Passion Is What Unlocks Your Hustler's Work Ethic

Passion for your quest will give you the strength for all the work required to succeed.
November 17, 2016 5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Why is it that some people seem to be able to crank out 80 hour work weeks like they are child’s play while others can’t get through a four hour workday without having a breakdown? Is it the way they were raised, genetic or just dumb luck?
I am a firm believer that work ethic starts with passion. And I don’t mean this in a fluffy, new age kind of way like most people do. I believe that there are three different types of passion that allow individuals to hustle like the 1 percent.
If you have one of these, you are good. If you have two, you are great. And if you have all three, then you are near unstoppable.
1. Passion for your work (your mission).
This is the common, “cliche” type of fire that you often see self-help gurus and motivational websites referring to. Like everyone says, if you love what you are doing, you will never work a day in your life.
But let’s look at this in practical terms.
Let’s say for example that you own an online fitness company that helps people struggling with obesity reclaim their bodies and their health. There are going to be parts of running this business that suck. That’s just the truth.
Especially if you are a fitness geek, you will have to learn how to start a blog and you probably won’t enjoy optimizing your website for SEO. Let’s not even get into marketing content on social media or designing ads for your campaigns. When you have a passion for what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter because you are on fire for the mission of your work.
You are passionate about helping people transform their bodies and you are willing to do whatever it takes to make a difference. It will be easy for you to work ungodly hours on tedious and boring tasks. You will be able to grind it out for days on end because you know you are changing lives.
2. Passion for excellence.
Some of you might own a business that you are not authentically passionate about.
You got into it because it was a great way to make money and support your family, not because you are in love with the work. That’s ok.
You can still be passionate in your work. It’s just a different kind of passion. It’s passion for excellence. Excellence is the desire that you see among many of the blue collar workers in the world today. I know many plumbers, landscapers and construction workers who are more passionate and hard working than even multi-millionaire entrepreneurs.
Is it because they love cleaning toilets, cutting yards or building homes?
Probably not.
Related: Passion, Freedom and Impact: The 3 Ingredients of Business Success
I think the real reason for their passion is because they were raised in a way that taught them to take pride in their work. If they do anything, they do it 110 percent, not because it’s something they want to do, but because they have a passion for doing excellent work. If they are doing the work, you can be sure they are going to do it to the best of their ability and then some.
This is the attitude that you must adopt if you want to unlock your one-percent work ethic. It doesn’t matter whether you love what you are doing or if you hate it. You are going to work your tail off until it is the best possible job that can be done because you are the one doing it.
3. Passion for life.
This is the last and possibly most important type of passion that you can have.
If you are an entrepreneur, your business is supporting your lifestyle and your ability to do the things that you love. Unless you are passionate about the life that you are living, there is nothing on the face of this earth that will get you to work harder.
When I was growing up, my dad worked a job that he disliked. And yet, I have never seen someone work as hard at that job as he did. It wasn’t because he loved the work or even that he believed in what his company stood for.
It was because he loved his family and was willing to work as hard as necessary to ensure that he could provide for us while we were growing up. He was passionate about the life he was able to provide for us and this made him hustle like nobody else. Whether you have a family or not, you can still implement this point into your life.
Design a life that you love living. A life you are passionate about. And you will work as hard as needed to keep that lifestyle going.
The internet has all but butchered the topic of passion in recent years. It has made people believe that unless they make a living passively from a company built around their favorite hobby, they are failing at life.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you have realized that this simply isn’t true. You can be hustle like crazy in your business whether you love what you do or not. You can hustle like crazy because of your passion. It doesn’t matter whether you are passionate about your mission, the quality of your work, or simply maintaining a particular lifestyle.
As long as you have something you are passionate about, the work ethic will come.