Follow Your Passion - Bad Advice? - Part 2

September 26, 2012

Interview with Cal Newport, author of the book So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

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Mike Carruthers:
It turns out the career advice to follow your passion may not be so good.

Cal Newport:
The research says people love their jobs not because it matched a preexisting interest. They love their jobs because it has traits like autonomy and competence and impact and creativity. 
 

Cal Newport, author of the book So Good They Can't Ignore You, says follow your passion is not the career advice most successful people take.

When I sat down and dived into the life stories of dozens of people who do love their career the core, 9 times out of 10, of this love for their career came from them becoming very good at something rare and valuable. That rare and valuable skill is like an elixir for loving your job it gives you a sense of mastery and competence it also is your leverage to shape the career in the direction you want. So it’s skills that lead the passion not following your passion to skills.

Which means for any one individual lots of jobs and career choices can work.

Once you’re in the job if you want to know what skills to develop look to the stars in your field. And say what do they do well that other people don’t.

But if your career goal is to follow your passion you will likely be disappointed.

So in the exact 20 year period that we’ve been insisting on following your passion job satisfaction (especially among the people who listen to this advice most young people) has been going down – which tells me this is a failed experiment.