严立清楚地记得，他第一次见到他最爱的美式橄榄球队——圣母大学的爱尔兰斗士队，在主场进行比赛的场景。2004年，严立在美国圣母大学攻读工商管理硕士学位。此时爱尔兰斗士队正在经历一个艰难的赛季，他们的对手是全国排名第二的密歇根狼獾队，这两支球队在历史上也是老对手了。9/11事件后，激动的爱国氛围充斥在整个赛场。

Yan Li distinctly remembers the first time he saw his beloved American football team, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, play a home game. In 2004, Yan was attending Notre Dame University in the U.S. for his MBA. The Fighting Irish were suffering a tough season. Their opponents, the Michigan Wolverines, were riding high as the 2nd ranked team in the country. The two teams had a historic rivalry with each other. The atmosphere was electric and extremely patriotic in the aftermath of 9/11.

严立和其他五名中国学生坐在一起，见证了近8万名学生、校友和粉丝在一位圣母大学2001届非洲裔美籍女性毕业生的带领下，一起唱国歌的狂热气氛。911事件后不久，她加入了美国军队，并被派往伊拉克。在一次公路爆炸袭击中，她失去了右臂。在她的带领下，人们大声地唱着国歌，此情此景，严立和他的五位中国同学饱含热泪。 “大家对圣母大学和爱尔兰斗士有着强烈的归属感，”他说。“这个时刻、这场比赛超出了球队、战争和民族。相反，它代表了一种自豪感，属于更伟大的人道主义精神。当严立回忆起那场比赛时，情绪非常激动。 “在我内心深处，我知道总有一天我要别人分享这种感觉。”

Yan and five Chinese students sat together among the madness, witnessing nearly 80,000 students, alumni and fans singing the national anthem led by an African-American woman and a Notre Dame graduate from 2001. Soon after 9/11, she enrolled in the U.S. army and was sent to Iraq. She lost her right arm in a road bomb attack. As the crowd roared out the anthem led by this woman, Yan remembers how he and the five other Chinese students were all in tears. “There was a huge sense of belonging to the crowd, to Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish,” he says. “The moment and the game transcended the teams, the war, and nationalities. Instead, it represented a sense of pride and belonging to something bigger, the human spirit.” Yan’s emotion is evident as he recalls that game. “Inside my heart, I knew I wanted to share this feeling with others someday.”

如今，严立基于美式橄榄球，开展了管理和领导力发展培训。他就是一个把所热爱的事情变为成功事业的典型例子。2015年，严立离开了商界，从一家国际物流公司的全国市场总监的职位上离职，怀抱着对自身价值的强烈自信、对美式足球的一腔热血以及妻子与他约定的两年期限，严立找到了一种把热情和事业结合起来的方法，开发出优秀的培训课程，教给公司领导们如何像冠军一样奋斗。

Today, Yan, delivers management and leadership development workshops based on the game of American football. He is living proof that it’s possible to turn your passion into a successful, thriving business. Yan left the corporate world and his role as Country Marketing Manager at a global logistics company in 2015. With only an intense self-belief in the value he could deliver, an incredible enthusiasm for the game of American football, and a two year time limit from his wife, Yan found a way to combine what he loves with his skills as a trainer to develop a winning training course that teaches corporate leaders how to play like a champion.

然而，基于一项99%的中国人都没听过的运动，又是白手起家，这看起来疯狂又不切实际。那么他是如何将自己热爱的事情转变成一项成功的事业呢？严立强调了3个关键点。

However, creating a business out of nothing, based on a sport that 99% of Chinese people have never even heard of, seemed crazy and unrealistic. So, how did he turn his passion for something into a successful career and a livelihood? Yan highlights three key things.

1

做你所爱

Do what you love

严立说，最重要的就是你必须疯狂地热爱着你所做的事情。更重要的是同他人分享的强烈愿望。严立承认，橄榄球“让我有点疯狂。”“除了橄榄球，没有任何东西能让我夜以继日地去钻研。我和每个人都在谈论橄榄球。”

More than anything, Yan says that you must have an insane amount of love for the thing that you do. And even more importantly, a burning desire to share it with others. Football “makes me a bit crazy,” admits Yan. “Nothing else like football can get me to spend night after night studying it. I talk about football with everyone.”

他对橄榄球的热爱是无意之间发展起来的。他从父亲那里第一次听说了这项运动，1981年他父亲在国家资助下前往加州大学伯克利分校进行了一次学术交流。父亲告诉他美国人为橄榄球运动疯狂。之后，20世纪九十年代初，严立的大学教授约翰逊先生，在课堂上播放了一场经典美式足球比赛的录像带，借此教给学生们团队合作、信任和沟通的重要性。

His love of football developed almost unintentionally. He first heard of the sport from his father, a state-sponsored scholar who completed an exchange at UC Berkeley in 1981. His dad told him about how Americans were mad about this game called football. Then, Yan’s college professor in the early 1990s, Professor Johnson, would show videotapes of classic football games in his class to teach his students about theimportance of teamwork, trust and communication.

