Five Steps to Building the Career You Love

If you hate your job or if you find it boring, then you probably have somebody else's job, and of course that person's job is going to be boring for you.

Here are five key insights into how you can build a highly lucrative business, what I call a million-dollar part-time job, that still leaves you plenty of time for relationships, family, and whatever else matters most.

1. Figure out what you love and build a business around that.

Most people fall into jobs or careers without taking time to decide what's most enjoyable for them. Whatever you love to do, there's a way to make real money doing it. This is true whether you are a techie, an artist, a chef, an athlete, or anything else. I

f there's something that you enjoy so much that you'd do it without being paid, you can build a business around that interest, make a ton of money, and have a great time. Don't let anybody tell you your heart's desire cannot be your dream job or business.

2. Fall in love with business.

Here's a paradox: a lot of people "hate" business but love the products and services that businesses create. Maybe you think of yourself as anti-business, but don't you love your iPhone, your lululemon, your Gmail, your Honda, and the things you buy at Whole Foods?

Business, unfortunately, has become a dirty word in our society. That shouldn't be the case. When you have a business, you're able to provide products and services that delight, transform lives, and create happiness and satisfaction for increasing numbers of people. That's what businesses do every day for you, for me, for everyone. So if you have an anti-business bias, get over it...so that you can serve humanity, too.

3. Change your concept of what the word 'sales' means.

If I asked you to picture a salesman, you'd probably think about a guy in a plaid suit trying to sell crappy used cars to naïve, unsuspecting customers. Forget about those guys. Instead, think of sales as a search for the truth. What truth are you trying to uncover? Whether this particular prospect is someone who can benefit from what you offer.

That's what sales is about, helping people define their needs, and then offering them exactly the right products and services that will fulfill those needs.

Most successful salespeople are extremely honest and ethical. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in business for very long.

4. What you really need is customers.

Sometimes people starting businesses think they need a whole panoply of business-related stuff - a website, an office, business cards, financing, and so on.

You may or may not need those things as your business grows, but what you really need right now...is customers!

Here's one way to get customers without a website, an office, advertising, business cards or any of that stuff. Simply reach out to people you know and tell them that you're starting a business, you'll provide the service you're offering to them at a steep discount, and what you want from them in return is a blurb for the website you'll create and then referrals to three other people.

Most small businesspeople rely on word-of-mouth as their number one sales tool. So get out there, find customers, and then let your business grow from there.

5. Share the wealth.

As time goes on, you'll have more clients and customers, you'll be making more and more money, and you'll be able to do pretty much anything you want to do within reason. At the same time, remember the Jewish obligation to be generous with charitable institutions, non-profits, and the poor. Set aside a percentage of your income for tzedakah or charitable giving. The world will be better off for it, and since karma is a boomerang, the money you put out in charitable giving will return to you many times over.

I've been an entrepreneur, ghost writer, and author for decades, and I boil down what I've learned about starting and running a business you'll love into a new book, The Million-Dollar Part-Time Job: A Torah-Based Guide to Entrepreneurship