Here are a few challenges associated with the "Do what you love" cliché:

• How do I find know if I love something if I've never done it?
• I have so many interests! How do I decide?
• How do I take what I love and make it into a business?

I have the advantage of fifteen years of experience to look back on, and so I can apply 20/20 hindsight. Perhaps it will be of benefit as you start to consider your future business endeavors. In order to answer some of these questions, my advice is that you start to regularly ask yourself, "Why?" Hopefully you'll see a pattern emerge.

I like to figure things out. I like to calculate and think ahead and identify a solution. I like playing chess and working a few moves ahead, and that has stayed with me in nearly every aspect of my life. I really enjoy understanding the process, and I like improving the process. If you will, I love to game the system.

My working career began at FedEx in 1990 at the age of 18. I worked at the airport location here in Milwaukee, loading planes and trucks in the middle of the night. Certainly not the most glamorous job, but there are aspects of that job that helped set my course. Looking back, here's what I can tell you started there and has stayed with me.

At FedEx, that meant stacking freight in a container so that it wouldn't move during transport. Why? Several reasons. First, I liked the math and physics of it - "T-stacking" a container made sense, and if I did it right, nothing moved during shipping and nothing got crushed. Another benefit - more freight fit, which made for a more efficient operation. That's the "game the system" side that I like so much. How could I make it better or easier? A third plus - oh, it pissed me off when I opened a container with thousands of pounds of freight only to have a box fall on me because someone else didn't stack the freight smartly. So, pay it forward a little. I didn't want my stacking scheme hurting someone else.

From the airport, I moved into the newly emerging PC environment at FedEx, and worked on databases and spreadsheets to help analyze freight flow and route scheduling. Again, I enjoyed figuring out the formula's in Excel and Access to get the accurate, useful information we needed, and then working to understand and analyze just what that data meant and how it could help change operations. I also dove into the ISO 9000 quality systems integration that FedEx implemented, which looked closely at processes, procedures, and Best Practices.

My passion doesn't manifest only from my job though. Over the past ten years, my wife and I have come to truly enjoy scuba diving, and with it, I also took up underwater photography. With diving, while I love the opportunity to experience sea life up close, I get just as much excitement from improving my diving skills. What can I do to better control my buoyancy? How does my breathing affect me in the water. How can I dive with less weight in my vest, so I can stay under longer? What equipment changes can I make that allow me to be more hydrodynamic, or move faster, or with greater control and comfort?

Taking up underwater photography has set off the same desire for information and understanding. Good photography is both an art and a science. When I started, I'd get the accidental fabulous photo, but I didn't know why. Now, after several classes and cameras and tens of thousands of photos, I'm a much better photographer... and I understand why. I love the art behind composing a good photo as well as the technical aspects of the camera and lens that help make that composition work.

So, after you take an honest, objective look at what you are really passionate about and more importantly why, then the business ideas can flow from there. I will dive into that aspect in the next post.

I like to think that if there is a marketing tool or tactic that can be implemented with measurable results for better interaction and lead conversion, then I will likely explore it. I have indicated in the past that I appreciate the "wide-open cookie jar of marketing possibilities" as a benefit of working for a small business. Admittedly, with the copious number of tools available, I do get pretty excited about quite a few things.

As a result, I periodically evaluate existing marketing tools and potential tactics against my overall marketing strategy to make sure that I’m not sacrificing effectiveness by not spending as much time with each that I should.

The large quantity of marketing tactics I have chosen to employ usually means that I just work more, much to the chagrin of the boss, and for which I receive regular chastising. But if I take the time to successfully implement a new tool, or do something like completely restructure our adwords program complete with vertical-specific, keyword silo-ed, tiered campaigns with multi-variate landing pages for each, and the results are very positive, I want to continue utilizing such plans.

The problem as a one-man marketer for a small software shop, is that I found myself spread pretty thin in the attempt to maximize effectiveness of so many tools and ideas.

This, along with my decision before the first of the year to migrate to a new marketing automation platform as well as a new CRM whilst preparing for a new product launch, led the boss to ask me a very pointed question, “Do you need some help?”

