If you are like the majority of people, you didn’t grow up with a preexisting passion, you didn’t know from one day to the next what you wanted to do or be, you just grew up. No matter what your particular circumstances, you had opportunities to do and try many things and when someone asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” you may have answered differently depending on the particular day or what had just happened in your life, and therein lies a problem for those who grew up in the last several decades, because “Follow your passion” or “Do what you love and the money will follow” has been the accepted sage advice from those in the know. Do that, and happiness and career success will descend upon you, or so they said and many still say. Dig a little deeper, though, and the advice falls apart. To begin, how can you follow your passion if you don’t have one, and further, how well have others done who’ve tried that route? Is it possible this idea is simply bad advice, or worse, dangerous? Perhaps passion comes as a result, something occurring much further along in your career and not up front as a guide. Cal Newport, a 30 year old computer scientist, thinks the “passion mindset” is wrong and he’s done a lot of work to flesh out the idea and he’s written not only a popular blog, but a book to explain.
Do you know someone who loves their work? How about you? Take a really close look at the route they followed, was it obvious up front, following a long held passion or was it a longer, more circuitous path? Did they follow their passion or become a craftsman?
The “passion mindset” keeps people looking outside of themselves and what they do, always looking for and expecting to find some “right” job they were “meant to do” to provide them with sunshine, blue skies and bliss. Failing to find it, or always wondering if this job is the one, always comparing their current job with the one that might be out there, they’re never happy, never committed to doing what is necessary to excel at the work they have.
The “craftsman mindset” looks at the world differently. Instead of “What can the world offer me?” it asks, “What can I offer the world?” The craftsman wonders how he can get really good at what he does, creating value with his work. In the process a funny thing happens, always trying to get better, always practicing, always learning, he actually does improve, so much so that people notice. He finds he enjoys what he does and people begin to seek him out. He begins to be his own harshest critic, seeing his own imperfections and working hard to push beyond them because now it matters, now he really cares if what he does is good or bad, in fact, good isn’t enough, he wants to be the best. Over time, he has become passionate about his work. Passion didn’t lead him to it, it was a result of it.
Cal wrote on his blog:
The Career Craftsman believes this process of career crafting always begins with the mastery of something rare and valuable. The traits that define great work (autonomy, creativity, impact, recognition) are rare and valuable themselves, and you need something to offer in return. Put another way: no one owes you a fulfilling job; you have to earn it.
The title of the book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, comes from an interview with comedian Steve Martin. When people would ask him for advice, expecting some specific cut and dried formula for success, he simply said to be so good they can’t ignore you. It’s not what people want to hear, because it sounds too much like hard work, and it is, but it’s a key piece of his success and that of so many others. It takes a long time, it takes deliberate practice, but if you’re persistent, it yields amazing results.
I’ve noticed hints of this idea popping up more frequently and it’s about time. The constant preoccupation with self discovery without ever getting down to the business of learning to do something useful has been an epidemic.
The idea that work should always be fun makes it impossible to do the hard deliberate practice necessary to develop skills in the first place. A recent book by Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and her hotly debated article in the Wall Street Journal, which had an enormous response (8800 comments!), details the upbringing of her two daughters by a very demanding Chinese mother here in the USA. Her daughters had to learn either the piano or the violin and the idea that it was hard and not fun brought the response, “Nothing worthwhile is fun until you’re good at it.” Haven’t you found that to be true?
Cal points out many pitfalls along the way in following the “skills first, passion later” method to success, and he interviews many people as examples of how they became passionate in work that differs from their initial aim. He also contrasts similar people who take the opposing routes of passion or craftsman and how it turned out. Interesting and revealing.
I have so often pointed out the skills many individuals featured on The Kneeslider have mastered after much hard work and practice and this subject is so close to my heart. I’ve many times spoken to company owners and managers and heard how their new hires expect the perfect job, giving them everything they require without, in return, any responsibility on their part to actually do the work for which they were hired or even to learn to create value.
