Core Idea: Don't Follow Your Passion

00:00:00.000 | Today, I want to turn our attention towards the world of

00:00:07.820 | careers, and do a core idea deep dive on the idea that you should

00:00:14.520 | not follow your passion. Here's a core idea. Don't follow your

00:00:22.000 | passion. Let me give some background here. What do I mean

00:00:27.360 | by don't follow your passion? Well, this all goes back to a

00:00:31.240 | book I published in 2012. It was called So Good They Can't Ignore

00:00:36.400 | You. And the whole premise of this book was to take a look

00:00:42.040 | from scratch at the core question of how do you end up

00:00:45.040 | loving what you do for a living. I wrote this book as a postdoc

00:00:50.040 | at MIT before I took my first professorship at Georgetown.

00:00:54.920 | Because professorships, if done right, is a job you have for

00:00:57.520 | life. My thinking was, if there was any time in which I would

00:01:02.440 | get a lot of leverage out of understanding what makes people

00:01:05.180 | end up loving what they do for a living, this was the time that

00:01:07.280 | I would get the most leverage out of it. This was the time I

00:01:09.760 | needed an answer to that question. This was a time in

00:01:12.320 | which I was cementing what my professional life was going to

00:01:15.800 | look like. And I said, I better understand how people end up

00:01:17.960 | loving their work before I start setting into stone career

00:01:21.840 | trajectories that are hard to otherwise later change. And so I

00:01:24.800 | went and I researched and wrote this book as a postdoc at MIT,

00:01:28.400 | trying to answer the question, how do people end up loving what

00:01:31.560 | they do? At the time, and continuing till today, the

00:01:37.240 | common answer to that question was follow your passion. That's

00:01:43.000 | by far the most common answer, especially in the American

00:01:46.040 | context. There are definitely some regional differences here,

00:01:48.680 | but definitely in the American context. It didn't take much

00:01:52.600 | pushing to realize that there are problems with this advice.

00:01:58.400 | Number one, a lot of people and by a lot, I mean, most don't

00:02:02.320 | have clearly defined pre existing passions that they can

00:02:04.720 | identify to then follow. Real issue if you talk to a bunch of

00:02:08.600 | let's say 22 year olds just coming out of school, and say,

00:02:11.800 | look, you got to follow your passion, or you're going to be

00:02:13.800 | you know, a miserable sad sack and say, well, what's my

00:02:15.960 | passion? I don't know. That's a problem. Second, there is not a

00:02:21.400 | lot of good evidence that matching the content of your

00:02:26.040 | work to a pre existing interest is a major driver of

00:02:31.120 | satisfaction in that job. We just assume that's true. That

00:02:35.240 | advice just assumes that true. Oh, I like this thing. So if I

00:02:37.960 | do that for my job, I'll like my job. But we actually don't have

00:02:40.200 | a lot of evidence that's true. We have a ton of evidence that

00:02:42.760 | other factors are much more important. Things like autonomy

00:02:46.040 | seems like mastery seems like impact things like connection.

