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76 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

involves tough choices. You want to stay involved in your golf group
or continue to have breakfast every Friday with friends from your for-
mer job, but these will steal time away from the priorities of your
startup. You want to be included in social events and fishing trips, take
in concerts, and keep your spot on the neighborhood council. And you
want to hang on to those favorite clients that you’ve had for years, who
are lucrative but not aligned with how you need to spend time in
building your new business.

William Bridges, in his classic book, Transitions, asserts that every
new beginning starts with endings.15 Over decades of working with
thousands of people, struggling to navigate major changes in their lives
(e.g., divorce, job loss, or death of a loved one), he noticed that the
concrete, external changes in our lives—moving into a new house or
office, for example, or driving to a new work location—are easily ab-
sorbed by most people. What usually trips us up or holds us back is
the thicket-like process of inner transition, where we hold on to ex-
pectations, beliefs, or attitudes that are relics of the past. The key to
marshalling your energy for the future is to acknowledge what needs
to be laid to rest, finish any unfinished business, and don’t look back.

Purifying Your Entrepreneurial Passion

As I mentioned earlier in this chapter, avoiding the passion trap does-
n’t require that you suppress your enthusiasm or commitment. In-
stead, the solution lies in elevating and focusing your positive energy,
creating a more pure, potent, and sustainable brand of passion. Your
startup idea deserves no less.

Here are four principles for purifying your startup passion, while
also avoiding the dangers it might bring: understand it, connect it,
strengthen it, and direct it.

UNDERSTAND YOUR PASSION

When I was nine or ten years old, I remember telling my dad that I
had butterflies in my stomach before a little league football game.
“That’s okay,” he said. “It means you’re excited, and you want to do

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