Lifestyle

How To Turn Passion Into Billions

by Ryan Babikian

The single greatest attribute of the Elite entrepreneur is the ability to convert passion into absolute success. In fact, most of the billion dollar startups that dominate the market today were born out of a founder's passion, aptitude, or interest in something relevant to their life, as a Gen-Yer. 

If you want to make billions, you must learn to look at the world with an entrepreneurial eye. Only then, will you be able to determine which of your interests is something that the world needs or wants. Executing the vision of a revolutionary idea will also be optimized by having an aptitude or passion in that field, which is exactly what these Elite billionaires did to turn their concepts into businesses the world relies on:

Twitter

Jack Dorsey, an icon of the new startup boom, founded Twitter after a simple interest and observation lead him into exploring it further. While working on another startup, Dorsey became disinterested in the failing project (that he had no stake in). But fortunately, he was surrounded by like-minded, equally driven people, which would prove to be the first step of founding Twitter.

Noah Glass - founder of that failing project, Odeo - gravitated toward Jack Dorsey, whom Glass says was "one of the stars of the company."  Jack had an idea for a completely different product that revolved around "status" - what people were doing at a given time. Glass said:

I got the impression he was unhappy with what he was working on –  a lot of cleanup work on Odeo. He started talking to me about this idea of status and how he was really interested in status. I was trying to figure out what it was he found compelling about it." There was a moment when I was sitting with Jack and I said, 'Oh, I do see how this could really come together to make something really compelling.' We were sitting on Mission St. in the car in the rain. We were going out and I was dropping him off and having this conversation. It all fit together for me."

What's more is employees and investors recall that "no one was as passionate about Twitter as Dorsey was... not even remotely " His interest - or observation - lead to a million dollar idea. But his execution - enhanced by passion - turned it into a billion dollar idea.

Apple

Dorsey is known as the "next Steve Jobs".. and for good reason. Apple Founder Steve Jobs is another lesson in the flesh about passion and interest as a vehicle of success. Jobs was in a shitty situation in college, just like many of us are: broke, uninterested in classes, and uncertain where his future lies.

Jobs started to unlock his potential when he removes himself from the confines of college. As soon as he officially dropped out, he was free... free to observe, to learn, and to be passionate. Ironically, it was only then that Jobs started going to classes. And no, not classes for his major - classes that he dropped in on simply out of curiosity.

His aptitude was in programming and computers. His interest was in personalization, disrupting, and simplicity. Sure enough this passion motivated Jobs to change the world.. yet, he didn't even know it yet at the time. Apple Co-founder Wozniak and Jobs began their venture in a garage with the goal of brining computers to mainstream America.

But what made Apple so different than others doing it at the same time was - again - Job's interests. For example, Jobs was mesmerized by a design class that he dropped in on at school. In fact, he was so interested that he incorporated the typeset and fonts displayed in that class into Apple's computers.

Another noteworthy fact is that - at the time - Jobs was into heavy experimentation. Naturally, this lead to some drug use. After an LSD trip, Job's way of perceiving the world had changed... for the better. Without it, we would not have Apple. His trip provided the inspiration necessary to put the last pieces of the puzzle together. Through immense passion and interest, Jobs changed the world.

And you can, too. Use your passion to build the next big thing. Observe the world you live and disrupt it. Utilize your aptitude to better your execution. If so, the billions will be yours.

Elite.