While ‘follow your passion’ is well-intended and popular advice, I think it might be misleading for various reasons.
It’s wonderful to have a passion for something, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that someone should make a career or business out of it. Because in the long run, passion alone might not be sustainable. That’s why, we as leaders, should think twice before we give such advice.
The problem with passion is that it can change. And making your hobby a career or business will definitely change how you feel about it. Suddenly, it’s not just a fun activity you do whenever you choose to do it. Often, passions are better enjoyed as hobbies as they serve to recharge our batteries, but when it comes to building a business or choosing a career, the work we are doing should serve us and others. Otherwise, it starts feeling empty after a while.
Working as a ski instructor was my passion when I was young. I absolutely loved it, and I was even able to finance part of my university studies with it. Up to date, skiing is still my passion, but working as a ski instructor is not anymore. Even though I had a really wonderful time doing this job, I noticed after a while that I felt kind of called to something different that challenged me more. I love to evolve, I love to grow, and I love to learn, and after several seasons of being a ski instructor, this work just couldn’t provide me with this anymore
A friend of mine had a full-time job and was painting for fun. After she had some successful small gallery shows, people started buying her art. Painting is her passion, so she decided to make the leap to being a full-time artist. A few months down the road, she noticed that she really didn’t like anything that had to do with marketing and selling her art. She even mentioned that she felt as if she was losing her passion for painting because of the pressure of making this business work. In the end, the “follow your passion” advice misled her down a path that was not hers.
“That’s because having work that you love is a lot more complicated than, “Hey, I like this! If I do it for work, I’ll like my work!” explains Cal Newport. Passion is important because, without having your heart and soul be part of your business journey, you will set yourself up for failure. But you also have to consider the commitment and endurance it takes to sustain your business or career.
Cal Newport wrote in his book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” that there are two fundamental problems with “following your passion”. The first is that the advice to follow your passion assumes that people already know and are able to identify their passion. However, the majority of people have no idea what their passion is, and they end up feeling lost with this advice. The second problem is assuming that if you really like something, you will also like it for a job. Newport said, “If you study people with meaning and passion in their work, it has little to do with whether the topic of their job matches their pre-existing passions.”
But what else can we base a business on if we don’t follow our passion? I like the idea by Mark Schaefer, who talked in his book “Known” about a “sustainable interest”. I would even go further and say that we should look for meaningful and sustainable interests. This is an interest that has meaning to you; it has the potential to grow with you so that it will help you achieve your goals in life. You can ask yourself the following questions: What am I curious about? Is the topic of interest something I want to be known for in my business and life? Does it have enough meaning for me so that it doesn’t get shallow after a while?
Your ideas have greater significance when they are somehow connected to the well-being of others. Or as Dr. Tererai Trent says, “Your dreams in life will have greater meaning when they are tied to the betterment of your community.” Having a positive impact on others gives you a sense of purpose and meaning that can serve as fuel for times when perseverance is needed. A business built on mere passion is more likely to fail because passion is something fleeting and more centered on the self, while a meaningful, sustainable interest is centered on others as well as you. It is something that keeps you interested in the long run.
While more factors have to be considered for building a successful and authentic business, having a meaningful, sustainable interest (or different interests coherently combined) is helping you to obtain and maintain the energy needed to be courageous and disciplined enough to follow through with your vision.