00:02:49.680 | A lot of other things that are really important for job

00:02:51.360 | satisfaction have nothing to do with is the content of my work

00:02:55.040 | matching a pre existing interest. And we of course have

00:02:59.040 | plenty of counterexamples of people who build jobs out of

00:03:04.880 | hobbies and are miserable. I mean, these are cliches that the

00:03:09.920 | baker, the amateur baker who's miserable as a professional

00:03:13.520 | baker, the amateur photographer, who's miserable, doing six

00:03:17.760 | wedding photography gigs per week. This is so common, it's a

00:03:21.520 | cliche that when you take what you love and say, let me make a

00:03:23.840 | job about it, you no longer love that thing. And that's because

00:03:26.240 | the things that makes you really love a job is not me

00:03:29.360 | really like this topic. Me job now has this topic in it. Me now

00:03:34.080 | really like my job. It's way more complicated than that. The

00:03:39.120 | final issue I'll throw in a third here that I noticed when

00:03:40.960 | I was researching So Good They Can't Ignore You is that if you

00:03:45.200 | just go out there and grab a bunch of people who love what

00:03:47.520 | they do for a living, and look at their actual stories, nine

00:03:53.200 | times out of 10, they were not following a clear pre existing

00:03:55.360 | passion. So if this is the universal advice we give, you

00:03:59.120 | would expect that it's what most people who love their job

00:04:01.840 | did. That's why we give this advice. Most people don't. And

00:04:05.600 | the reality is when you just ask someone casually who loves

00:04:09.040 | their work, what's your advice? And they say, follow your

00:04:13.680 | passion. What they really mean is follow the goal of ending up

00:04:19.280 | passionate about your work. They don't mean identifying

00:04:24.080 | advance what you're passionate about, match that to your job,

00:04:25.840 | and then you will love your work. That's not really what

00:04:27.280 | they mean. It's not really what they did. It's just a

00:04:29.040 | shorthand. But we interpret it as meaning we're wired to do

00:04:33.600 | one thing, match our work to that one thing, then we will

00:04:37.760 | love our work. That's not actually the way it works. And

00:04:40.080 | you know what, we can't blame people for falling back on that

00:04:42.480 | shorthand, because the reality of what really matters for

00:04:45.280 | building a career love is complicated. We're about to get

00:04:47.440 | into it took me a year of research to really untangle this

00:04:51.280 | storyline. So we should not expect it when we grab some

00:04:53.440 | entrepreneur in a magazine interview and say, what's your

00:04:56.480 | advice that they'll have this all figured out? They just say

00:04:58.320 | follow your passion, but they don't really mean it, because

00:05:00.400 | it's not really what they did. They followed the goal about

00:05:03.680 | being passionate about their work and how they got there was

00:05:05.680 | complicated. All right, let's get into it. How do you get

00:05:08.880 | there? What I uncovered in my work is that the skill that the

00:05:15.840 | what we call attributes of a job that makes it great, the

00:05:19.520 | properties of a career that makes it something that you

00:05:22.000 | love, are almost always in demand. They're rare and

00:05:27.680 | valuable, most jobs don't have them. And so if you want those,

00:05:31.920 | if you want those in your job, you have to have something rare

00:05:36.400 | and valuable to offer in return. The world doesn't care

00:05:40.720 | that you want to be happy in your job, and you think those

00:05:43.280 | things will be good for you, and you just want them in your

00:05:44.880 | job, it doesn't care, you have to have something to offer in

00:05:46.880 | return. And almost always the things you have to offer in

00:05:49.680 | return is rare and valuable skills. So if you want the rare

00:05:52.480 | and valuable traits that makes great jobs great in your job,

00:05:55.440 | you have to have rare and valuable skills to offer in

00:05:58.480 | exchange. And therefore the whole game in building a career

00:06:03.520 | you love is skill acquisition. Step one, get really good at

00:06:06.880 | things. Step two, use those skills as leverage to shape

00:06:11.280 | your career towards the elements that resonate in a way

00:06:13.920 | from the elements that don't. Get good uses leverage, get

00:06:16.320 | better uses even bigger leverage. You cultivate over

00:06:19.040 | time a career that then is a real source of meaning and

00:06:21.280 | satisfaction for you. It has nothing to do for nine out of

00:06:24.160 | 10 people with leaving college at 22 and saying, I am wired,

00:06:29.920 | and I just know this, I've known this my whole life, I am

00:06:32.400 | wired to be a social media brand manager for a major hotel

00:06:35.680 | chain. If I could just go get that job, I'm going to be

00:06:38.800 | passionate. And if I don't, I'm going to be miserable. It's not

00:06:41.200 | how it works. Get good uses leverage, get good use as

00:06:44.240 | leverage. I ended up calling this career capital theory.

00:06:47.440 | My metaphor is, as you get good at things that are rare and

00:06:51.920 | valuable, you are acquiring more career capital, you then

00:06:55.040 | must invest that capital to get returns in your job that are

00:06:58.720 | positive. So I use that metaphor of career capital.

00:07:00.880 | Two quick follow up. One, how do you do that? How do you get

00:07:08.240 | good at things? How do you build rare and valuable skills?

00:07:10.400 | The short answer is deliberate practice. You need to very

00:07:13.920 | careful, carefully figure out what's valuable in your current

00:07:17.120 | career or job area, and then train to get better at that

00:07:22.640 | deliberately like an athlete adding a new jump shot to the

00:07:25.680 | repertoire or a chess player mastering a new in game

00:07:28.640 | strategy. Specific activities designed to stretch you past

00:07:34.320 | where you're comfortable on things you know are valuable.

00:07:36.560 | You got to be training yourself to get better. That's how you

00:07:39.520 | get career capital fast. That's how you move towards passion

00:07:41.600 | very quickly. Two, how do you know what to do with that career

00:07:46.560 | capital? How do you know, like, what do I want to invest that

00:07:51.600 | career capital to get in exchange? When I, when I say you

00:07:54.640 | want to invest that capital to move your work towards things

00:07:57.040 | that resonate and away from things that don't, you might be

00:08:00.480 | suspicious that I'm just being circular here. And somehow it

00:08:03.520 | all comes back to some pre-existing passion. But no,

00:08:05.520 | it's much more complicated here. What do I mean by moving

00:08:07.680 | your work towards things that resonate away from things that

00:08:09.680 | don't? What you need to do here is what we call on this show,

00:08:13.840 | lifestyle centric career planning. You have to, through

00:08:19.200 | reflection and experimentation, fix in your mind a very clear

00:08:24.160 | image of what you want your life to be like. All the elements

00:08:27.280 | of your life. You're really like imagining typical days in a

00:08:30.000 | way that just, you feel this intimations of that's right.

