Why You Shouldn’t Follow Your Passion

By Sarah Landrum
Individuals who make up Generations X and Y have repeatedly heard the mantra
“Follow your passion.” In fact, this philosophy has become so commonplace that it’s
hard to imagine going against the grain. That’s exactly what happened during a TED
talk where “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe posited that to be successful in the working
world has little to do with following your dreams and a lot to do with plain, old hard work.

It’s a supposition that has fueled heated discussions, as it flies in the face of what many
young people and job seekers have been taught. However, as Rowe expertly – and with
his trademark wit – points out, following your passion can lead to financial ruin. As he
notes, the motto should be: “Follow your dreams and go broke” – and it does nothing to
help a struggling economy. Here’s why:

● Opportunities for economic development are missed when people are always
looking inward. Rowe speaks eloquently about the pig farmer with whom he
worked on one episode. The farmer realized that all the foods that were
thrown away from the Vegas Strip buffets were protein-rich and an ideal
source of nutrition for his livestock. It wasn’t his dream to go into the business
of collecting food scraps for livestock but years later he’s worth millions of
dollars because he saw an untapped market and entered it.
● We forget to imitate because we all want to innovate. We have this need to be
the first to do something, rather than heralding those who piggyback on
inventions. Ford didn’t invent the car, but he used the car as a springboard for
other possibilities.
● When everyone is walking in one direction – “Let’s all follow our passions!” –
there’s a path less traveled that could be far more lucrative and satisfying in
the end, even if it’s not glamorous or socially appreciated. Take a liberal arts
 degree, for example. There’s been a lot of talk about the large number of
students studying liberal arts and the lack of positions in the field. Your
passion may be in liberal arts, but it’s going to be extremely hard to leverage
your degree as well as if you studied something with much better prospects.
● We’ve been fed a line that implies working harder and working smarter are
mutually exclusive. In fact, they can be two sides of the same coin – and they
must be in order to produce an effective, self-sustaining society.

These facts lay out a clear picture that it’s time to rethink the way we view our career
paths, as well as how we introduce the idea of engaging in the working world to those
just starting to hold jobs.

Seek Out the Jobs That Are Already Available

You might be surprised to learn that there are actually many jobs available that simply
aren’t being scooped up. Maybe it’s because they seem hum-drum or unromantic; in
other words, they don’t strike anyone as being a dream assignment. So what?
Someone smart is going to realize this and work his or her way to a great, satisfying
future.

Start seeking out job fairs and listings and you’ll soon find out where the work is. But
don’t stop there, once you know where the opportunities are, go hunting for more open
positions. In the social age we live in, it’s no surprise that an effective way to do this is
through social media. Just as social recruiting has become mainstream, so has the use
of social media and personal websites for personal branding. Create a personal website
to show off your skills and build your brand on social media. You could even try
blogging as a job-search technique.

You don’t have to give up your passion entirely, but it might just make more sense
to put it on the side rather than in the spotlight.
Make Your Passion a Sideline Hobby
You don’t have to give up your passion entirely, but it might just make more sense to
put it on the side rather than in the spotlight. Sometimes, you just aren’t good at it, and
that’s the bottom line. You can’t make a living from it, and in the end, you’ll only be
miserable. Instead, get a position working in a field where you have the chance to earn
a decent living, help your community and feel good about what you’ve done at the end
of the day. Pursue your hobby during your off hours.

Be Happy to Work Hard

By all accounts, we’ve become a nation of people who want perks. We want to work
from home, we want flexibility in our jobs, we want early retirement, and we want lots of
vacation. However, this may not be what the country needs to generate economic
recovery and expansion. Sometimes, hard work and sacrifice is the only path.
Fortunately, as Rowe is fond of mentioning, working hard tends to go hand-in-hand with
personal happiness. That’s because we gain satisfaction from working to reach a goal,
even more so than from actually reaching the goal.

So did we get it all wrong when we learned we were supposed to follow our passions?
Maybe. In our collective eagerness to put bliss above getting the job done, we may
have actually fostered a sense of societal complacency. The good news is that we have
the power to change. It’s never too late to broaden our horizons, get our hands a little
dirty and celebrate the work that needs to get done.