🔎 Uncovering the Tom Cruise Formula for Turning Your Everyday Skill into a Billion Dollar Empire

🔎 Uncovering the Tom Cruise Formula for Turning Your Everyday Skill into a Billion-Dollar Empire

Hi there, Solopreneur! Every holiday season, our schedules get crazy, and our to-do list gets longer. It’s easy to take our eye off the solo business ball as we balance work, play, family, and holiday fun.

This week’s issue is a 4-minute read.

This holiday season, I’m delivering to you a powerful three-part series that underscores my primary purpose: Making sure you…

Turn your skills into solutions people buy.

💥 🔥 The series (starting this week) will make 2024 a spectacular year for your business, whether you’re in year 1 or working on a refresh in year 3.

Let’s kick off here in Part I with a healthy debunk of the popular solo business advice you see on every social media platform.

“Do what you love, and everything else takes care of itself.”

It has a lovely message, yet it’s dangerous advice for your solo business.

Let me explain.

📽 Consider actor, producer, and stuntman Tom Cruise.

By any measure, Cruise is a global powerhouse. It’s hard to imagine a time in the last 40 years when Cruise was not a one-person movie business bonanza.

Yet the difference between his early acting career and his late-stage producer-stuntman career is enormous.

👀 Look deeper and ask yourself.

📊 Did Cruise have more business success with his early passion or his late-stage skills?

• Passion = Acting

• Skill = Producer and stuntman

Now, you and I might disagree on the Cruise the Actor vs. Cruise the Producer-Stuntman analogy.

You might think Cruise is a sensational actor. After all, he received three Academy Award nominations for acting in Jerry Maguire, Born on the Fourth of July, and Magnolia. ⁽¹⁾

How many Academy Award statues for acting does Cruise have on his kitchen table?

Zero. Nada. None.

(Ok, yes, it’s amazing to get an AA nomination; yet, every nominee wants the Oscar as public proof their acting talent is sensational.)

Now flip the script.

Let’s consider Cruise’s business track record as a stuntman and producer.

Did you know the top 10 highest-grossing Tom Cruise films include five Mission Impossible films? ⁽²⁾

While his acting talents are strong, they pale in comparison to his stuntman and producer skills.

Why it matters:

Cruise’s exceptional ability to climb mile-high skyscrapers in the desert and ride motorcycles at 2,993 mph has brought him far more recognition, gratitude, business success, and fan support than his acting in Far and Away.

🔑 Takeaway

Your passion for a specific business area can bring you moderate success and opportunities to explore new ventures. Your skill can bring you exceptional, long-term business rewards AND opportunities to change your and your customers’ lives. Focus on your skills.

😀 Can You Create a Viable Business with Passion and Skill?

Your customers want you to solve their problems.

You want enough customers to operate a profitable business.

Seldom will your hobby or passion project accomplish both goals out of the gate.

Two tough issues arise when you start your business with only your passion:

• You might not create viable solutions to solve BIG client problems.
  

• There may not be a market for your passion projects.

Your passion might bring you smiles, relief, and a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

📷This is important in life, and I encourage you to take joy in your hobbies and learning new skills.

Remember: Your clients turn to you for a positive transition, and they don’t always care if you love what you do.

When you write your strategy statement, find and focus on the big problem your skills can solve.

🔑 Takeaway

You’ll hit a few singles and have a ton of strikeouts if you launch your business based only on your passion.

You’ll hit more game-winning business home runs and have an incredible batting average when you start AND build a business that leverages your skills.

See you next week for Part II!

🔑Stay curious and keep opening doors.

-Erik

Endnotes

⁽¹⁾ IMDb. Tom Cruise Awards, accessed November 14, 2023.

⁽²⁾ Matthew Kang, Tom Cruise’s Highest-Grossing Movies of All Time, Movieweb, February 11, 2023, accessed November 14, 2023.