A Story about Passion

Newsletter · Jan 04, 2026

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An entrepreneur's recipe for sweet success

2.5min Read

I didn’t plan to write this, but if you’ve been reading for a while, you know that I like to play the week by ear and share what’s most relevant.

In this case, it’s very relevant and you don’t want to miss it.

This is a story about finding purpose and passion in places you wouldn’t expect.

This is not my story, but it’s one worth sharing. This story belongs to a close friend. Let’s call him Jim.

Jim’s story all starts at Chipotle.

Jim was an immigrant and came to the US in his 20s with barely a nickel to his name.

He had a handful of odd jobs early on but landed a position at chipotle as a “crew member”. These are your burrito rolling specialists.

Prep, line work, grilling, all of the things you see the staff doing while you’re deciding if you want guac on the burrito or on the side, that’s what crew does.

Jim didn’t stay crew for long. Over the next almost 2 decades he climbed the ranks. Not by his choice, just by doing the best job he could and saying yes to the opportunities presented.

18 years in he found himself as a “team leader”. This was essentially an area manager. He oversaw all the chipotle’s in Idaho, Montana and Oklahoma. This was a massive undertaking. He traveled a ton, was working 80+ hour weeks, stepping in to work the line of managers weren’t able to, while still maintaining all of his other duties.

It was a ton.

But he crushed it. That’s just how Jim is. He’s not an entrepreneur, but he is one of the BEST operators I’ve ever known.

Jim had a great job, all the benefits, stock in a public company, a respected title… but he wasn’t happy anymore. He felt used and abused and realized he had lost his passion for that work a while ago.

To everyone’s surprise, Jim left chipotle. Without even something to step into. He knew his time was up and he cut the cord.

This is where the story gets really interesting.

Jim could have done anything he wanted. Any management or leadership role with honestly any company, but Jim took a job at the bakery department of a Smiths grocery store…

What??

All of us were shocked.

His paycheck wasn’t just cut in half, it was pretty much minimum wage.

None of this made sense.

But he’s been there for a year now and I recently had a chance to ask him about this wild decision and what success means to him.

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS:

Jim has never been about the money or the title he says. His passion has always been “the work”. Whether it was on the line rolling burritos or at an admin level managing multiple areas. Jim falls in love with the work. And that’s what matters to him.

He told me that success (to him) is about the enjoyment you find in the work you do. Not in the paycheck, not in the title, not in the benefits or perks, but in the enjoyment of the work.

Sounds so simple and almost foreign to hear that.

I mean, shouldn’t it be like that for ALL of us?

Shouldn’t we all enjoy what we do to earn a living? After all, the majority of our life is spent doing it, it’d make sense to enjoy it…

But that’s not the case for MOST people. Work is work and love is love and they are totally separate.

But they shouldn’t be!

They don’t have to be!

If there’s anything that you should takeaway from this email it’d be this:

Pay attention to the things in your life that really excite you. The things you get lost in doing. The things where time stands still and you want to do more of. Those are your “threads”. Pull them.

The same goes for the things that you dread. That feel soul sucking. That you are sick to your stomach about. Those are signs. Stay away from them.

Maybe Jim’s complete 180 doesn’t sound appealing to you, but it shouldn’t. You’re not Jim.

You’re YOU.

The lesson here is — When you’re feeling burnt out and unhappy, listen to that.

BITES🍩

Bite 1 — Gary V gets it

Bite 2 — Mysterpreneur Link

Bite 3 — AI juice 🧃

🍩 BITE 1
— Gary V gets it

Here’s a quote I heard from Gary recently that hit:

“You will wake up at 70, 80, 90, 100 and you will regret the way you lived your only life. Regret is the greatest thing you should fear. And if you do not chase your dream, if you don't go for it, all because you’re scared what your spouse, your parents or worst of all a random person on the internet who leaves a comment on the post, think about you… regret is what you’ll have. We were not born for a very long time in the history of the world and we will be dead forever. So we have this little sliver of time and to not squeeze this little orange or life for every ounce of juice that it has— is devastating.”
— Gary V

🍩BITE 2
— Mysterpreneur Link

🍩 BITE 3
— AI juice 🧃

This is big time! More than anything what I love about this is that this company started less than 2 years ago and we’re now just bought for 2 BILLION! I live entrepreneurship.

https://manus.im/blog/manus-joins-meta-for-next-era-of-innovation

Until next time...

Stay in the fight,

My best tweet this week:

@kevinasrx

Everything takes longer than you expect it will.

Success comes to those that are willing to stay in the fight and wait for that second marshmallow.

“The cowards never start, the weak die along the way and then that leaves us”

— Phil Knight

https://twitter.com/mhp_guy/status/2006402540221403234

Chris Koerner

@mhp_guy

Update: I didn't reach that income goal in 2024, either.

But I wrote it back on the mirror on 1/1/25, yet again, and in 2025 I actually beat it by 36%.

It always takes longer than you think!

https://twitter.com/mhp_guy/status/1748337903334314422

3:20 PM • Jan 1, 2026 ↗