To be in your sweet spot requires more than just living in your area of passion. There are four factors that make it a viable dream... 1. Passion, 2. Giftedness, 3. Platform, and 4. Demand.
You have to build-up all four of them...
1. It takes tremendous focus to figure out what you're passionate about because you have to sort through all of the counterfeit interests that come from idolizing others, romanticizing certain industries, and underestimating the work of the dream.
2. Having a platform makes it possible for you to live out your God-given dream without someone else's permission. If I want to be a filmmaker, for example, but don't have a platform to show my films, I'm a glorified beggar. The best I can hope for is "getting discovered."
3. Our gifts determine whether we can be the "artist" or the "producer" in our particular fields. When I was in college, Ed Cash was an amazing singer and songwriter for Young Life. Nothing happened for him, so he started producing other people's records. He is now shaping the sounds you love in other successful artists. Most dreamers need a reality check on the best use of their own gifts.
4. Demand makes it possible for you to earn a living from your dream. This requires testing... trial and error... to find the marketability of our ideas. A dream is a wonderful and inspiring thing, but if you can't monetize it, you have nothing more than a basement hobby.
2. Having a platform makes it possible for you to live out your God-given dream without someone else's permission. If I want to be a filmmaker, for example, but don't have a platform to show my films, I'm a glorified beggar. The best I can hope for is "getting discovered."
3. Our gifts determine whether we can be the "artist" or the "producer" in our particular fields. When I was in college, Ed Cash was an amazing singer and songwriter for Young Life. Nothing happened for him, so he started producing other people's records. He is now shaping the sounds you love in other successful artists. Most dreamers need a reality check on the best use of their own gifts.
4. Demand makes it possible for you to earn a living from your dream. This requires testing... trial and error... to find the marketability of our ideas. A dream is a wonderful and inspiring thing, but if you can't monetize it, you have nothing more than a basement hobby.
Wisdom, my friend, wisdom.
Posted by: wade | December 07, 2009 at 03:09 PM
This is an amazing post!
Posted by: @b_rewster | December 07, 2009 at 08:43 PM
Great stuff! And now Ed Cash still gets to sing and play with guys like Chris Tomlin. Point number 1 is huge!
Posted by: Ryan Shaughnessy | December 08, 2009 at 01:17 PM
this has been passed rather quickly amongst friends. challenging and provoking.
i'd be interested to know - in light of your journey (that didn't start yesterday):
how did you get here? i mean, what did it look like when there wasn't a platform? and...if you knew that 5 years ago wasn't the time for that platform, how did you wait?
Posted by: aaron | December 08, 2009 at 07:56 PM
fantastic post Ben...will be chewing on this longer than a banana Now & Later.
Posted by: bryan a | December 09, 2009 at 12:15 PM