Do What You Love;
Love What You Do

JEFF CIVILLICO

Four years after college graduation, I returned to my Georgetown University homecoming to find that most of my friends were seemingly unsatisfied in their professional lives. How could it be that so many intelligent and motivated young professionals were finding fulfillment elusive in the “real” world? Keep in mind—we’re talking about graduates of the top business and law schools across the country.

Surprisingly, my career as a performer was all the buzz. “You’re so LUCKY to be able to do what you love for a living.”

I juggle plungers. And I’m the lucky one.

Further conversation revealed that although everyone agreed it was theoretically possible to create an enterprise based on passion, the undertaking seemed unrealistic and impractical to most. How are you going to pay the bills? How do you meet the right people to help you? What if you don’t have some weird talent like juggling?

Clearly there existed a gap between understanding the importance of a career based on passion and understanding how to brand, market, and monetize that passion.

Today, the professional paradigm for most people bears little resemblance to the experience of previous generations. Platforms of business have changed. Traditional industries have soured. A typical employee might look more like an independent contractor, and the social media revolution has completely altered the way we communicate. In this climate of extreme change, there lives unparalleled access and opportunity.

Realistically, if one sat down to choose a career based solely on personal and financial fulfillment, we can all agree that juggling probably would not make the top-ten list. Yet I have been able to brand my passion for juggling in a way that affords me a very comfortable and deeply gratifying lifestyle…not to mention a ridiculously fun one.

What do you think of when you hear the word “juggler?” Clowns? The circus? A birthday party? You probably don’t think of sailing on the Queen Mary II, bungee jumping in New Zealand, sky diving in Australia, getting inside the White House, the Kennedy Center, the Ronald Reagan building, visiting the Taj Mahal, Europe, and Malaysia.

Juggling has afforded me all of these opportunities—either directly or indirectly. How is this possible? I discovered my core competency, I packaged my services, and I positioned them in a way that was attractive to the marketplace. Remember—I juggle plungers.

After analyzing the branding of my juggling, I came up with seven pillars—Seven “Ps” of Success—that I believe can help anyone create the career, and lifestyle, of their dreams: Passion, Philosophy, Personal Brand, Power Team, Plan, Proactivity, and Performance.

Please note:

This is not a linear, systematic road map of bullet points but rather a discussion of interconnected ideas. I don’t think it is possible to create a step-by-step handbook for taking a hobby and branding it. “Branding your passion” is an art, and therefore needs to happen organically. When you understand the larger concepts at play, the daily to-do lists will take care of themselves.

When I talk about “branding your passion,” I’m speaking not only about being an entrepreneur, but also being an “intra-preneur.” You can just as easily brand your passion in your role within your company, within your school, or within your family.

1) Passion

Passion is the fuel that drives any endeavor.

Are you passionate? Notice I didn’t ask, “What’s your passion?” I believe that’s the wrong question. That elicits a response like—”I don’t have any weird talent like juggling. I can’t sing, I don’t play sports—I don’t have any passions.”

This is backwards. I believe it’s the rare case when someone drifts through life, suddenly finds something that moves him, and then instantly transforms into a different kind of person—one who cares, who has an intense drive and a desire to make things happen. Can this life-transformation occur? Sure. But generally speaking, that’s a remarkably one-sided view. More often, passionate people wake up every day with an intense desire to become more than they were the day before—mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. They connect with projects they believe in, and channel their passion through that endeavor. The energy flows in both directions.

In his bestselling book, Linchpin (1992), Seth Godin writes: “Passion isn’t project-specific. It’s people-specific. Some people are hooked on passion, deriving their sense of self from the act of being passionate. Perhaps your challenge isn’t finding a better project…Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen.”

As a kid, I went from one hobby to the next—completely engrossing myself in whatever it was at the time. My parents talked of “Jeff’s obsessions.” I collected rocks, I collected stamps … looking back at the other options, I think I actually became the least nerdy kid possible by choosing juggling. WOW.

My passion has changed over the years. At first it was hardcore, technical juggling. I wanted to juggle more stuff than the other guy, and win more medals at the world juggling competitions (yes, there are world juggling competitions!)

Then my passion became entertaining. I quickly learned that the audience didn’t care about juggling—they wanted to laugh, to connect—they wanted to be entertained. I loved the feeling of making an audience laugh. What a rush! My quest became to craft interactive juggling routines in a way that built a strong rapport with my audience.

Today, my passion is connecting with people—on stage and off. I’ve learned what really thrills me is bringing people together, whether it’s laughing together with a huge crowd for forty-five minutes on stage at a corporate event, talking to one person after a show for five minutes, or building my non-profit, Win-Win Entertainment, to match willing performers with charity events in need.

The point is I am not hooked on juggling. I am hooked on passion.

~ Don’t complain that you don’t have anything to be passionate about. Work on becoming a passionate person, and you will have plenty to be passionate about. ~

2) Philosophy

Your philosophy is your set of values that underlies everything you do. You may think that a life philosophy is some grandiose notion that doesn’t apply to you—you don’t have one, and you don’t need one. Yet you do have a philosophy, whether you know it or not. Your work ethic, your goals, your direction—all of these contribute to who you are and your philosophy. If you don’t think about any of these ideas and you don’t want to, that’s a philosophy too.

There will be times when your philosophy is challenged. Perhaps it’s the opportunity to take a shortcut by acting less than moral. Perhaps it’s stabbing someone in the back who helped you get where you are.

Make your philosophy your policy. For some reason, people don’t mess with policy. Think about stores: No returns—that’s the policy. When your philosophy becomes your policy that means you abide by it all the time, no matter what. It’s not even up for debate, which makes temptation less likely to creep in.

~ Develop your philosophy and stick to it. It will be tested when you are not expecting it. Write it out and make it your policy. 100 percent is easier to maintain than 99 percent. ~

3) Personal Brand

Your personal brand is an outer manifestation of your inner philosophy. It’s how the world identifies and categorizes you from the actions you take.

Personal brand is about trust. Think of why you choose a brand-name product over a generic. When you buy the brand, you are buying into that product as something that has been tested and is reliable.

Are you on time? Do you carry yourself well? Are you articulate? Do you smile? Are you a good listener? Do you make eye contact? Do you follow through on what you say you’re going to do? As an entertainer, I always think of this: When the lights go down, do you deliver… whether or not you’ve had a bad day, you feel sick, you’re nervous, etc? Do you deliver? All of these things create your personal brand.

Today, your personal brand and professional brand are inextricably linked. Social media and the internet have blurred the line between who you are at home and who you are at work. No more double lives. Everything is out in the open now.

With more outsourcing happening all the time, your humanity is the difference. It’s what makes you you, and ideally it’s what makes you indispensable.

~ The more you can put into your job, the more humanized it becomes, the more irreplaceable you become. Work on minimizing the difference between your personal and professional brand. ~

4) Power Team

If you think about the number of people you come in contact with throughout a day, it’s...