With the publication of this book, perhaps the tide will begin to turn, perhaps we’ll get past this phase of too many expectations of rewards without work. Maybe we can take the mystery away from the process followed by those who have found work they love and became passionate about while so many struggle to figure out what type of work that might be in their own lives. I certainly hope so.
I recommend you follow Cal’s blog Study Hacks, especially his older articles where he explains this idea as it developed, and read this book. Give a copy to your kids, too. So Good They Can’t Ignore You, not a bad idea, don’t you think?
Doug says
“The constant preoccupation with self discovery without ever getting down to the business of learning to do something useful has been an epidemic. ”
true.
Our education system needs to adapt in the 9-12 grades to further reinforce the overall message of this post. Trades should be on equal footing with college as far as next step aspirations. The trades students were ‘those’ kids when I was going through h.s.
Doug says
The overall message applies to college prep & underclassman coursework too. “learning to do something useful” shouldn’t wait until junior or senior years of college.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Cal first wrote some books on study methods for other students following strategies he worked out on his way to his Ph.D. His background is pretty interesting in itself. Some of the work loads he’s put himself through are impressive.
The term “craftsman” shouldn’t be confused with being hands on work, it applies to knowledge work, too, because it refers to the method used to approach any work you do.
Doug says
agreed…that’s why I added that 2nd reply
Erik says
I disagree with the message of the book, and strongly disagree with the Amy Chua approach. I am now a mechanical engineer working as a designer in the heavy truck industry. Here are some thoughts from my personal experience.
When I was in high school, I had a lot of options for vocational type courses. I was able to take courses in drafting, electronics and even cisco CCNA certification prep. I now understand how rare it was to have these opportunities in high school. However, it was a constant struggle with my parents to allow me to take these courses. They pushed me to take as many college prep AP courses as possible, to the detriment of my interests.
Much like Amy Chua, my parents forced me to study piano and bassoon heavily; to the detriment of my interests in cars and other more applied fields. I became very good at these instruments, but despite that, I never enjoyed playing them. Since I got my first lego set, I always wanting to build stuff. Because working on cars was off limits, I built stuff in virtual worlds on my computer.
“Follow your passion” remains good advice in my book. The catch is that passion is useless without persistence. Persistence for people in their 20s and 30s, regarding their career, is a lot different than it was for the baby boomer generation. Back when the “company man” still existed, persistence could mean staying at one company for a whole career. For me, persistence has meant switching jobs when I felt that I was being pigeonholed and kept away from the work I do best.
The real problem is parents and society at large pushing young people onto specific “tracks”, to the detriment of their own interests and abilities. Young people are constantly told how they need to get into a good college to be anything, and to do that, they must take only college prep coursework, and participate in specific types of community activities to show good character. While in college, they are told that grades matter above all else, which results in them limiting their involvement in riskier, time intensive, hands on activities. When they get into the career world, they are told they need to move up and develop managerial skills, which again results in them limiting their exposure to risky projects and valuing the “skill†of delegation over all other practical skills.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Being pushed into the wrong career isn’t what this book is about, and I hope the Amy Chua reference didn’t lead you astray, though you may have learned more about long practice and gaining skills with your piano and bassoon lessons, that eventually paid off in your engineering work, than you realize.
Cal Newport also doesn’t promote the “company man” idea. Many examples he cites show people leaving companies to pursue opportunities that open up as their skills and experience increase. One valuable job trait he lists, “control,” is something people pursue, often encountering resistance of those who currently employ them. They can pursue it because they’ve built up “career capital” in their work.
It’s hard to summarize his entire book in one review so I would encourage you to reserve judgement until you read it, or at least examine his blog. Any misunderstanding of his ideas here due to my explanations is entirely my fault, but his extensive work on the passion versus craftsman mindset is worth your consideration. In the end, you may end up unconvinced, but give Cal the chance to explain his ideas more fully before dismissing them. You might find the radical sounding treatment of “passion” makes more sense than it at first appears.
