“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”
One of the most common cliches of American life is the dictum to “follow your passion.” There are many variants on this advice, including “Do what you love and the money will follow,” and it may even have its roots in the old Latin aphorism “carpe diem,” aka “Seize the day.”
But recently I read a book by Cal Newport titled “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” which suggests this nugget is not only misguided, but may be downright hazardous to your happiness:
“Not only is the cliche flawed–preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work–but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.” (Source: http://calnewport.com/books/so-good/)
Newport’s take is contrarian, provocative, and above all highly compelling. In explaining “Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love” (the subtitle of the book):
“Matching your job to a preexisting passion does not matter, he reveals. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.”
Unlike many self-help books which urge us to only summon the courage to live our dreams, Newport’s deep research outlines four rules for building our “career capital,” and making prudent decisions about how we might evaluate our work and its contribution to the world.
I urge you to not only read the book, but consider sharing it with young people in your lives who are preparing to enter the job market. Who knows, it might even spark you to evaluate and enhance your own relationship with your career in real estate.
(Full disclosure: I do not know Cal Newport personally and this is in no way a compensated endorsement of his book. I merely share it to try and highlight “signal over noise” in the sea of information out there, and genuinely see its value. I have previously recommended his follow-up book “Deep Work.”)