My Initial reaction was, “Certainly not, I should definitely be able to handle effective marketing for a software shop our size.” But the more I thought about it, I realized that I really only had two options - Cut back on the number of individual endeavors so I wouldn’t be working as much, or hire an assistant.

Stubborn pride was never an issue, I always focus on what is most beneficial for the company. But I tend to be the driven sort, and had already invested so much time establishing successful campaigns, and had so many things I still wanted to dive into, that justifying the extra cost for additional sales was kind of a no-brainer.

I think it is important to understand that there definitely can be too much marketing, the key is how you most effectively manage your time to maximize the success of each tool you use.

I’m very grateful that right about the time I should have reined myself in, not only was the boss already on top of it, but the company was in a position to bring on an extra employee.

Bonus is that we just need to find a replacement for my new marketing assistant, Tish, who is moving over from our sales department. Turns out she has an MBA in Marketing – who knew?

The nature of the cliché, "Do what you love," is not lost on me, although I have espoused that very advice more times than I can count. Along with that, I think owning a business must also be associated with, "Do what you're good at." Most clichés though, like most stereotypes, have some basis in truth, and I truly believe that this one is perhaps the most important and accurate.

The great challenges with this bit of advice though? First, identifying something you truly enjoy. Second, identifying those things that you are indeed good at.

Arguably, American Idol is the easiest and best example of these two principles. Undeniably, the finalists both love singing and performing, and have the natural talent to go along with that drive. Also, of the several thousand applicants, even though most love singing (although obviously some just want the 15 seconds of fame) and many are undoubtedly talented, all but a select few will not get their chance at stardom for whatever reason. Who do we remember the most though? Those poor wretched fools, who love to sing, who truly believe they can, and have been lied to by their parents and friends all their lives!

Realizing your dreams and aspirations requires understanding your dreams and aspirations, and then establishing whether you have the talents and skills to make them a reality. As much as I might enjoy the rock star ideal, I also realize that I have a great voice for radio... announcing. I'm never going to be a rock star, and that's OK.

When I started college (which I never finished), I started off along a path toward the maths and sciences, most likely leading to some type of engineering degree. Why? Because in high school I had excelled in the maths and sciences, having completed pre-calculus, physics, chemistry, etc., mostly by my junior year. They were a natural fit, I was good at them, and being 17, and obviously heading to college, they were my destiny.

Fortunately for me, it sucked! Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy some of what I was doing. I've found my math, chemistry and physics knowledge to be very helpful throughout the years. However, it wasn't my calling. I was a different type of geek.

Do you remember the dread that sat in the pit of your stomach when you discovered that you had to take "Speech" class in high school. My recollection is that it was the class that students were the most scared of, and I was no exception. Yet there it was, staring me in my pimpled face, sophomore year. Here I was, a member of the chess team, an outcast from baseball having been hit by the pitching machine, and now faced with the terror of speaking in front of twenty or so other teenagers. As a child of the 80's, all I can say is, "Gag me with a spoon!"

However, that semester of speech class may have made more of an impact on my future career than any other single educational experience. I loved it! And I was good at it. I never expected that I would go on to become an actor or great orator, but I found that I was very comfortable in front of people, and that I could readily get my point across to an audience.

Of course, it wasn't until years later that I finally put two and two together, after a failed college extravaganza, and the realization that I would never be an engineer. The truth was that I continued to return to teaching in some manner: My years at FedEx lead me to software and ISO 9000  training there. Later, I did technical training on A+ certifications, QuickBooks, and Visual Basic. My favorite class to teach - Intro to PCs, which normally consisted of twenty or so 70+ year old students who had never touched a mouse in their lives. I loved it. Teaching became my passion. Eventually, that led to my teaching Symantec Ghost training courses, and running into a gentleman who introduced me to what became the Universal Imaging Utility, which has allowed Big Bang to thrive.

My passions and skills have changed over the years, but I am eternally grateful for that sophomore year high school speech class.