Fireside Chat: Following Your Passion is Stupid
I was reading an article today on some website that popped up on my phone, one of those blog posts that is all about motivation and inspiration and all that crap. Anyway, the woman was talking about how much she hated working for her law firm, doing the same thing day after day. At some point, she left her firm and began blogging for a living. I suppose she is doing well, considering the fact that there were so many ads on the page, it’ll make your head spin! She closed with the oh-so-simple notion of “follow your passion, and you’ll never work a day in your life”.
After swallowing down the vomit from reading this article, it made me realize just how stupid this mentality is. What if your passion is waffles? Should you go to business school and go work for Waffle House? Personally, my passion is potatoes. Whether they are fried, baked, or raw, I adore them. By that logic, I should sell my house, buy a farm, and start growing them for a living. My point is that people swallow this garbage like it’s the antidote for their not-so-stellar lives. What they realize once they swallow this pill is that, in reality, its poison. Usually, you will make less money, work harder than you normally would if you just stayed at your job and did what you love on the side. You can get what you need financially, and you get to do what you love.
Here’s a simpler mentality for you to follow: instead of “following your passion”, ask yourself “what kind of life do I want”? Begin with the end in mind, asking these questions:
1. What do I want to be at the end of my life?
2. How much money do I want?
3. Where will I live when I’m old?
4. How many kids do I want?
5. How do I want to be remembered?
To further explain my point, I will give you my own answers to the above:
1. I want to be a tenured Professor and own a Real Estate company
2. I want at minimum 7 figures to be placed into a trust, ensuring my financial future when I am old
3. I want to live in the mountains of northern Georgia
4. I don’t want to have any children, depending on my uncertainty of my genetics
5. I want to be remembered by being the strongest, bravest, and wisest man that most people I am around will ever know
Once you have answers to these questions, work from there by making these hopes a reality. I believe that this method is MUCH more obtainable than the previous mentality. Figure out what you want, and then go after it.