If you want to find success in business then one of the key characteristics that you need to have is being passionate about what you do. Many people fail in business because they try to become passionate about their business rather than creating a business based on things that they are already passionate about.

If you want to create and grow a business then you should first look at what is it that really gets you going. It doesn’t matter what your passion is, whether it is video games, food or beauty, there is always a business opportunity hiding behind your passion, you just need to work hard, be creative and take the risk. To help you get inspired, here are 5 people who worked hard on their passions and have turned them into highly successful businesses.

Mark Zuckerburg

From a young age Mark Zuckerberg had a great passion and a fantastic ability for programming and computer sciences. Whilst at university, Zuckerburg created a website called Facesmash which ranked how pretty girls were in his college, the site went viral and crashed the Harvard servers such was its popularity.  Zuckerburg took the idea to the next level and created Facebook, a social media platform which started off in universities across America and in a few short years, took over the World.

Bill Gates

Gates, like Zuckerburg was a child-genius when it came to computers and programming and in his formative years would spend his days at school excused from class so that he could focus on his programing career. Gates created many video games during this time and as his skills improved, he went on to create Microsoft, one of the biggest computer companies in the World and made Gates one of the World’s richest men in the process.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney was a great artist who loved nothing more than creating children’s characters, he would spend hours doodling and drawing which he would sell to make some cash in his first business venture. In 1928, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse and the rest as they say, is history. Fast forward 90 years and Disney has become synonymous with family entertainment, from films to theme parks, the passion the Walt disney displayed is now a global brand.

Debbi Fields

At 20 years old, Debbi Fields began baking cookies from her marital home and selling them in the local neighborhood to make some extra cash. She received rave reviews for her cookies and little by little she began to expand. Those cookies become the beginning of the Ms. Fields franchise which now employs over 4,000 staff and has 390 outlets across the United States.

Kevin Plank

Kevin Plank was once a football player at the University of Maryland, he used his passion for sport and fashion and managed to create a shirt that would relive sweat from the skin. Some of his college football buddies went on to play pro and the shirts which he had sold them grew in popularity. Plank continued to ramp up business and turned his shirt designs into global company Under Armor which currently boasts revenues of around $2.8 billion dollars.