Steve the producer Johann says
Just because you are really good means nothing if companies you wish to offer your skills/services to are not in the market for your skills. Today with 20 – 30 million US workers out of work there is a glut of skilled labor.
There is amovement which has been around for many decades which is about understanding your Natural Makeup. Johnson OConner Reaserach Foundation and now the Gallup Organization with its Streangths Finder 2.0 book and online test are both places one can go to find out how one is wired. after you discover it you still need to go to school or be trained in the skills you will need to get a job.
My passion is seeing the Hog Radio Show expand and make a living from it as of now it’s a glorified hobby.
Paul’s passion is The Kneeslider which he would love to earn a living from but for now his day job pays the bills
Every custom bike builder we have ever interviewed started out by building bikes out of passion many hold 8 to 5 jobs for many years while building up a real business where they can make a living.
Many companies claim they want the best but in the end the way they hire is a whole different animal.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
In response to your first paragraph about no jobs even if you have skills, let me quote myself from here:
About those strength finders, those have been around forever in a thousand different forms, but often they’re no more effective than someone sitting around wondering what their perfect job is. After a short bit of thinking and coming up with nothing you need more data, or you’ll have nothing to think about and you’ll keep going around in circles. Just do something, … anything, and go from there.
Then there was this:
Day job? Is that where you work for someone else? My boss would never allow me to have one of those, and he’s a tough SOB, drives me like crazy and I can’t ever get away from him. I see him every time I look in the mirror. 🙂
Marvin says
As soon as I qualified as an engineer I got pushed into management courses and soft skills type qualifications. This is either because I was a good enough engineer that I should have been promoted out of engineering or so socially maladjusted that only the other engineers liked me. Either way I think several companies I worked for and me would have been happier if they had just sat me next to an old engineer and let me learn a thing or two for a number of years.
Honyock says
I haven’t read the book yet, but it seems to me that passion and the aspiration to craftsmanship are inextricably entwined. Practice without keen interest is merely drudgery.
My wake-up call was in the early ’80’s, when my hard won skills at technical illustration (in ink, on vellum) were replaced by a machine that cost less than half of my then not so lofty salary. That scare led me to my habits of constant study, and occasional sucess amid quotidian failure. Luckily, I am entertained by the carnage of my mistakes and usually quick enough to escape the shrapnel.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Sometimes a very strong work ethic, the “if I’m not dead, I’m not finished” attitude will keep driving you forward until a clearer picture forms and a passion for a certain specific work or mission in life develops. It sounds like you have the right attitude.
john says
I also was forced to take piano lessons and I also believe it was a waste of time. 7 years of piano lessons that ended at age 16 and 6 years of french horn lesson and 2 years in the high school band playing the flugelhorn. I also had to fight parents, and GUIDANCE COUNSELORS, with regard to courses taken in high school. I preferred to do my own thing and usually disliked classrooms. I ended up in engineering and got a degree and went from structural engineering to mechanical engineering once in the real world.
Basically, you can boil down my opinion to this: school is a crock for the most part. You just have to want to learn in spite of the crap a school forces on you or you will never learn.
Tin Man says
Every loser I’ve ever met was still looking for the “right” job, Every winner I’ve known excelled at what ever oppurtunity came before them. Not to say its wrong to search for a satisfying carreer, but, the search becomes a life style for way to many people. A old gent once told me” The job does not bring dignity to the Man, The Man brings dignity to his job.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
That old gent was a smart man.
Kevin says
I don’t agree with this too much.
First, this article is the opposite of what this whole website is based on. Everything featured on this website is a passion mindset. All these custom bikes and small startups like Palatov are passion driven. Now that brings me to the second point: it needs to be a balance. Passion without skill and hard work will obviously get you nowhere. Pure “craftsman mindset” will not work either. It takes passion for something to come up with new ideas, innovation, etc. that will lead to moving up or starting a new company. You can survive in the job place with craftsman mindset, but you will not be highly successful. Maybe that is all the book is talking about though.
