
Don't Follow Your Passion: A Smarter Way to Find a Product to Sell  - icey
http://www.shopify.com/blog/6187532-dont-follow-your-passion-a-smarter-way-to-find-a-product-to-sell
======
imgabe
I guess the formula for a mildly viral blog post is just to misinterpret a
popular saying so you can disagree with it. I really dislike it though.

"Follow your passion" is not advice given in response to the question "What
product should I sell?" Usually it's in response to "What should I do with my
life?" It doesn't help people differentiate between selling Star Wars
figurines vs. something else. It's meant to help you decide between selling
products online _at all_ versus, say, writing novels or being a carpenter, or
social work or some other calling.

Yes, if you take the advice outside of the context it's intended, it does
become quite terrible.

~~~
DanielRibeiro
Or, as Bret Victor said once[1], you can also follow a principle:

 _There are many ways to live your life. That's maybe the most important thing
to realize in your life, that every aspect of your life is a choice. There are
default choices. You can choose to sleepwalk through your life, and accept the
path that is laid out for you. You can choose to accept the world as it is.
But you don't have to. If there's something in the world that you feel is a
wrong, and you have a vision for what a better world could be, you can find
your guiding principle, and you can fight for a cause. So after this talk, I'd
like you to take a little time, and think about what matters to you, what you
believe in, and what you might fight for._

[1] [http://gumption.typepad.com/blog/2012/03/principle-
centered-...](http://gumption.typepad.com/blog/2012/03/principle-centered-
invention-bret-victor-on-tools-skills-crafts-and-causes.html)

~~~
eightbitman
I think it's okay to opt out of fighting. Too much of the narrative in places
like this refuse to acknowledge that it's also fine to live without trying to
rub up against something the whole time. There's nothing wrong with not having
big ambitions, and there's nothing wrong with the people who don't have them,
either.

------
cjy
The article isn't saying you shouldn't be passionate about your work, rather
that you shouldn't restrict yourself to selling in markets where you have a
personal interest.

I have mixed feelings about this. I started a website about senior care giving
because I thought there was a market need and advertising rates were/are
incredibly high. However, writing about senior care as a 27 year-old male is
mind numbing. The site failed because I had no motivation to create content
for it. So, the lack of passion can definitely result in failure.

It seems to me that the key to success (as noted by the article) is finding
where you can add the most value. I'd say that:

Value Added = Function(Knowledge, Work, Market Need)

If you work on something you are passionate you have a head start on the first
two. But, this doesn't matter if the market isn't there. The trick is finding
market needs where you are uniquely suited to add value. In a soundbite, you
shouldn't follow your passion, but you shouldn't ignore it either.

~~~
astrofinch
>advertising rates were/are incredibly high

How did you learn this?

~~~
cjy
By looking at Google Adwords. In senior care, there are a bunch of referral
companies that get big commissions when they place a senior in a private
facility. They bid up the price of advertising.

------
spiredigital
Originally written for the eCommerce market, it contains a lot of good advice
for startups like measuring market demand, doing competitive research and -
probably most importantly - making sure you're adding value by solving a
problem faced by your customers.

------
toddmorey
_It doesn't matter if you sell diapers or dentures; if you've built a
successful ecommerce business around a niche, I promise you'll become
passionate about it._

I totally disagree.

Yes, you need to head-check the ideas you are passionate about and see if they
can really grow into viable businesses. But you also need to check seemingly
lucrative ideas and see if you are passionate enough about the industry and
the concept to stick it out for the long term. You are entering a marriage.
Can this idea be both a great, supportive partner and your best friend?

After the initial buzz of building a business and the early success, what's
left over is a lot of time focused on your product and industry. If you don't
like golf, you probably shouldn't start a golf-focused e-commerce site.

~~~
spiredigital
OP here. I definitely understand where you're coming from but I've personally
experienced something different.

One of the eCommerce niches I entered based on research (not passion) was
trolling motors. Starting out, I had absolutely zero interest in them. None.
Never even used one in my life.

But after selling them for a few years and building a business around them,
I've come to be a trolling motor geek and even enthusiast. Driving down the
road, I'll crane my neck to see what type of motor the boat in the other lane
has, and I enjoy talking with customers about them on the phone.

Is it really trolling motors I'm enamored with? Not really. They're just the
vehicle I've picked to build a business around. As I mention at the end of the
post, passion is 100% essential for success. In my case, I'm just passionate
about building eCommerce businesses and some of that eventually leaks over to
my product of choice.

------
richardw
This was on HN a month or so ago, and has a lot more detail about many of the
same points:

<http://www.ecommercefuel.com/profitable-ecommerce-ebook/>

One of the points raised: you're going to get interested in whatever the niche
is, if you plan on competing effectively. So choose wisely because you'll be
immersed in it.

------
qeorge
Does anyone have experience with drop shipping? Specifically, how to connect
with a supplier?

I get the concept, but I have no idea where to find a good supplier. We'd love
to do an e-commerce play but don't have anything (physical) to sell.

All the info I've found online has been spammy (e.g., lists of drop shippers
for sale on Digital Point).

~~~
spiredigital
Hey qeorge! Original author of the Shopify post here, and I do have a lot of
experience with drop shipping.

The best ways to find suppliers are:

1) Google, but you'll need to dig deep. Most real drop shipping suppliers
usually don't rank well as they are notoriously awful at marketing and SEO

2) Contact the manufacturer and ask which wholesalers they use to distribute
their products. There's a good chance some of these will drop ship.

3) Drop shipping directories like World Wide Brands. There are a lot of
spammy, low-quality lists out there so I'd stick to these guys if you do go
this route.

If you'd like to learn more, I've written a detailed eBook on eCommerce which
includes an entire section on how to find and evaluate drop shipping
suppliers. You can download it for free below:

<http://www.ecommercefuel.com/profitable-ecommerce-ebook/>

Also, I just finished a screencast on finding drop shipping suppliers which
I'll be posting to my blog in the next few days.

Hope this helps, and best of luck!

~~~
qeorge
Thank you so much! Wow. Just seeing this response.

I'll definitely check out your eBook. Thanks again!

------
programminggeek
This is good advice to the millions of people who start a
blog/website/ecommerce store/hobby/business that they want to make money from.
It's not always about what you love, it's about what you can sell. Sometimes
your passion can become a profit center, but not always.

------
NathanRice
It is very easy to find a niche related to something you actually like. The
title of this article is a troll.

But, that being said, all you people who can't do market research, please
follow this advice to try and chase the low hanging fruit. I'll continue
turning over rocks to find gold. Stuff like this just keeps you the hell out
of my way.

~~~
clarky07
hopefully you are less of a dick to your customers in these awesome niches you
are serving.

~~~
NathanRice
I will be a dick repeatedly and to the greatest of my ability to people who
create only to make money. Create something beautiful and figure out how to
market it, don't find a market and try to capitalize on it. Steve Jobs called
people who try to squeeze markets rather than create great things "sick,"
"demented," and "parasites." In this case I think he's right.

