What Lies Behind a Passion for Investing: Helping Others Build Businesses

#Passion Do what you love Love what you do If you are truly passionate about what you do, the people around you—even your boss—can be moved and inspired by it. Finding your passion is therefore very important. Finding passion matters, but what should we watch out for? What do we often overlook? And what do people commonly misunderstand about passion? First, passion can be developed. In a classic psychology experiment, two groups of children with comparable intelligence were divided into two classes. Students in one class were repeatedly told, “You have a talent for mathematics, and you are very good at it.” The other class received normal instruction, with no additional encouragement. The encouraged children developed an interest in mathematics, became more enthusiastic about learning, and performed better on tests. This experiment reveals what lies behind passion: positive feedback. Simply put, once you are good at something and receive plenty of encouragement and praise for it, you may develop an interest and a passion. That is why passion and interest can be cultivated gradually. Second, learn to recognize what lies behind your passion. Sometimes we misunderstand where our passion and interests actually lie. What follows is my own reflection. I have spent more than 14 years moving from underwriting into venture capital, leading more than 25 underwriting and investment transactions in total. I do not actually have any particular passion for investing itself, and my personality is conservative and risk-averse. But without the courage to press forward in investing, you often cannot achieve excess returns. Compared with others in the industry or my peers, my investment performance has not been particularly outstanding either. Ultimately, though, you have to identify the passion that keeps you going and the factors behind it. In the end, I concluded that what drives me to keep moving forward in investing may simply be a desire to help others build businesses, the motivation that comes from watching small companies grow, and a sense of mission to help Taiwan transform and move up the value chain through investment. Finally, give yourself some patience. Passion can be developed, but doing so is also a long process of being honest with yourself. Finding and recognizing it is not easy. Before deciding what your passion is and committing to it, try more things, maintain a regular rhythm of taking things in and putting things out, and gradually discover your passion as you move forward. Sometimes the mind is like the surface of a lake. When boats are constantly coming and going, or wind and rain stir it up, you cannot see the bottom. But one day, if you quiet your mind, the answer will emerge on its own. #得到 #張瀟雨商業經典案例課 #Dedao #ZhangXiaoyuClassicBusinessCaseCourse