Why ‘Follow Your Passion’ is Bad Career Advice
We live in a world where everyone is looking for job satisfaction, financial independence and much more. Most people have different CVs and profiles designed for different jobs at any given time. While the unemployed search for jobs, the employed are always on the lookout for better options or a more fulfilling career.
For several decades, career coaches and self-improvement gurus have been selling the idea of following one’s passion as the ultimate advice for finding complete job satisfaction. We are sold on this idea that we have to first find what we love to do, and the money will follow.
What if my passion is to sit in front of the TV all day watching one series after the other? How am I going to make money from that or develop a fulfilling career? I know some might say something like, you could start a blog reviewing all the TV shows you watch — well, maybe that’s going to work but how long and how many blog posts do you need to write to build a fulfilling career? — I digress.
No matter what your job is, whether you love it or hate it, like most people out there, your focus should be on improving your skills and becoming so good at what you do, that they (your employer and the world) can’t ignore you.
I recently read a book by a Georgetown University associate professor of Computer Science, Calvin Newport. In his book — So Good They Can’t Ignore You, he argued that “follow your passion” is a terrible advice and actually, no one should say that to anyone seeking career advice or financial independence.
Don’t follow your passion — unless it is about solving problems…
Newport started by supporting his argument by saying that most people don’t even have any preexisting passion that is waiting to be discovered or developed, which is true. Every 6 out of 10 people do not have something they are really passionate about, and if they do, it cannot be developed into a life-changing career.
This makes it challenging to find meaningful work that is fulfilling. In most cases, what people are passionate about is very common and shallow, which means you wouldn’t pay any money for it. If you are passionate about solving local and global problems, then your next step is to build the right career capital that can help you achieve your goal.
Take the time to build career capital
To do great work, you need to develop what Newport calls “career capital” i.e. develop skills that are rare and valuable to the marketplace. This has to do with learning skills that people will be willing to pay for. Most people go into careers or jobs with the mindset of ‘what am I going to get from the job’? This is considered the passion mindset, which means you are only passionate about the job or business because you believe it will get you something or somewhere.
Work with the craftsman’s mindset not the passion mindset
To have a fulfilling and satisfying career, you need to work with the craftsman’s mindset, i.e. find something that is rare and valuable, invest the time and resources to learn gradually and consistently — just like a craftsman. You should be focusing on becoming so good that they can’t ignore you. Once you develop a skill that is rare and valuable, people will find you, no matter where you live, whom you work for or what you are passionate about — you will be poached in no time, or at least you will have the freedom to switch to a fulfilling job.
Invest your career capital in what you believe to be great work
When you have career capital, it is time to invest this capital in work that has traits of control and mission. Control gives you the ability to decide when and how you want to work, how much you want to get paid for the work you do, who you want to work for etc. But remember you cannot have control without the right kind of career capital, which is to learn and develop skills that are rare and valuable to the marketplace.
As Newport explains:
“The things that make great work great are rare and valuable. If you want them in your career, you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return”
Always remember that “we get paid for bringing value to the marketplace” as Jim Rohn puts it. Keep in mind that once you become more skilful (valuable), career fulfilment will follow suit naturally, because you can now work with clients and projects that are remarkable or give you some sense of fulfilment.
So if you are unhappy with what you do today, stop blaming your employer or anyone else, look within and ask yourself these questions truthfully:
What problem am I really solving? What skills do I have that are rare and valuable to the marketplace? How do I start learning new skills and improving on existing ones? What do I need to do to become one of the best in my chosen field? Am I using the passion mindset of entitlement or the craftsman mindset of becoming so good by gaining rare and valuable skills?
