Passion, Purpose, Capabilities & Opportunities

We all want to be Entrepreneurs, we all want the freedom to set our own schedules and be flexible in when, where and how we work. We all want to be able to develop our skills, learn more, and become well-rounded people. We want to do something fun and exciting and something we are passionate about. We want to build lasting brands that leave a legacy. But what happens when we do not know what we are passionate about? We do not know our purpose? We do not know our capabilities? What happens when we have opportunities but don’t know if they can become brands?

In this article, I will give you some tips on how to identify your passion, purpose and capabilities as well as tips on how to evaluate opportunities to see if they can become branded products or services.

How do you identify your Passion, Purpose & Capabilities?

1. Identify your character strengths! “Character Strengths are the positive parts of your personality that impact how you think, feel and behave”. Your character strengths give you a glimpse into what you enjoy doing and how you like to serve the world. Using your character strengths to generate an income will help you find meaning in what you do. You can identify your character strengths by completing the VIA Survey of Character Strengths from the University of Pennsylvania.
2. Complete a career finder personality test! A combination of Myers & Briggs’ personality types and Holland Code system of career typing helps you predict the right career path for you based on your personality. It gives you a glimpse into what you are good at doing – your capabilities.

You can identify your careers to explore by completing The TypeFinder Career Planning Test.

Where these 3 – your purpose, passion and capabilities, intersect is your sweet spot. It is where your opportunities lie. Once you have identified these 3, reflect on them and identify your opportunities.

Now that you have identified your opportunities based on your passion, purpose and capabilities,  now you have to evaluate those opportunities to see if they can become branded products or services.

There are three main things to understand before launching a product or service you expect to be scalable and sustainable in the market;

1. Commerce: what is the market structure? Is the market a monopoly? Oligopoly? Or perfect competition?
2. Consumer: what is the consumer mindset and behaviour of the people consuming in the market?
3. Culture: what are the innate beliefs and practices that drive their mindset and behaviour?

If you look through just the lenses of commerce and culture, you will have a commodity; a basic good.

If you look through just the lenses of commerce and consumer, you will have a product.

And if you look through just the lenses of culture and consumer, you will have a passion project that would be difficult to sell.

But if you, however, look through all three pertinent lenses of consumer, commerce and culture, you will have a brand; a distinguished and valuable product that is scalable and sustainable.

So now we have the brand, you can take the next step – breaking into the market.  You will need to understand the market; where the white spaces are, who the key players are, how they are positioned, and so on. Stay tuned for our next article.

And Contact Versa Research for all your research & consulting needs!