I’ll give a personal counter example. When I was young, I was forced to play the clarinet. I had zero passion for it. And because I had zero passion, I had zero patience and had a very bad “work ethic.” You need some driving force. Either it is passion or money. I prefer passion and think someone who works for passion will be more happy than someone driven purely by money.
In mechanical engineering, for example, those that do not have a passion for engineering (cars, motorcycles, etc) are not as good. They don’t understand it as much because they aren’t driven to.
Kevin says
Let me sum up my point.
As with anything, you need BALANCE. Pure “craftsman” can be as bad as pure “passion”. Anyone who is successful (I’m talking highly successful like Steve Jobs, BIll Gates and even Dennis Palatov) has both. They started with a passion for something. Let’s stick with Dennis Palatov. He had a passion for race cars. He took that passion and started a business making track day cars. In order to make that passion successful he needed to put in the effort. Long hours, 7 days a week.
Passion + hard work = success.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Because this book has such a contrary view compared to many others, I knew it would be either misunderstood or rejected by some, and again, as I commented above, don’t form your view of Cal’s idea based just on my review, it’s unfair to his idea and asks more of the review than it can deliver.
I should not have used the Amy Chua reference because it seems to confuse the issue and brings in this idea of being forced to do something which is not at all what Newport is about, the point I was trying to bring in with that reference was the idea that things aren’t fun until you’re good, the struggle to learn and master them can often be very difficult and not very enjoyable. This is what so often stops people before they get good and leads them to change direction instead of sticking it out and experiencing all of the benefits and joy that comes from mastery.
Passion can work, it can result in some highly successful careers and businesses, but far fewer people have preexisting passions than the “find your passion” strategy would lead us to believe. Often, too, those who follow the passion route, jump too early into something before they have done the hard work of mastering their skill. They flounder and go broke instead of building up the career capital necessary to succeed.
You bring up Steve Jobs, so does Cal Newport. Cal, though, shows Jobs as not some passionate geek before the fact, but someone who was bouncing around finding himself, spending time at the All-One commune and dabbling in electronics for a quick buck. He partnered with Steve Wozniak for the electronics expertise to build a circuit board for a kit computer, a side project to make money while they worked their regular jobs. When he showed up at the Byte Shop to sell the boards, the owner wanted complete computers instead and the opportunity turned into a much bigger project, which became Apple Computer. But his passion at the time was finding himself spiritually. Following that might have led him to teaching philosophy not taking over the world. The opportunity appeared because he was moving and trying things and willing to act on it. Did he become passionate about Apple? Absolutely! Is that how it started? No. Even successful people who later talk of their passion forget how they started and like to think it was all preordained, when the start was often a whole lot messier.
I can’t, in this blog or comments, explain and defend each of Newport’s points, that would require a whole book and he already wrote it, but if you find these ideas the least bit intriguing, dig into his work a bit more.
john says
There might be a communication problem here. Let me take the liberty of defining terms here.
Passion means suffering. Literally that is. An example for the true definition would be to say that cotton is the plantation slave’s passion. He hates cotton and hates being a slave and hates working in fields and has no escape. Cotton is his torment and thus it is his passion.
Most people use it in a different way in modern American English. In modern times many people use it to mean a fanatical drive, or to lust for. Something that makes you crazy for it and want it more and more. For instance, your daughter is nuts about peppermint candy so you say she has a passion for peppermint. But the true meaning is for something that torments you and makes you miserable, either by causing physical pain or emotional pain or both. By that definition, your daughter does not have a passion for peppermint.
Then there are degrees in between these two opposing definitions. This is where I think there may be some confusion here.
Lets say your daughter decides to try cocaine. She has the same passion for cocaine that she has for peppermint but her passion for cocaine is more “romanticized” because she is suffering from her pursuit of it and what it does for her and to her. Or…lets say she has a crush on a boy who is out of her reach. Maybe someone famous. That is a passion because she wants him but cannot have him and thus her desire causes her pain.
