The Reason Why You Should Not Follow Your Passion A few days ago I was invited to speak to a group of mostly young people. After my session, one man from the audience asked me, “I’ve always heard about following one’s passion, what do you think?”. I then told him about my personal businesses. As at the time of making this video, I have 3 businesses. I love one so much that I can do it for free, so you can call that my passion, right? The second one has a part of it that makes me high while the third one is nothing but a boring job for me, I hate it.
But guess what? For the past 3 years, this business I hate has given me more money than anything else. What do you think about the cliché, “Follow your passion?” In this video, I’ll explain the reason why the advice to follow your passion is not always a good thing. If you’re new here, consider subscribing so that you won’t miss other interesting videos like this.
Now let’s get into it. You see, there’s a complex formula that makes people truly successful in business and in their career. That formula is your passion plus the market willingness to pay for the product of your passion minus easy entrance for most people. To understand this, let’s imagine a building or a car. It’s one but with many compartments that have to be put together before the house or car could work.
Now, there’s a problem. If the engine of the car is ready but the body isn’t available, we don’t have a car yet. If the building is constructed but there’s no roofing, we can’t have a house yet. If you’re passionate about something but the market isn’t willing to pay for it, you don’t have anything that can give you money yet. That’s why “follow your passion” advice is not always the best thing to do.
For example, I have a friend who is passionate about writing poems and novels but unfortunately, he lives in a country where most people hate reading, hence, no one is willing to pay for his passion. In this case, would you still advise him to follow his passion? Now, if I’ve been able to convince you that “follow your passion” isn’t necessarily good advice, what should you do? Follow money first.
Maybe this is bad advice but you need to keep your body and soul together. If my friend should continue writing poems that no one wants to read, hunger will bend his waste. Especially if you’re still young, your priority shouldn’t be to be happy. Yes, doing what you hate for money will make you miserable but not having money will make you even more miserable, so you first have to follow the money.
Keep your passion alive. That the market isn’t willing to pay for your passion today doesn’t mean that they won’t pay tomorrow. Human preferences change all the time. In fact, it may be your fault that you cannot market the product of your passion. It may be that you don’t know certain things now that you’ll know in the nearest future. Such a thing may be the open door for you to start making money from your passion.
Keep your passion alive. Keep practicing and making plans about what you’re passionate about while you work on things you hate because of money. Don’t get used to hell. A big problem we face as humans is that, we can get used to anything. While I think that you can’t always wait till you’re able to make money from your passion because you need money to remain alive, I also think that you should never get used to a job that makes your life miserable.
As you’re working on what you hate just because you have a family and financial responsibilities, always remind yourself that you’re in prison for a purpose. Don’t get used to prison. Instead, keep working and making plans on your passion by the side. Many people say this is not easy and I agree. But many ungodly people usually have “side chick” after they are married. That’s not easy too.
So, manage your “Side Chick”. Use what you hate to build what you love. I told you about my three businesses. I do the first one for money. I do one for a little love and I do one for the real passion. At the end of the day, my goal is to get rid of the one I do for money. Maybe I’ll sell it or just throw it away. But before then, I’m going to use the money this ugly thing is giving me to build the businesses I truly love and that has been what I’ve been busy working on.
My advice to the employees I need to speak specifically to the employees because this is very common among them. According to the Gallup Poll, more than 85% of employees hate their jobs, even those who have the so called “good job”. But even though these people hate their jobs (which is fine since I too hate one of my businesses), they simply get used to it.
They tell themselves that it’s normal or they think that the next promotion will give them more money and make them happier. That’s a wrong way of thinking. It’s like me saying, “Though I hate this business but if it can make me more money, I’ll be happier running it”. That’s simply not going to happen. It doesn’t matter how much money you get from a business or job you hate.
You hate it means that you hate it. Instead of thinking that the next pay raise will make you happier, why don’t you use they check you’re getting from this job/business to start financing what you will truly love? These are things I think you can do; Buy no luxury for now. The categories of people who ought not to buy luxuries are the ones who buy luxuries most and there’s a psychological reason for that.
You see, when you’re doing what you hate, you won’t be fulfilled. When you don’t feel fulfilled, you’ll think that the latest iPhone and watches will make you happy. Unfortunately, that’s the last thing you ought to think about. When you’re doing something you hate, you should never buy luxuries because buying luxurious things means that you will never have enough to save and that obviously means that you will forever remain in the prison of a business/job you hate. Be disciplined. Live on very little things.
Don’t buy a car if you don’t seriously need one and even if you need one, buy small and used ones. You obviously don’t need the iPhones and the $10,000 watches when you are working on things you hate. Who told you that you need the Rolex watch? Make friends with people who are living your dreamed life. I have a friend who was an employee many years after I’ve been an entrepreneur.
But one year after we live near each other, he decided to quit his job. I’m not suggesting that you should quit your job. I’m only sharing with you how making friends with whom you want to be like can inspire you to make some really big sacrifices. If you’re in a business or job you hate, don’t hang around people in that same environment. Make friends with people who are already doing something similar to what you want to do.
When you see the way these people live and how fulfilled they are, you’ll get inspiration to make sacrifices like saving a significant part of your earnings, reading some good books instead of partying, etc. Start Small. Almost everything in the world can start in a very little way but because little is ugly, most people don’t like starting little. I started my entrepreneurial journey in one of the worst ways you can imagine. It was little, ugly and dirty but I have to keep that fight for 8 years before I got a big breakthrough. Don’t be afraid to go through the ugly face toward your passion.
Now, let me conclude this video this way; You see, the advice, “Follow your passion” is not always good advice. It’s like someone advising you, “Be happy always”. It sounds good but it’s not realistic because before you can really appreciate joy, you need to know sadness. Most times, you won’t be able to follow your passion whether because the market doesn’t yet appreciate your passion, because you don’t know how to market your passion or because it may take a lot of time to make money from your passion. While you’re waiting for the good, you may need to hang around the ugly.
My only advice is, don’t lose sight of the good. Hang around the ugly so that you won’t be lonely, but never forget that the good is your end goal. Thank you very much for watching our videos. We’ll like to give you another interesting video for you to enjoy next but before then, our team will be very happy if you can like this video and share it with your friends on social media. If you’re new here, don’t forget to subscribe so you won’t miss other interesting videos like this. Look at your screen now to see two other videos we handpicked for you to enjoy next. We love you.
