PASSION…Is Overrated
- By JessInTheMoment
- 2 December, 2012
- 9 Comments
my momma always told me, ‘if you wanna start a business, first you gotta find your passion. if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, you’ll never be successful.’
well mom…i think you’re wrong.
*whispers* you bet not tell her i said that…i’ll deny the whole thing, the whole thing, i tell ya!
my mom is a helluva woman, fifty-something years old with all the degrees, experience, expertise, and hustle to leave behind a powerful legacy.
and then there’s me; a twenty something year old woman on the move, but still not really sure where she’s going.
recently i had a conversation with a very successful businessman that i used to do consultant work for. our convo went something like this…
him: i’m expanding the business to colorado
me: what’s your ultimate goal?
him: uhhh…to make money. why else would i be doin it? it’s not like i’m tryna change the world of abstracting or something!
then we both had a good, hearty laugh.
so what we have here is the classic Rich Dad, Poor Dad dilemma.
my “Poor Dad” (mom) has high ideals, passion, motivation….but she’s also saddled with alot of academic debt at the moment.
my “Rich Dad” has several businesses, he’s a millionaire, and he has a passion for…well…making money.
don’t get it twisted, tho, my mom has literally CHANGED lives with her work. i can barely walk 10 feet in atlanta without running into her grateful (and sometimes tearful) former clients and colleagues. there’s definitely something to be said for a life built on service work.
i don’t know if my “Rich Dad” can make the same claim, but i do know that his growing family is well taken care of, and his wife and children enjoy the kind of financial security and freedom that my family is working towards. they have plenty of friends and are able to have a hand in shaping their community in ways that most poor people cannot.
so…my final thought is this…i believe that searching for passion, might really be holding us back from actually DOING something. some people don’t have a passion. i might be one of them. u might be, too. so then what?
how many of you are monetizing your passion? is it worth it? (literally)
how many of you are making money without passion at all? do you (or will you) have the life you want?
Copyright © 2013
I'm not monetizing on my passion. Hmm…problem is i'm cursed with the guilt of having to do something meaningful. Helping a failing school peeks my interests more than franchising a starbucks.
"how many of you are making money without passion at all? do you (or will you) have the life you want?"
I maintain a 9 to 5 and pursue my passion projects on evenings and weekends. I think this is often where the winners and losers are separated. Time is the most important commodity. I'm often torn with whether I should quit my job and pursue my passion projects full-time. I don't know.
Like RHH says below, sometimes passions change. So its really gonna be depressing if you quit your job put your all into following your passions and then two months later find that you're not that into those exact passions.
One problem with chasing our passions, and Wings kinda hinted at it below, is that we're never JUST chasing our passions. We've got to deal with the marketing behind it, and the legalities, and the business, and the consulting and a whole lot of mumbo jumbo that often gets in the way of just doing what we signed up for in the first place.
That's why its hard to really tell what you're passionate about because so often we only get to look at it in the ideal lighting. But if you can still be passionate about it when you've seen it on one of those 3AM wakeup calls without a chance to go into the bathroom and tidy up and its asking you to do stuff you swore that you'd never do – stuff that you were listing as the main reasons that you wanted to quit your last job – If you can do that stuff and still be passionate about it, then maybe you've found your passion.
true. metaphysical passion is easy (any 5%'ers in the house?). but carrying that passion to the land of car notes, phone bills, and exorbitant rent is vexation of spirit. That internal voice asking what made you think you could sell muffin bottoms (c|Seinfeld) and open a rent-a-spoons (c|Martin) is the worst.
Passion does changes. To me its more about time. Time forces us to choose what's most important.
I'm all about following my passion and being GREAT. I think we sometimes think others don't have passion (or we judge them), because their passion doesn't serve the same way ours does. Everyone serves in a different way, and everyone makes a different contribution. The monetary piece isn't part of my passion, but I'm not gonna cry if it comes along as a result :)
"Passion" in terms of career or life direction is not easy to define.
Some people really have a "calling" in life which leads them to be ministers, teachers, firefighters,work for a non-profit or any assortment of jobs that are considered public service. Often their passion for that "calling" is bigger than their desire for a job that pays big bucks. But many entrepreneurs have passion and it is not necessarily easily defined as a passion to make money. For example, Steve Jobs, who ultimately made lots of money was also really passionate about driving innovation. The creativity going on at Apple and the dynamics that resulted fueled the passion on many levels of the corporate culture at Apple. But ultimately your Mom is right. By societies definition, the most "successful" people in life have a passion of some kind. They believe in their work, their ability to produce the best [fill in the blank], find a cure, drive an innovation, lead by example, help others….
We just can't lose sight of the fact that there a whole other subset of people whose passion lies in hobbies or other interests than work or career. Likely they define their successions and passion in life under a really different orientation. These people may be perfectly content to go to work to earn income to pay bills and put food on the table but what they consider their passion is something not related to work at all.
