There is a long-held belief that "following your passion" or "following your dreams" is pretty good advice. But in reality, this may just be a false cliché. Moreover, it can be dangerous and lead to anxiety and chronic jumping from one job to another.
Why Is It A Problem?
Pre-existing career passions are rare. Obviously, most passions such as reading cannot be turned into careers. They have little to do with how most people end up loving their work.
Steve Jobs who was well known for following his passion did not start out with a love of computers. Instead, he only saw them as an opportunity to make some quick money. There's no doubt that he loved Apple computers in the later stages of his life, but he certainly didn't start off because he had a burning desire for computers as such.
But how do people come to love what they do at work?
Theory
| Passion Mindset | Craftsman Mindset |
|---|---|
| Makes you very clear about what you don't like about your job and creates confusion with constant doubts about whether it's the right job: "Is this job really mine?", or "Do I even like what I do?". And here is the risk of irrationally rushing into a field where we have no skills to use, but we think that there is a passion that will rule everything. | To grow, become better and improve the quality of what we produce with our work. Such thinking is aimed at becoming so cool in your business that it cannot be ignored, no matter what the source of income is. That is, to approach your work every day like a real master, a craftsman. Just doing whatever we do very, very good. |
Solution
Adopt the craftsman mindset, and the passion will come by itself. If you want a great job, you need to develop rare and valuable skills aka career capital to offer in exchange for desirable working conditions. When your knowledge and skills become so valuable that they can't ignore them, then there will be a high chance of choosing a great job, one that is saturated with creativity, the desired level of influence, return, income and control.
So, the goal is to get as much career capital as possible, and then there will be more opportunities to get or choose a type of work that you will love.
Inspired after reading So Good They Can't Ignore You. Recommending this all my friends.