So lets figure out just what is meant by PASSION before we start disagreeing.
todd says
It hasn’t meant that for hundreds of years. The term, when capitalized, refers to the suffering of Christ on his mission to the cross. It is something he wanted to do and drove his every action. The fact that it made him suffer is not the intent of the word, it was the DRIVE. That’s how it’s used now, how it is intended.
-todd
fxrocket says
thanks for sharing … i just bought the book and put Study Hacks on my favs..
Patrick says
Paul, great post, and the followup comments were extremely thoughtful. To which I would only add a quote by Robert Frost concerning poetry, “I found if I took care of poetry, it would take care of me.” Which I took to mean: if Frost did what he loved, whether the rewards were monetary or not, there would be equity in the form of fulfillment.
Paulinator says
I remember an old parable about a man blowing his stones while trying to lift a stone?
I watched my daughter for a year (bless her soul) try to learn the clarinet. Wasn’t happening. My son picked up the sax and within months it was like another appendage for him. In today’s reality, there is little time to “attain” true craftsman levels of proficiency in an occupation because the changing landscape dictates an average of seven career shifts in one’s productive years. The only way that you can be valuable in that kind of flying trapeze act is to identify targets that are attainable within your natural abilities. Period. If you are fortunate in also possessing a keen passion, then the clock-radio won’t have to be tuned to rap station.
ps. The education bubble is leaving a wake of ruinous debt and misplaced “skills” that were attained through hard work and study.
The Model Citizen says
I’ve been thinking a bit about this. I don’t think passion is enough. It has to be blended with a mix of ability, persistance, ambition, integrity and shear pig headedness. A willingness to improve yourself and learn from your experience (and others) are also required. Luck is also important but only if you make your own.
I wonder if the will to succeed come from your choice of career path? If you choose a path which is very selective or there is a limited number of positions (same thing?) does that drive you more to get into that industry and succeed? If the position was more available and there was another employer or two around the block offering the same or similar positons does that reduce the drive as you know their are other options?
For myself, I suppose I could be included in the “Have a passion” group but also developed my craft along the way.
I got into bike design in Oz in the early 90’s and, because positions in that field there are scarce, had to battle for every positon I had. Every time I got a new contract I was basically looking at how I could use that position to my advantage to gain the next and better one. And still do so today. I have even moved countries to do so. I have tried a couple of times to run my own small business (I actually describe them as mirco businesses) but I now know that I am not a business person. And, although they didn’t take me far I still used them as a springboard for the next step.
I don’t know if I could be considered sucessful though. I am happy, both in career and life, and that is immensely important to me. More so than monetary success. But I still look for that next step up. More to challenge myself than anything else.
Greg.C. says
I believe it is quite possible to discover a passion for a job / career / craft after years of working at it and developing it. I believe however that this requires at least a certain amount of pre-existing curiosity / hunger for knowledge / drive to improve. Those same required elements are what most people seem to interpret as passion.
For example, I recently changed careers into web design and development. It is something I have been doing on and off for the last 14 years, but never took it seriously. It was more of a hobby than anything else. However I was always curious to learn more about it, get better at it, experiment with it. According to everyone around me, I had a “passion” for it. I enjoyed it, even though I wasn’t very good at it at first. Just over 2 years ago, the company I worked for went belly up, and I was out of a job, with no idea what to do. My wife suggested I try web design and development since I seemed to have a passion for it. It was the best advice I ever got in my life.
I spent 2 weeks 16 hours a day / 7 days a week refreshing my knowledge, and improving my skills. I applied for a job, and got it. It’s been just over 2 years, and I can honestly say, I love my job, and my passion for it grows on a daily basis. My point is, I already had at least some interest in this before I started on it seriously. I had more interest for it than most of the other things I did in my life. I didn’t start doing it to develop a skill, or because there was some need, or because I was forced. I started in it because I was curious, I got really serious about it because of need, but the passion, and the enjoyment were already there.
