Everyone talks about focusing on your passion for the travel industry and living your dreams. Do what you love and the money will follow, they say. But what happens when you realize that passion is not enough and the money isn’t following?

I was passionate about my small home-based travel business when I started. I had no problem working 60+-hour weeks. It was exciting because everything was new. I was implementing fun marketing ideas, the business was growing fast and there were so many new opportunities.

After all these years, I’m still passionate about the travel industry. I continue to work very long hours, but nothing is always fun and exciting. Running any business requires focus, discipline and good old-fashioned hard work. Looking for only the activities and work that make you happy is a losing battle that will keep you jumping from one activity to the next. Here are some thoughts on keeping a balanced outlook as you work hard to make your travel business flourish:

Get the best of both worlds. If you find that selling travel is rewarding, fulfilling, and something you love to do, then you’ve found the best of both worlds. But it will still be hard, there will be risk, and the grass will always seem greener on the other side of the fence when you’re holed up in your home working 17-hour days wondering when you’re going to break through.

If money and things guide your self-worth, you will never be at peace and you will never feel successful. Money can be a great thing; it can be the root to freedom and a fine measuring stick for success in your business, but it doesn’t automatically happen. You have to work for it, earn it and toil through it.

Michelangelo once said, “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” Indeed, his first stroke of the brush wasn’t the stroke of a master painter, but his last one was.

Understand the danger of passion. So many agents tell me that they got into the business because they are “passionate about traveling.” But loving to travel and running a business are two completely different things. Even great work has its tedious parts.

Think of the professional athletes who struggle through injuries and pain to keep playing. Working at what you love is not just joyful bliss. Don’t be afraid to work. Face every task ahead of you with a positive attitude and a healthy work ethic.

Commit to getting started now. Don’t wait for some imaginary perfect time to get started. Make the decision to start doing the work now.

Put all of your energies into being great at that one idea and follow through. If you don’t have much free time, then only do one thing per day toward your goal, but do it every day. Do it before you check your email, Facebook or before you turn on the TV. Don’t give up if you encounter obstacles or lose interest. Success comes with perseverance.

Make sure you hustle for business. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

Hustling is doing whatever you have to do for however long you have to do it until you reach your goal. You’re going to be competing with other home-based and store-front agents, and the big online agencies.

The business will go to the one who hustles, who isn’t afraid to put in the work to price match quotes, who is available on weekends to deliver documents, who puts in a full day’s work elsewhere and then comes home to work on his or her “passion” as a travel agent. Yes, it’s going to be hard, especially if you have a family, but it’s been done before. It’s just going to take some hustling.

Believe hard in living your dream. I work hard because I believe that I am living my dream now. I’m surrounded by an industry of people who love what they are doing and who work extremely hard and long hours. We are all reaping the benefits of being in the travel industry. Surround yourself with those who have made it in the travel industry and you will see that they are all hustlers. If only I’d worked harder is a regret I never intend to have. I’ve always said, “If you stop, you will rust.”