Doing something can be the means of searching for one's passion; they need not be mutually exclusive. A book that recently inspired me is _Work on Purpose_ by Galinsky in which four individuals share their progression from being paid for their skills to applying their skills to their passion.
I've been paid for my passion, which feels amazing, but then had my passions change, which led tedium as its worst. I'm in a bit of a middle spot now, trying to transition before the current passion is gone.
Other thoughts –
As you've presented it, I see your mother as magnitudes more successful than the business man. Not to devalue the service that the businessman provides to his own family, but the impact your mother has had on scores of families is amazing.
Money is obviously a necessary tool, but it's easy to see the damage done when it becomes the sole metric by which success is defined. Rich Dad's goal was freedom, not money. The attitude of the described businessman leads to the exploitation of the type of people your mother tries to help. Compare his disgraceful scornful attitude about changing the world to the examples of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
That being said, I agree that passion alone is not sufficient for success. Here's one succinct expression of its limits with regard to the constraints of skill and our capitalistic society: http://qph.cf.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-716134b14451… (there is a better charts, but this is one I could find in short order)
Passion or poverty? That is the question. Often times the two go hand and hand. The trouble is that certain types of passions are valued monetarily well in society and others less so. So the issue then becomes if we are going to live our lives motivated by what makes us happy or motivated by what makes us money. Very few people are able to do both. I am hoping to be one of those privileged few. Why else would I invest all of my youth and so much money into my education? However, the reality is that getting an education doesn't guarantee wealth and happiness either. For a growing number of Americans it's quite the contrary. I was raised, in part, by my grandparents who received their college and masters degrees at a time in America when this was exceedingly more difficult for African Americans to achieve than it is today. This of course is hard for me to imagine since it's not all that easy now. My grandparents truly believed and taught me that if I just worked hard, got my education, my future would be bright. I could be whatever I wanted to be, etc. etc. Aww, the American dream would be at my grasp!
Now as I approach graduating with my PhD, I am confronted with the reality that it's gonna take a lot more than working hard and getting my education to achieve wealth or happiness. I'm just a little older than you, but now in my early thirties I find myself asking questions like "What's the meaning of life?" and "What am I here for?" "What is my purpose?" More specifically, what do I want to do with this one and only life I have? Do I want to spend it building wealth and accumulating things? Or do I want to spend it building relationships with the people and communities I care about most? The reality is, I got to eat. So, I need to make money. But, I don't want money to make me. To me there is a big difference.
Rich or poor, we're all gonna die. That is the one universal truth. I consider my passion to be the thing that if I died doing it, I'd be like, "Ok, that's cool." I'd be at peace with it. I'd feel fulfilled. So, you might be asking, does that mean I'd be ok with dying while editing my dissertation? The answer to that is "Yes." and "No." Make that a "Hell naw!" I don't exactly enjoy writing a bibliography, or transcribing audio. At the same time, I feel that I am working towards something larger that gives me something I value even more than passion, and tends to last longer. Educating others and giving voice to women with disabilities gives me purpose! If I died working on something towards that, I'd be like, "Ok, that's cool." I'd feel fulfilled. Maybe rich dad's purpose is to be rich. Making money gives him fulfillment. Maybe for him that's enough. But, my guess is that it's not. My guess is that it's what having money allows him to do that motivates him to get more. Find out what he does with the money, then you'll find his passion. But, for some of us, having money isn't enough. I never had money, so being poor isn't new. I never understood why so many grad students for instance, complain about being broke! As far as I'm concerned, if your going to be poor, the best thing to be is a grad student. My standard of life is much better now on student aid than it ever was growing up in Philadelphia subsidized housing.
In short, would I be pursuing a PhD if I thought it wouldn't result in increased income? No. But, it's the possibility of being able to make an income pursuing something that can help improve someone's life that really excites me!That's what has driven me to continue this very difficult path. Because honestly, I could have walked away a long time ago and started good paying jobs with the experience I already have. Instead, I chose debt over profit, at least for the time being. I chose to continue to pursue what makes me happy and miserable at the same time. I chose to get a PhD! I don't always feel like I'm pursuing my passion, but I do feel like I am pursuing my purpose, and that feelings good! Because passion can come and go, as feelings are fickle. People often feel passionate about becoming parents, until they are one. I'm so glad my mother choose to love and take care of me, no matter how she felt about me on any particularly day. Purpose is something I believe can only come from faith in yourself and faith in God. This faith can give you the ability to pursue something beyond the feelings you have about it at any particular moment. That's something greater than passion. That my dear is not financial, but Person Power. Your mother has it. That's what all those people are responding to when you mention her. Find yours.
Make that a “Hell naw!"….Wings, I danged near rolled out my seat when I heard that.
My question to you is – is it even possible to chase your passion in poverty? Assuming, of course, that your passion is more than collecting trash can lids.