It’s a lovely experience sitting in a room with a bunch of people from all walks of life guiding an 11th grader towards the right career path. Two of the words thrown around frequently were “Passion” and “passionate”. What was more entertaining was my input of words like “investors”, “market, “strategy, “creativity”, and “failure”. And the most interesting part of the whole conversation were the faces of more than half the spectators who had never thought of those things. And that’s how I decided to a shed a light on this randomly-throw-around word called “Passion”.
The word “Passion” is often misunderstood to be something we are good at, preferably a hobby, be it sports, arts, programming, maths, biology or public speaking. Looking it up on the internet, I found it means “strong and barely controllable emotion”. So no, passionate isn’t exactly synonymous to hobby.
Misconception regarding career advice is “Follow your passion”. What one usually forgets to add is “Don’t follow your passion blindly”. One of the most important things to realize is that your passion is the heart and soul you put into the task at hand, an emotional state that drives you to complete the work and the satisfaction that follows after. However, make sure that efforts don’t go to a waste simply because there is no market out there for it.
If you focus just on passion you’ll probably end up nowhere, and if you focus only on your strengths without being passionate about it, you might end up as a robot in a factory.
Find the right market, strategy, and plan for what you love doing and make sure there is scope for it in the future as well. Make realistic and practical goals, set boundaries on what can be done and what can’t be, and never forget to experiment with new ideas! Know one thing for sure; creativity of the human mind is the sole reason for the amazing world we live in today.
And do not fret if suddenly you feel like a certain job is no longer perfect, and it’s time to let it go. Interests change with scenarios, and hence so will your passion. He surely wasn’t wrong when Mike Rowe said that “Passion is too important to be without, but too fickle to be guided by.” So keep dreaming and making them a reality.
