Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFM) Co-Founder John Mackey’s Career Advice to Entrepreneurs

The next day, I dropped the course, and I said I’m never ever going to take another course that I don’t want to take, which led to having 120 hours of electives, and no college degree; but I had a very interesting college experience, anyway. Then that led to, you know what, I’m just not going to do things anymore that I don’t want to do, because life is just too short. It’s too short to do anything but what you really care about, what you’re really passionate about, and that was when I had latched basically onto following my heart wherever it led me — and not to do things because I was afraid. If I was afraid of something, then that was a challenge to try to master the fear, and not let that fear hold me back.

And that’s very good career advice if you’re an entrepreneur in particular, because that led me — you know, I was a shy guy in my 20s — to start Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM), which seemed an improbable thing; but I had a passion for it and, even though I had a lot of self-doubt and not enough self-confidence, I just went ahead and went for it anyway. So my career advice to you, and my life advice, is find what your passions are, things that you most care about, and do it and follow it, because it’s going to lead you to this amazing adventure. Your own inner guides are your best guides you’ll have in life, and if you listen to it — you have to be self-aware to listen to it — you will find that there’s a tremendous amount of wisdom within your own being. And once you can tap into that, you’re, you’re there launched, and it’s gonna be fun and scary sometimes, but a great deal of fun.

The article Whole Foods Co-Founder John Mackey’s Career Advice to Entrepreneurs originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool.com managing editor Brian Richards owns shares of Whole Foods Market, as does The Motley Fool. The Motley Fool recommends Whole Foods Market.

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