00:08:32.320 | That's what I want my life to be like. Where do you live? What

00:08:35.040 | type of place do you live? Where are you working? How much

00:08:37.840 | work are you doing? What else are you doing with your time?

00:08:39.840 | What's happening with your family or your community? Are

00:08:42.080 | you in the woods all day? Are you in a high rise? Are you in

00:08:44.720 | this vision? Are you a master of the universe type that's

00:08:47.200 | making deals and moving things? Or are you a Bill McKibben type

00:08:51.360 | cross-country skiing in the snow for three weeks before

00:08:55.040 | writing one article the next week? You really just want to

00:08:57.120 | have this feel of what type of lifestyle resonates with me as

00:09:01.200 | deep. What I want. And then you work backwards from that. Okay.

00:09:07.440 | What I'm trying to do now is build up rare and valuable

00:09:10.160 | skills in my job so that I have leverage and then use that

00:09:12.240 | leverage to shape the way my work unfolds. What I work on,

00:09:14.880 | when I work on, the arrangement for my work, all of that. So it

00:09:18.080 | is pushing me more towards this image of the optimal

00:09:21.040 | lifestyle for me and away from things that are contrary to

00:09:24.560 | that to that lifestyle. So you're working backwards from a

00:09:27.440 | clear image of a lifestyle. And the way you get there is not by

00:09:30.560 | saying at 22 to your boss, I want to live in the woods. I

00:09:33.680 | want a lot of free time. I'm going to cross-country ski all

00:09:36.560 | day. So I want my work to be just stuff I'm interested in.

00:09:40.160 | And I only work on on Monday and Fridays and they get paid

00:09:42.080 | really well. The boss will say in that context, that's great.

00:09:46.720 | Good luck with that. Can you get your stuff off the desk

00:09:50.240 | there? Because the person we just hired to replace you is

00:09:52.160 | here and they need to get back to work. That's not how you do

00:09:54.800 | it. How you do it is you become so good. You can't be ignored.

00:09:57.760 | They're desperate to keep you. And now you're able to start

00:10:00.480 | adjusting. Well, you know, I'm going to work part-time or I

00:10:04.720 | don't do this type of work that goes to the entry level. I'm

00:10:06.800 | not at the entry level anymore or pay me by my performance. I

00:10:10.400 | want to shift to a pseudo consulting type contract. You

00:10:12.720 | pay me by my performance. All of that requires. I have gotten

00:10:16.720 | very good and that requires that you train. All right. So

00:10:20.880 | let me pull together these pieces. This is not as sexy as

00:10:23.920 | the Disney version fairy tale of you were wired for one job.

00:10:27.680 | And if you can figure out what that is, there will be fairy

00:10:31.440 | dust in the air and you'll be happy in your career from then

00:10:33.520 | on out. And conversely, if you don't like your job, if you

00:10:36.400 | find it hard, or there's anything that's hard about it,

00:10:38.080 | that's because you have the wrong position. You just quit

00:10:40.720 | and try something else. You're almost there. Then everything

00:10:43.360 | will be easy when you get the right job. The storyline I'm

00:10:46.800 | going to give you is much harder than that, but it actually

00:10:49.680 | works. So the compress everything I just said here,

00:10:52.560 | don't obsess too much about what job you take. Yes, the

00:10:57.120 | choice matters, but you know, any job that matches your

00:11:00.720 | interest in some sense, and it's going to give you good

00:11:02.560 | options. If, and when you get better is good enough. Don't

00:11:04.480 | obsess over them dream job or having just the right job to

00:11:07.360 | train like an athlete, what matters. I'm going to

00:11:11.200 | systematically improve that skill. No one else in your job

00:11:14.720 | is going to be doing that. So you're going to start getting

00:11:16.560 | advantages opening up really soon. Three, use the resulting

00:11:21.680 | career capital to as leverage to push your career towards

00:11:26.320 | things that resonate and things and away from things that

00:11:28.240 | don't. And you, your compass for that is lifestyle centric

00:11:31.520 | career planning, very clear image of what you want your

00:11:34.240 | days to be like all the elements of your days. And so

00:11:36.720 | what can I do to make my life more like that and get away

00:11:39.760 | from the stuff that gets in the way, do those three things,

00:11:42.400 | give yourself five years, you will probably be pretty happy

00:11:46.640 | in your job, give yourself another five years, you might

00:11:48.560 | be downright passionate about it. But then just what you

00:11:50.880 | have to do for me is when someone fresh out of college

00:11:53.760 | looks up at you and says, well, how did you do it? How do

00:11:56.480 | you have this cool job where you ski all day or whatever?

00:11:59.840 | Don't just say, follow your passion. Say, it's kind of

00:12:03.600 | complicated. Go watch this video at Cal Newport's YouTube

00:12:07.360 | page.

00:12:09.760 | [Music]

Core Idea: Don't Follow Your Passion

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