Nobody Cares About Your Passions: The Hollywood Principle

She is, by far, the most beautiful, the most talented person her friends have ever known.

“Hollywood, here I come!” she thinks, and she’s prepared to take the town by storm, blowing people away with her talent and beauty. 

But when she gets there, she hears something she didn’t expect: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” 

“What went wrong?” she wonders, with big, dramatic tears that barely smudge her mascara. 

The Hollywood Principle

What happened to our heroine is The Hollywood Principle, and it applies to you too. 

The Hollywood Principle is this: No matter how passionate you are about something, nobody cares. Unless you make sure they do.

When you dream of making money from your passion – when you realize you love cooking so you open a restaurant, when you want to make a living from your hand-made baby clothes, or when you start any other kind of business based solely on your passions – you run the very real risk falling victim to The Hollywood Principle. 

You see, no matter how beautiful or talented our young actress, she’s still “vanilla” until she can find a way to stand out from the sea of other beautiful and talented actors and actresses. 

And no matter how passionate you are about something, no one is going to pay you to do it simply because it’s what you love. 

Like our beautiful actress, to get paid for being you, you must stand out. You have to give your audience (or client or customer) a compelling reason to want you.  

The Hollywood Principle and Passion

Now I know that you might be kicking yourself right now thinking  you wasted all that time searching for passion.

Let me tell you something: It’s not your fault.  

You’ve been told a lot of stories about passion. You’ve been told to do what you love and the money will follow. But it’s not the whole truth. It’s more complicated than that.

First of all, passions are still important. They are the fire that can take you from ordinary to extraordinary. And they do factor in to what makes you different. 

But passion isn’t enough. To make a living from what you love, you can’t just rely on the fact that you love it. You have to make them care about what you do, too. 

Your Unique Why

To get paid to be you, you must stand out from the crowd.

You must make sure the reason your business exists is in sync with what your clients or customers need.

And you must be memorable. 

Dig deep and think about what makes you YOU, and what makes your mission, your WHY, uniquely yours.  

When you know how to avoid The Hollywood Principle by making them want what you’ve got then you have a real chance of making a living doing what you love. 

So how do you make sure you avoid The Hollywood Principle? How do you stand out in a crowd of competitors? 

Dig deep and answer these questions to bullet-proof yourself against The Hollywood Principle:

1. What are you already, or do you want to be ‘famous’ for? 

2. What makes you a star? 

3. Describe the ‘artist’ in you – what do you want to do or create in your life?

4. Why will people never forget your name? 

5. Why should you get a “call back” (why do people want more of you)? 

6. What is the most compelling reason people want what you’ve got to offer?