Passion is something that grows and expands the better you get at something, but there must be a spark there in the beginning, and as you get better at it, the suffering and frustration that comes with struggling lessens, and enjoyment grows.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
An interest or curiosity is a great indicator of a direction worth pursuing and may very well be the spark that turns into a passion, though as you’ve most likely experienced and observed, people can have a LOT of interests and curiosities. Some, however, may never be rare and valuable, which is one of the qualifiers Cal points out in his book, so even if you become really good, the possibility of turning it into a remarkable career and life is pretty low.
Greg.C. says
I completely agree. The fact is, not all interests are career worthy, but if you have one that is, are good at it, and you think you can make a decent career out of it, then it only makes sense to pursue it. Of course, that pursuit requires dedication, persistence, and I think, just a little passion to start with.
Greg.C. says
Overall it seems to me this article is more about being committed to a path and being rewarded for it, than it is about being passionate. The simple fact is, success in any field requires both commitment and passion. As the saying goes, ‘nothing worth doing is easy’
GenWaylaid says
And all this time I thought this was what “follow your passion” meant!
There’s no point in practicing a skill if it’s a poor fit to your personality or natural talent or life goals. It’s just wasted effort that never becomes rewarding, as several commenters have attested. Instead, you have to find those activities that make you WANT to put in the effort to become really good at them. I always interpreted that as the “passion” one was supposed to find, and the hard grind from beginner to master as “following” it.
The problem of younger workers expecting all the rewards up front may be tied to the larger problem of a society that places value not on “passionate” work, but on fitting into one of a few, narrow preferred social paths.
If your kids play instruments, the value is placed on piano, violin, clarinet, et. al. When they get to high school, the value is placed on college prep. When they finish college, the value is placed on becoming a doctor, lawyer, or manager as quickly as possible. This isn’t a reflection of the inherent value of these choices relative to the alternatives, it’s just where all the parental, teacher, and managerial pressure is pointing. To a lesser extent, that pressure is reflected in pay scales, too.
If young people are being pushed down this particular path at every step and not being allowed to explore to find and follow their passions, they may expect to continue being pushed. They see no connection between hard work and reward because they’ve never been able to discover the reward of “passionate” hard work.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
I wish I had never mentioned the violin and piano in my review because it is leading everyone off the point, which is the long and deliberate practice with the intent of becoming extremely good and possibly leading to a driving passion that carries the individual on to great success. This isn’t about the external push from parents, it’s about the internal push the individual needs to drive himself to superior performance.
As I commented just above, an interest or curiosity is a great beginning, but far too many take one of their multiple interests and become just good enough and then decide they don’t like it because now, to really improve, what was once fun will require serious work. People become “dabblers,” and never masters, they focus on fun without realizing or wanting to admit, that even the best job, career or business isn’t always fun.
Erik says
Hi Paul.
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2012/04/09/deliberate-practice-on-the-way-to-being-great/
I feel the above article of yours was much better at making the point I feel you are attempting to make. The counter point myself and others are making is that the quote “Nothing worthwhile is fun until you’re good at it†is 100% wrong if you do not personally feel something is worthwhile.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Perhaps we can change the quote to something like this:
Nothing is continuous fun if you’re trying to be really good at it.
Sooner or later, even if you embark on a career that is enjoyable and fun and you believe is worthwhile, you’ll get to a point where the fun ends because you hit a wall. The next step requires serious study and effort, very deliberate practice, or you remain with everyone else who got to that “acceptable level of performance.” You can stay there if you wish, but to climb higher and achieve more you must make that decision and commit to the necessary but difficult work that may be unpleasant. If you can envision the great work you could do if you get there, that may build your passion to do the work and do it at the highest level.
I think “fun” is overrated. Personally, fun can be a diversion and relaxation, but I prefer the feeling of accomplishment. I’m sure others may feel differently.
Cal Newport says
Paul asked that I chime in here. I think he’s doing a great job of representing my book, and I love the heated debate — this is exactly the type of nuanced conversation we need surrounding career building, and yet so many people never here.
