Be a “con-artist”: get paid for doing what you love!

I read somewhere a while back (my notes say it was in a Dan Sullivan article, but I didn’t note the title) that all successful entrepreneurs are essentially con artists – because they get other people to pay them for doing what they love, and would happily do for nothing. Now I’m a great advocate of spending your days doing what makes your heart sing, and of what’s known as the enjoyment-performance theory – and I believe that’s a theory that explains why these entrepreneurs aren’t really con-artists at all, they’re just very fortunate people. I was going to say “lucky” but actually, it has nothing to do with luck, it’s all about wisdom and application.

The enjoyment-performance theory states simply that we enjoy doing what we can do well, and because we enjoy it, we do it some more, and get even better at it. And so we enjoy it more, and do it more, and … well, I’m sure you get the picture (more on Enjoyment-Performance Theory in my post here). So those of us who manage to get paid for doing what we love aren’t conning anyone at all – by continuing to practice – and improve – our art, we become superb at doing it, and anyone who needs it done will get a superb job when they pay us to do it. Conversely, those who work hard at it, will probably make hard work of delivering value.

The trick, of course, is to find the people who need done what we do exceptionally well. Back to marketing and segmentation again … where’s that marketing guru Fraser Hay when you need him? Ah, yes, having a whale of a time helping people with their marketing, of course! Just like Richard White with his sales reluctance coaching, or Andy Lopata with his networking strategy, or maybe Derek Bishop with his customer service consulting, or Malcolm Tullett on risk & safety. Or dozens of other entrepreneurs I could mention, who spend their days doing what they love and getting paid for the massive value they add for their clients.

So go on – who could pay you for doing what you love to do?