Passion is a privilege.
There’s a popular movement that says that we should be doing the work we’re most passionate about.
I love this movement. It’s encouraged people to re-examine their work lives and their personal lives. It’s even moved some bosses to change their management styles so that their employees are doing work more in line with their passions.
All of that is pretty good, for the most part.
But it’s important to remember that we’re not entitled to doing the work we love.
The ability to follow our passion is a privilege that the vast majority of the world’s population doesn’t have.
What if you’re not passionate about your work?
So much of the literature out there that talks about being passionate about your work makes it seem as if you’re a loser if you’re not doing work you’re passionate about.
The truth is that we’re not all in a position to do the work we’re passionate about.
Some of us might be in very difficult spots financially, have too many people to support, or maybe even be affected by something like war. These are unfortunate facts of life that can prevent us from doing work we’re passionate about.
We don’t have to be passionate about our work.
It’d be nice–and maybe even a personal goal–but there are many other things to be passionate about.
You’re not a loser if you’re not doing the work you love.
In some cases, the sacrifice of doing work you don’t love might make you the biggest winner of all.
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Photo: Flickr/craig Cloutier
Wow! This kind of sentiment is rare, and appreciated. I’m a little lucky in that I enjoy much of what I do at work, but it’s not exactly something worthy of “passion”, more like “sometimes the challenges are fun and interesting”. But this idea that we all need to love our work like we’d do it even if we weren’t being paid…that’s ridiculous. For one thing, civilization would fall apart. For another thing, once you tie your passions into your financial survival, you end up making compromises along the way (unless you’re one of the lucky few who is so… Read more »
Hey Anthony, I really appreciate your perspective on this, especially about how you see the challenges sometimes being fun and interesting. Mark Cuban told a little story with that exact sentiment on the “How I Built This” podcast. After he became a multimillionaire from his first company, he became consumed with this idea that radio should be broadcast over this new fad called the “Internet.” He stayed up late at night by himself tinkering with how to make that happen. He said that sometimes he would fall into a trance with the coding, look at a clock, and realize that… Read more »