当严立获得了圣母大学的工商管理硕士奖学金时，他并不知道学校的橄榄球氛围如此浓厚。然而当他到那里之后，他几乎没有错过一场比赛。从那时起，严立估计他一生中有8000多个小时都致力于橄榄球运动，包括写博客、看比赛、学习、训练，他甚至还现场解说了中国的NFL（美国职业橄榄球大联盟）比赛。尽管他已经做过了200多场培训，但严立说，每次培训对他来说都像第一次。他与别人分享了自己对于橄榄球的感觉，他相信这种感觉的力量，也相信“这种感觉会让人变得更好。”这帮助他挺过了艰难时期，也把他的热爱和热情转化为成功的事业。

Then, when Yan received a scholarship for his MBA from Notre Dame, he had no idea it was such a big football school. Once he got there, however, he hardly ever missed a game. Since that time, Yan estimates that he’s dedicated over 8000 hours of his life to football, including blogging, watching, studying, training, and even doing live commentating on NFL games in China. With 200 workshops delivered, Yan says that each time he does his training, it still feels like the first time to him. He believes in the power of sharing the feeling he has for football with other people, and believes that “this feeling will make people better.” This has helped him to persist through very tough times and translate his love and passion into a successful business.

2

相信自己做的事

Believe in what you’re doing

严立在他最后一家公司时，对自己的能力深信不疑。在那里，他做了一次结合企业培训和橄榄球运动的演讲，收获了很棒的反馈，这非常鼓舞人心，因为观众中大约有75%的女性对于这项运动完全陌生。有了这一次的经历，他非常清楚自己要做些什么，以至于当年公司被收购时，严立做出了追求梦想的大胆决定。这需要他有充分相信自己的勇气。

Yan’s deep belief in what he could offer first came to him while in his last company, where he delivered a talk that combined corporate training and football. He received great feedback. That was especially encouraging since the audience was made up of about 75% women who were completely new to the sport. From this first experience, he knew he was onto something. So much so that when the company was acquired, Yan made the bold decision to pursue his dream. That required a huge amount of self-awareness and courage on his part.

向中国的观众传授如此陌生的东西，刚开始可能显得不合常理。但随着时间的推移，这种新颖的方式确实对严立来说非常奏效。他的培训与众不同，提供了独特又有价值的内容。所以严立认为，真正对自己有信心，并对所做之事有坚定不移的信念，这对于成功地将自己有热情和激情做的事痴迷转化为事业至关重要。

Delivering something so unfamiliar to a Chinese audience may appear totally irrational at first. But over time, his novel approach has actually worked in Yan’s favour. His workshop does things differently and delivers something unique and valuable. So according to Yan, having real confidence in yourself and an unwavering belief in what you have to offer is essential for successfully turning your enthusiasm and obsession into a career.

3

奉献和坚持

Dedication and perseverance

不可否认的是，把你热爱的事情转变成赖以谋生的职业也意味着你要在挫折和失望中战斗。即使成功似乎遥遥无期，你也要坚持逆势而行。

Undeniably, transforming something you love into something you can make a living at also means fighting through setbacks and disappointments. You must keep going against the odds, even when success seems far away.

例如，当严立在2015年刚开始创业的时候，他把课程卖给了留学机构，来帮助学生们了解美国的校园生活。但他一开始的计划并不奏效，然而他并没有放弃。相反，他决定改变方向并进行领导团队和公司方面的培训。尽管如此，前两年还是发展缓慢，第一年只做了11场培训，第二年也只做了15场。在第两年年底，严立的妻子认真地问他怎么证明他所做的一切可以带来回报，如何让她相信他可以成功？

For example, when Yan first started out in 2015, he sold courses to study agencies for students going to the U.S. to help them understand American campus life. When his original plan wasn’t working, he didn’t give up. Instead, he decided to change directions and offer his workshop to leadership teams and companies. Still, his first two years were slow, with just 11 and then 15 workshop deliveries. At the end of year two, his wife very reasonably asked Yan for proof that what he was doing could pay off to give her confidence that he could succeed.

严立说他就是“有种感觉”他的培训可以在市场上带来冲击和声望，而且这个培训有潜力可以变得更好更强大。果然，在第三年，人们对这项培训的兴趣陡然增长，当年提供了40场培训。而在2019年，仅上半年就超过了这个数字。

Yan says he just “had a feeling” that his workshop was starting to build momentum and a reputation in the market. And that it had the potential to be something bigger and better. Sure enough, in his third year, he saw a steep increase in interest and delivered 40 workshops. In 2019, Yan has surpassed that number of deliveries in the first half alone!

所以，如果你觉得自己被工作困住了，感到失去热情、失去激情也不再快乐。如果你想要把你真正的兴趣变成你的一项事业。那么，想想严立和他的事业。他把完全陌生的东西带到了市场上，并把它变得独特又吸睛，他就是典型的例子。相信你的热情，相信你自己，不畏艰难，坚持不懈，一定能得到你想要的一切！

So, if you feel stuck doing a job that doesn’t spark passion, excitement and joy within you. If you dream of transforming your true interest into your career. Then, think of Yan and what he’s doing. He’s taken something completely unfamiliar to the market and turned it into something unique and attractive. He’s living proof that believing in your passion, believing in yourself, and persevering despite the odds can get you what you want.​​​​