The Surprising Problems with Pursuing Your Passion

Insisting on doing work you love can have downsides. Finding a job aligned with your passion might take months or years, sacrificing economic stability. What’s more, investing so much of our sense of identity in paid employment incurs an existential risk to our sense of self-worth, should layoffs or other business changes occur. The key is to be deliberate about how large of a role work should have in your life, says Erin Cech, author or “The Trouble With Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality” (www.amazon.com/Trouble-Passio....
More on this topic: hbr.org/2022/10/striking-a-ba...
More on Erin Cech: lsa.umich.edu/soc/people/facu...
00:00 Pursuing your passion seems like a no brainer, but it can be based on false assumptions.
00:31 One of those false assumptions is that the labor market is meritocratic and fair. It ain’t.
02:11 For example, let’s look at two aspiring programmers from very different backgrounds.
03:25 Employers love passion, but maybe not for the reasons you think.
04:40 Passion won’t insulate you from the stresses of the modern world of work.
06:30 Alright, what’s a healthier way to orient yourself towards work, then?
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[@shihhann]

"What do I want my relationship to paid employment to be?" Couldn't have said it any better.

[@alirobe]

The reason that people say this is because curiosity, awe, standards, and willingness to ask for more are things that can’t be faked. Passion means you’re willing to clean the toilets at the place where your dream job is, even AFTER you’ve got the dream job. It means you’re always going to want to be involved. For fun, not money. It's not about the money. Most people, if they’re being honest, don’t cultivate passion. That's a mistake, because life without it is boring. Money will not fix the boredom. If you're faking passion for money, you're just another liar, chasing a mirage in service of your own self-image. That sort of lying creates insecurity, "impostor syndrome", and so on. If you find yourself expressing insecurity, find where you lied. Fix it. Be honest with people. Be vulnerable. If you’re claiming to be passionate but haven't acted on it, then you just have an interest, it's not yet a calling. You can cultivate it; but you must find your own reasons. People are different and diverse. This is not a 'structural problem that needs a structural solution', it's part of the complex tapestry of life which individuals need to navigate for themselves. There is no prescription for "success". There isn't even a definition for it. Life is a journey. Money, love, tragedy and comedy seem to come and go, of their own accord. Observe. Have fun. Try to be a good person, observe the best in others, and learn until your last day. Newton described his life thusly: "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Happy, wealthy people are "wealthy" because abundance is built in to how they think. They'd be just as happy poor, and there are plenty of happy, poor, and passionate people who would be just as happy rich. So long as one gets to live on this planet, there's always a way to find something fun to do. People discuss passion because it motivates them, not money. If you ask a wealthy person what motivates them, don't expect them to give you the key to making money. While you're looking to climb a ladder to nowhere, they're looking to explore "undiscovered oceans of truth", and if you think it's not possible to incorporate that sort of exploratory nature into any job, then I'd posture the problem is a lack of imagination that cannot be rectified by any structural solution. Go look on KZbin for 'amazing workers', and you'll see people can find art in any job. You'll also see that, if anything, dependence on wealth creates barriers to developing passion.

[@aoitetsu2947]

This is so true. I'm doing a secure job I don't have passion for to chase my own passion later because I'm not financially stable. My job is 40 hours a week but OT without pay because their KPI is ridiculously high. Crazy.

[@BK-md2qw]

Good points about the labor market and passion

[@somosagricultura]

I read So good they can't ignore you of Cal Newport and it's just about build career capital and no following your passion. I agree with all of this. Thanks for sharing.

[@mellow-jello]

Passion is Biz Speak, and need relativity. Realize that the Job Market does not care about your own passion, it is market driven. You do you, just take a risk, and try to make it work the best way you can.

[@nimashokouhfar52]

Amazing content.... I learned a lot. 🙏

[@florentshaw9279]

Very precise and clever. Thank you

[@FeaRLeSSFalcy]

What if you’re not the employee. What if you’re immersed into your own business, life or career for yourself and for the good of your customers/product/ invention? Perhaps passion is not a challenge… but rather having a more balanced life… and more application of working healthy boundaries in our lives in general - whether passionate or not. I still love the video and the insights. Wonderful work!

[@azhhazizah]

I love this so much

[@SwolHumanist]

Excellent, the truth........

[@TheQuixoticRambler]

Nicely done! Might consider adding mention of the role of tacit knowledge to the section involving the coding aunt.

[@mellow-jello]

If you read between the the lines, employers don't want automatons, who work with zero passion, and find excuses not to work. To avoid these, they look for passionate individuals who care for what they do, i e. have a passion for their job.

[@forfun686]

But what s ur point tho? For me this is way far better that falling into a miserablr position of doing smth i dont love

[@mellow-jello]

Caveat, Chat GPT will fundamentally compete with good white collar jobs, and confirm to labour laws before the OT violations lawsuits by overworked workers. Harp over life balance will be their ethics excuse to start the process, be warned.

[@iAbhijeetShukla]

Okay, do you hate your job?

[@sf0101]

Let's not forget to mention all the unnecessary abundance of "core" courses that also delay the goal and meaningful activities

[@GabrielJustus]

Giad Mia Wallace quit snorting and decided to do something with her life