If it’s helpful, I would summarize the main idea as follows: The advice to “follow your passion” implies that the passion exists in advance, is identified, and then pursued. This happens for some people. But in my research I found it was actually quite rare. A more common path is that people cultivate passion. It’s not something they discover, it’s something they develop, usually by building up skills, but then also leveraging these skills to gain autonomy, impact, recognition, creativity, and so on.
Many of my generation is paralyzed by this notion that there is one thing they are *meant* to do. This leads them to anxiety when they don’t feel instant love for a job. I’m trying to give them a wake-up call: most of us are not wired for one specific thing, we can actually love our working lives in many different things. How we work can be much more important than what work we do.
And so on…
Kim says
Let me bring one piece of anecdotal evidence of passion being all-important: in 1992 the Danish national soccer team wasn’t going to compete in the European championship, but then Yoguslavia broke apart, we made it into the series, and – in spite of not having trained much before the matches began – ended up winning it. We had a dream team that year, the members of which loved to point out that pushing kids to play soccer, and being overly ambitious (as opposed to supportive) on the kids’ behalf, was about as wrong an approach as a parent could have. They had all played as kids because the loved it, because it was fun, and not until the time they had gotten incredbly good at it did they turn that passion into a career. They still loved playing soccer, much like musicians like to play music whether they are on stage or not. But no ‘tiger dad’ made them go out and play if they hadn’t cared about it.
Nicolas says
uh … ?
Steve The Producer Johann says
Ok Paul getting back with you.
1. I am self employed sounds like you are in the same boat.
2. I run a marketing agency and I am good at what I do there are a lot of companies people good at what they do. But this in no way means my offer to a company is going to be accepted. The reasons are many: They already have someone they think is right for the job. They are not open to listening to me for whatever reason. That is the way of business.
Don’t get me wrong I am always seeking out ways to show myself off to would be prospects much like a custom bike builder shows off their talent when they build and show a custom bike.
As far as strengths/apptitudes I disagree.
Natural bents do have a lot to do with your ability to pick something up and run with it or not. Tiger Woods has a natural bent and it showed up when he was 2 years old. His father then went on to train him. But Tiger wanted to hit the ball and was good at a very young age (read his bio) not everyone who hits a ball shows up on the Mike Douglas show at teh gae of four and demonstrates his hitting ability! I even watched that show as a kid. Does than mean they have any less passion for playing golf? No, they just don’t posses the natural bent top performers have.
Thus natural bent + passion + hard work will most likely = a successful career.
B50 Jim says
My dad grew up during the Great Depression and worked at every kind of job he could find to help the family. However, he discovered that he enjoyed food service work and the meat business especially, plus he was quite good at it. He worked at the local butcher shop after school for no pay; he took his pay in training and experience, and also had a paying job at a sandwich shop. In the Army he was a mess sergeant for a field hospital and there he learned skills like procurement and planning. After his discharge he worked at a local butcher shop, part of a small chain, where he made sure to learn all he could from the old pros before they retired. He became a master butcher, knowing every aspect of the meat business from hoof to freezer, and then started his own business and was very successful. He was “so good they couldn’t ignore him” and nobody in the family ever heard him complain about his work. His work truly was his passion, but it became his passion while he became the best at it that he could be.
