On Work: Do not follow passion.
Thoughts on a tangent to Cal Newport's book
I read Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You. Wherein Newport shoots down on the popular idea that one should pursue their passions in making a career. Instead, Newport suggests that one should pursue career capital - education, network, skills, competence and reputation - which would improve one’s standing in a career.
Along those lines, I watched several videos featuring Mike Rowe on Youtube12. In those videos, a recurring theme was about work and following opportunity instead of passion. Mike Rowe argues that we should not follow our passion. Our passions -- emotions -- can blind us to the fact that our skill and ability might not be up to scratch.
He highlights the American Idol reality show as an example. Everyone looks passionate and ready to sing their hearts out. But not everyone makes the cut. Worse, some people are deluded into thinking they have the ability to win it. It all comes crashing down on them when the judges just flatly refuse to even entertain them.
Another thing about the American Idol show, in the end, there’s only ONE winner. Everyone wants to compete and win. Not everyone has the skill to make it to the select final few. Only one can take it all home.
Thousands of people head to California or Hollywood hoping to be the next big thing. For every thousand or so, only a handful gets to stay in the industry. An even smaller proportion become superstars. Every student competes intensely in a battery of entrance exams hoping to get a seat into a prestigious university, but most everyone gets rejected.
Moreover, intense competition over slim pickings could lead to some nasty conflicts. The guy at work taking all the credit over a winning project. Corporations trying to one-up each other to capture a larger market share, only at the expense of the customers. Its a winner-takes-all kind of game. A rat race promising a pathway to success that ends up burning everyone out. Opportunities diminish and eventually, our passions fade too.
Blindly following our passions and conventions prevents us from seeing opportunities hidden in plain sight. In a TedTalk3, Mike Rowe recounts a story of a pig farmer in Nevada. The farmer fed his pigs leftover food waste from Las Vegas. Why? because those food waste contained proteins we humans could not access, but pigs could. This enabled the farmer’s pigs to grow very fat. Making the farmer a rich man selling pork. One man’s leftover waste is another man’s profit.
‘Follow opportunity’, said Mike Rowe, ‘but bring your passion with you.’
Prager U: Don’t follow your passion
would love to hear how you've navigated this, and somethings you do to see opportunity rather than going the default path