OFI 1026: Bumper Bowling And Plan “B” For The Life You Are Dreaming About

Off-Farm Income

Mike Rowe says to "never follow your passion, but bring it with you". He says a lot of other things on this topic as well, and he is correct. In today's episode I want to take what he has said, what I have done and what I have learned and see if we can't help you to figure out how to put together the puzzle that is the life you are looking for. Have you ever gone "bumper bowling"? These things didn't exist when I was a kid, and by the time I was in high school my pride would not allow me to bumper bow. But years later, when I became a parent and we would go bowling with other parents and all of our kids I was cajoled into this activity because the bumpers were up on the lane for the kids. Of course the bumpers on a bowling lane are there so the kids can actually have fun by getting their bowling balls all the way to the end of the lane without going into the gutter. That way they can actually reach the end and hit some pins. A lot of people see this as nothing more than some Saturday evening fun, but I see it as a metaphor for life. To go back to what Mike Rowe said, he believes in practicality. He wants you to do something that is practical, bring your passion and work ethic with you and turn this practicality into something that carries you to the life you are looking for. I want you to do this as well, but let's talk about how this gets done and how it relates to bumper bowling. I am very fortunate in what I do. I have a front row seat to the journey that hundreds of students in the FFA are right in the middle of. And year after year, month after month and week after week I profile these stories. Pretty soon, patterns begin to emerge and I find myself seeing things that you can only really spot by diving into this world. When I come across an FFA student, usually in their senior year, who has been really fired up about their journey and the FFA for all four years of high school or, in some cases, high school and middle school, I get to see how your true passion can be identified. These students have tried it all. They have milked out every drop of activity and opportunity from their time in the FFA. Along the way they have succeeded and they have failed. Generally, by the time they have done something that draws my attention to them for an interview, they have found something that they really love, and now they are really succeeding. However, it would be a mistake to look at these students and think that they are they lucky ones who "just knew" what their passion was. They are not. But they have used those failures like the bumpers on the bowling alley. As they have traveled down the lane of life, they have tried something and failed, tried something and failed, tried something and failed and finally tried something and succeeded. The failures are the bumpers that push them away from the gutter of devoting themselves to something that is the wrong fit for them. Ultimately they reach the end of the lane and strike a pin, and that pin is their passion. And then they excel, because if you are truly working in your passion you can't help but become so good that you succeed. Too many people think that if you just do some deep reflecting on the things you like and the activities that give you pleasure that you will discover your passion. I know, because I was one of these people. When I decided to become an entrepreneur I spent about two years, helplessly trying to determine what my passion was, only to be left frustrated and somewhat depressed, thinking one did not exist for me. Eventually, I gave up and did what Mike Rowe suggests, I tried something practical. My first business was pocket gopher extermination. This was definitely not on the radar of being my passion. However, this got me into entrepreneurship and then the pathway to becoming a full-time, agricultural broadcaster laid out in front of me. One thing built on another until I discovered what it is that I really...