that. Stop being satisfied and ask for more. Look for more possibilities and do what really make you happy. If you are not where you want to be career wise then seek for guidance and look for resources which could help you reach where you want to reach. Don’t let your passion by doing same thing over and over which you don’t want to do.

Second, don’t be ashamed of unfamiliarity.

I knew going to business there was a ton I didn’t knew. Although I read about everything that I could I have no experience on handling a business. In addition to what I didn’t know, there was a lot I didn’t know I didn’t know—stuff about accounts, and management, and company policies.

Every part of this has been a learning process for me, and that can feel incredibly vulnerable. It’s easy to feel unconfident and mortified when you are working with experienced people. But once I kept my ego out of the equation I realized how fun it is to be at the starting line of a journey.

It reminds me of my school days when I was excited about learning new things every day.  It keeps the fire burning in you to learn more and more. It helps building the passion.

Surely I would feel more confident if I knew things but this was not bad either. If you too are the beginner, remember: this feeling won’t last forever. No one loses respect for someone just because they are new. Hang in there and keep trying.

Third, don’t be afraid of Failures.

Failures are part of this journey. I never had a single day in which I didn’t screw up something. To this day, I cannot be sure that everything will be okay. For a while I got myself worked up and discouraged. I had no idea how to move forward. I was so afraid of things going wrong that I stopped doing things all together, which was more harmful.

Sometimes things doesn’t go as we planned and we get down on ourselves, we need to understand that it’s nearly impossible to make the smart plan when you are learning things. The only thing you should expect when you are doing something new is unexpected. The good thing is, unexpected things are not always bad 😉

So don’t let the failure hold you back. It’s a part of process.

Note: If you are looking for tips to teach your children about entrepreneurship. Check out our blog  Entrepreneurship Education for Young Kids