As an entrepreneur, you have to get over impostor syndrome, but after last night’s LinkedIn Local Chicago event I discovered another solo-preneurial neurosis: passion envy.
If you’ve been to a networking event in Chicago, you know the feeling of being in over your head, that every one of these smart, hip, put-together people belongs there more than you. I try to remind myself that that little voice in the back of my head that says, “they’re onto you—make your escape before they call you out!” is probably in the backs of the heads of a lot of folks in the room.
Like when you tell someone who’s afraid of dogs that “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.” It’s not necessarily true, but it’s expedient.
I can eventually settle into just meeting people and enjoying the experience, but once in a while, like last night, the passion envy kicks in.
Passion envy is the desire to have the same kind of drive and clarity that another entrepreneur has. It may entail a life experience inferiority complex, a rather complicated and sometimes ugly condition of feeling that others’ pain has given them an advantage over your relative comfort.
Fortunately, none of these anxieties is incompatible with inspiration, and the evening had much of that.
Making a Living, Making a Difference
The event, called “Making a Living While Making a Difference,” concerned the intersection of doing good work and doing good. How do you balance earning a living and helping worthy causes? How do you decide which causes to support? Is it possible to marry your work with your charitable interests?
As you might expect, there was a range of responses to the core question. The panel opened with a presentation by Sandee Kastrul of i.c.stars, an organization that trains students in the intersection of leadership and technology and empowers them to make a change in their communities.
Kastrul entertained us with stories of teaching high-school chemistry, but those stories led eventually to her realization that what she really wanted to do was raise up change-makers, which led to her creation of i.c.stars.
It was inspiring stuff, and I think most of us could have listened to her for another hour and thought it worth the price of admission. I encourage you to check out their site and learn more about the cool work they’re doing.
Three Models of Professional Philanthropy
The panelists represented three different approaches to making a difference. Each, however, described a similar moment in their lives and careers when they were confronted with the choice of carrying on as normal or engaging in something they felt passionately about.
Thea Polancic represented what we can call the organizational approach. Though she found meaning in her consulting career, at some point she realized she needed something else in addition.
“Like a lot of people, I didn’t want to wait until later to do the meaningful work,” she explained. “I wanted purpose now.”
Her solution was to start the Chicago chapter of Conscious Capitalism, an organization dedicated to inspiring businesses to put purpose first.
Purvi-Sonia Davé took the vocational approach. She shared how she went through a personal crisis rooted in her relationship with her parents and how she was taught to experience and express emotion. Out of that, she created the FamTyme app, “an emotional wellbeing platform for families” that helps both kids and parents learn about their emotions.
It’s a great example of taking one’s own pain and turning it into an opportunity for helping others. Here’s a fun video describing the app:
After sharing some of her experience growing up in communist Poland, she said that “giving has to be a lifestyle; it has to be part of everything you do.”
That’s why now, as CEO and principal photographer of Creative M Media, she sees charitable or scale work as a seamless part of her business. She takes on purpose-driven projects as part of the normal mix of her freelance clients.
“For me, it’s about values,” she said. “I ask myself, ‘Do I believe in this? Would I do this even if I wasn’t paid?’”
In later remarks, she pointed out that low- to no-fee work is as much about relationships as her standard-rate work.
“I ask, ‘Do I want to build a relationship with this person?’ Because I know that if I develop that relationship, those people will lift me up, too.”
In other words, you do good work because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s not a one-way street. That good work eventually comes back around to you.
Passion Envy
Like most successful entrepreneurs I’ve learned from, passion plays a central role in why they get up in the morning and dive into their work with such energy.
And, I’ve got to admit, I envy that kind of passion. I’ve never been a passionate person, never let myself want something as much as these women have. I don’t doubt that that’s holding me back. Sometimes I want to hear more stories of people finding their passion in the hopes that something will click for me. Other times I don’t want to hear them at all.
I saw my way to a solution in a couple comments from the panel. Purvi Davé, for instance, shared how the more candid and vulnerable she has been about her own pain, the more she’s able to connect with people (she could have been a brand ambassador for Brené Brown).
That’s why I’m coming clean about my own issues, in the hopes that they will resonate with someone else and maybe encourage them. After all, when I think about my own passion, what motivates me to do what I do, I conclude it’s something like:
I want to help people get clarity on the value they have to offer the world and then help them find the words to share it.
My envy of others’ passion becomes my drive to help others clarify and communicate theirs. I always was a one for irony.
But, as Thea Poloncic said at the end of the evening, “The one thing you can do is to day by day get closer to your purpose.”
Here’s to another day.
And, as always, if you want to work with me to help clarify and communicate your message, contact me.
Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst
