I hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”.

What a bunch of BS.  ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get.

Now I am first going to say what I feel Cuban is really talking about here.  Mark is of course now on the TV Show “Shark Tank” and in addition to that I am sure he has people pitching ideas and products all the time.  Many of these people “believe” in the product even though it sucks and here he is equating passion for the item with passion for the industry or sector.

Let’s consider Thomas Edison, he was passionate about making a light bulb.  He knew what it would mean to the world and to him financially at the same time.  He however wasn’t passionate about any of the items he tried as filaments.  He used many different materials for the filament and when something didn’t work he moved on.  I think Mark may see so many people who are “addicted to the filament” of their idea that he has become jaded.

Why do I think that way?  Well, because Mark Cuban is the text book case of how following your passion can lead to billions.

You see Mark’s passion is basketball and he followed it. He followed it when he looked for a way to hear basketball games he could not hear in Dallas.  This led Mark to a partnership with Cameron Christopher Jaeb of Cameron Broadcast Systems.  Together the men took the company forward and it eventually became AudioNet which eventually became Broadcast.com.  That of course is what made Cuban a billionaire.

Cuban then used his new found wealth to buy the Dallas Mavericks which of course is an NBA BASKETBALL team, Mark’s passion eventually led to Dallas winning their first and only NBA Championship. One could argue that Cubans two most profitable moves were

1. Creating Audio.net TO LISTEN TO BASKETBALL GAMES eventually making him about 4 BILLION DOLLARS

2. Buying the Dallas Mavericks and now owning one of the most profitable NBA teams in the league.

In fact from my view point none of his other efforts come close to the two where he followed his passion.  So here we have multi billionaire Mark Cuban whom I could very well argue is a billionaire specifically because he did follow his passion saying not to follow yours.  Hmm, give his article a read, I think he actually makes some good points.  He also says,

Let me make this as clear as possible

1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.

2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.

3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it

4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.

Now I fully agree with those statements.  However why not work hard and become good at something you already love.  For me to ever change my view on this someone will have to show me a person really passionate about something that you can’t make money with.  Until such time, follow your passions folks, just also do as Mark says and invest your time wisely when you do.

The interview went great and I feel I really knocked it out of the park one the final  question, Glenn himself even told the last panel expert, “well do you want to follow that”.  The best part though other than seeing my son Matt while in Dallas was getting to spend time with two of our best friends Bryan and Kelly Black of ITS Tactical.

They had a birthday gift for my wonderful wife and Bryan got me a bottle of Johnnie Walker Double Black for a congratulations gift for landing the Beck interview.  I am now having a nip on the rocks, my GOD is this stuff good.  If you are a scotch fan this is one to try.  Last month my friend and business partner Neil Franklin brought me a bottle of Highland Park 18 year old single malt.  I have to say the Johnnie Double Black is just as good if not better.  It is now on my always stock list.  The real things that hit you with Double black are two distinct components.  First it is so smooth, like velvet smooth, like 200 bucks a bottle smooth for no where near that cost.  The second is the smoke, the smoke tones are much more robust then standard black and very very and I mean very nice.

A good prepper isn’t just prepared to survive he is prepared to enjoy life and folks good whiskey has no shelf life so it is one thing I have a really long term supply of.  Well after this whirlwind week, I am now chilling out with a few drams of one of my new found favorite velvet smooth blended scotch whiskeys.  I MIGHT sneak out on the deck for a good cigar too.  One thing I can say with an MSRP of 40 bucks Double Black is a friken steal, just friken wow I say as I take another sip.

In conclusion if you like scotch give Double Black a shot and this was one of the best weeks in a very long time. MANY THANKS to all who have listened to and shared TSP, and major thanks to my brother in arms and fellow entrepreneur Bryan Black for introducing me to one of my new top ten scotch whiskeys.  Last but certainly not least thanks to my beautiful and wonderful wife Dorothy who has stuck beside this crazy entrepreneur through some really wild rides.

I really don’t have a place to just publish my thoughts like any random blogger.  So now JackSpirko.net is the place for just that.