Passion + Muse = Success?

[Sukie]

I was reading Tim's recent blog post about Jaime Cevallos and his muse, the Swing Mechanic. It seems he's uber-passionate about major league baseball. In said post, Jaime is quoted as recommending that people not choose a muse right away if there is nothing they are so passionate about that it jumps off the wall at them.

Soooo, my question is, do you have to be passionate about your muse to be successful? All of the ideas I have had for muses are things I am interested in, but it doesn't mean I would necessarily devote my life to them; however, I feel they are needed in the world. I am a lifelong learner, so I gravitate toward information marketing (i.e. ebooks and other digital downloads), especially in health fields.

Also, Jaime has one major muse that he devotes his time toward. What's the consensus on having multiple muses? A total no, or a good idea (as long as they're thoroughly tested first, of course).

[liam75005]

You have to have several muses in the pipe. Either you can have one single muse that will allow you to reach your TDI but then it won't be forever. Indeed, as it is an information product, after a while you ll have reached a limit in the number of people you have reached and that's where you have to start up a new muse, the next one.

On the other side, if you're not completely passionate about it, you will not have the drive to achieve it. If you are passionnate about health and information, then go for an informational health book on a targeted niche / topic.

In the example of the baseball coach, you can read in the article that the guy has several muses in his plan : the first one is the training device, and a second one would be the coaching program/guidebook.

I hope it helped.

[Sukie]

Hi,

Thanks, yes, this does help my focus a bit. I am looking at a few different target markets, the first and most simple being people recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease (I have it and have been living gluten free for 5 years, although I will hire a medical researcher to write the actual book). I want to do this just to get comfortable with hiring off eLance and selling ebooks online.

I currently have a fabulous business helping people to achieve whole body health - mostly dealing with pain in the back, neck, shoulders, hips, knees, and feet. I will work next on translating the knowledge in my head into useable products for those who cannot come to my office....and then I will be able to hopefully reduce my client load and charge a bit more for each session. That's a book that only I can write, though.

Okay, I'm rambling, sorry!

[clanshrapnel]

Tim Ferriss himself has said no in one of his interviews (I think it's his latest video on ustream.tv where he was ditched by Gary).

It's not necessary at all, but it makes sense that it can't hurt.

The primary purpose of a muse is a vehicle to make money, and that is all. It's not something that has to be tied to your personality or something you truly care about/believe in.

[ItsuNaneo79]

I think you have to know the field you're creating products for. Yes, having several "muses" seems to be the key.

I just see too many guys start products in an area they don't know much about and fail.

In my case, I can create a million football training products (3 done so far, 8 more planned) but, when I tried to create a women's fat loss product, I wanted to pull my hair out.

Why? I play football, am a strength coach to football players...I speak their language, i've gone through what they go through...

While I've trained women, I'm not one of the group.

Thats my opinion anyway.