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This is part of an in depth review of  The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, by Mike Michalowicz.  This book is about being an entrepreneur and starting and running a successful business. I will focus on 1 section at at time and distill the best information to help your business now.  This should not be considered a replacement for the actual book, which will usually have a lot more in depth information as well as stories, which are an important way to communicate the essentials.  If you find the information in these posts helpful, I recommend buying the book.

Chapter 1 – Nature’s Calling

Build Your Business Around You

Mike Michalowicz starts out chapter one of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by talking about passion. He asserts that just as the warrior who is fighting for his country will fight harder than the paid mercenary, so too will the entrepreneur who starts a business because of her passion, and not just to try to cash in on the next big thing that she may not even be that interested in.

In order to gain real success, you need to start with your own passion. Don’t make the mistake of starting a business based on what you know. Rather, base it on what you love. A business takes all of your time. Your best bet is to create one that coincides with what you already live and breath.

If you don’t already know what you love, just take some time to listen to yourself. What do you love talking about or doing? What could you spend hours on? Look at your history, too. Has it always been so, or is this just the latest thing for you. Finding that inner passion that sticks with you is the first step to starting a business that will thrive.

Michalowicz advises that before you start a business, you should stop and take an introspective look at yourself. Think through who you are and what you love and believe. Also, think about what a successful business would mean for you and what the rewards would be. You, of course, want to make a lot of money. But there is probably more at stake. You want to wake up happy and go to bed happy. You want to make an impact and be loved. Think about the end result at the beginning.

Owning your own business can sap the life from you if you are not careful. That is why it is so important at the beginning to clearly define your goals. You don’t want to have to scrap by for money. At the same time, you don’t want the money to control you. If you have a family, that is probably of primary importance to you. You need to create a business that allows you the time to enjoy your family and the financial freedom to support your family. If you are not clear about this from the beginning, it is too easy to get caught in the trap of working too hard for the wrong reasons. Your business should support your life, not the other way around.

Michalowicz asserts that your business should not start based on the markets, the latest trends, or even with what customers supposedly want. A successful business always starts in one place. It starts with you.

Build your business around who you are, and success and happiness are likely to follow. Build it on the market or customers, and aggravation and heartache will likely follow. If you are going to start a business, you might as well start something that you will be ecstatic about every day.

The simple truth is that in order for your business to survive and then thrive, it has to be the best. And you can’t be the best if your heart and soul is not in it. If you only can put in enough effort to get just enough sales to survive, you are doomed to a sad existence. Build a business on your passion, however, and you will be able to create the best, most interesting company there is. It will be an extension of your passion.

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Coming next: Destroy Your Excuses

Buy or Not: This book is a buy.  The ideas presented here will re-frame how you think about your business and help you find your passion and put it in your business. Even if you already have a business, you can learn a lot from this book.  Buy this book at Amazon

Bradford Shimp helps small business owners and entrepreneurs build successful businesses.  Read his blog at www.allbizanswers.com.  Follow Bradford on Twitter.