Carolynne says
This happens to be something that I have thought about lately. So often, we (or at least I) just follow the path that was laid out for us. I was told you are going to go to school, do well, get a good paying secure job and settle down with some kids. Dutifully I followed and achieved all of those goals. But then you get to a point when you have to stop and ask yourself.. What is it that I really enjoy or want. Oddly the job I loved most was working as a waitress, and even though I was throughly happy and loved the daily interaction (you should see the joy when you are bringing someone thier morning coffee) I left waitressing to pursue a respectable career. I often wonder if this was really as wise as it seemed at the time. How free are we really because we are under so much pressure from ourselves and others to be “successful” which in western culture means a new car, granite countertops and the latest fashions, that we consider ourselves unable to pursue or remain enganged in the activities that fulfill us because they interfere with our earning capacity for the short term. It reminds me of the story of a fishing guide who was guiding some high powered businessmen. They asked him how can you live out here in the middle of nowhere. The guide asked them what they do with thier time, they said we work so we can spend two weeks up here fishing every summer. The guide replied, I get to be here all year, why would I want to be anywhere else
B50 Jim says
Carolynne —
You hit on the main conundrum most of us find ourselves in. For most of us after leaving our parent’s nest, we start out in life with some prospects but we’re mostly at loose ends and responsible for ourselves. We can get along doing things we enjoy and working for relatively low pay. At some point, however, we take on responsibility, either in the form of payments for possessions or, more likely, a family, which adds a range of expenses. That has a way of focusing us on what we must do to provide for others, rather than what we want to do for ourselves. Unfortunately, the occupations we enjoy, as in your case waitressing, don’t cover the kind of expenses a family accumulates. “Success” in that situation isn’t a new car or granite countertops, but being able to provide for people who completely depend upon you. It’s a serious conflict. For those who find an occupation thee love that also allows them to provide a good living for their families, life is good.That is why I believe my dad is a very fortunate man. He is a rare individual who loved his work and made a good living as well. He had a lot of help from Mom, who worked beside him, not necessarily enjoying it as much as he did. I came to realize that she missed London a great deal but made the best of the small-town American life she chose.
My job has its workaday aspects but also helps fill my fondness for making things; in my case I make magazines via desktop publishing, but in many ways my iMac is like a digital machine shop. I don’t make chips and handle metal, but I use tools and my skills to turn out a product.
We do what we must and find fulfillment where we can — raising a family we can be proud of, writing that novel that might never be published, restoring antique cars, woodwork, art, riding motorcycles and all the other things that take us out of daily responsibilities. Not everyone can be that fishing guide, but we all can have little of him in us.
Carolynne says
Actually, you’d be shocked at how much money I made waitress but I am not sure if the money still flows the same as you get older in that area. But at the time, I made more than my Dad, who was very gainfully employed. I think we all make choices about our lifestyles and when you really look at the costs of living there are a lot of things we can do without that we consider necessities. Our houses have gotten bigger, we have more toys (both adult and kid) and all that comes at a cost. I think what it really boils down to is what are our priorities and what do we want more. Many of us sacrifice personal fulfullment for material gain but that is a choice we make and if we make that choice than we can really whine about it. It is a tough choice, but we are not required to live the lives we do, there are many people who give up the material aspects and make changes to simply thier lives and reduce thier consumption and are very happy.
Carolynne says
Just noticed I meant can’t whine about it
B50 Jim says
Yes, a pretty young waitress in a good restaurant can do quite well; especially with the male clientele — it’s rampant sexism… But that’s another discussion. Life in the developed world is all about choices. We are so fortunate to live in countries where we can even have this discussion, when so much of the world’s population worries about finding enough to eat each day. That puts things in perspective.
As for toys — you’re talking to a notoriously frugal character. I had to wrestle with myself to spend a modest amount of money for a new Toyota pickup five years ago and a new car for my wife last year, but I was finally sick of spending nights and weekends keeping old (very old) vehicles alive. My one real weakness is my old BSAs, although I bought my B50 38 years ago and decided I could afford a project Thunderbolt this year. I’m currently remodeling our bathroom, spending every weekend this spring and summer on that job, mostly because I’m too cheap to hire it done. Well, I have my own design plan and want to make sure it’s done right, but the job will cost a fraction of what a contractor would charge.
Still, we’re small-town kids living in a big city, and a simpler life in a small town looks mighty attractive as time goes by. The trick is making it all work; within all the discussion of priorities and choices is the real aspect of affording it, and the employment market has its realities. Too bad!
Shane Kirstine says
Ok first B50 Jim, on average a 20-30 yr old male server will make up to twice as much as a 16-25 yr old female server on average. This doesnt change until both sexies arw in their 40s……. Now I know I come from a unique situation being a forth generation chef, but food is my passion (besides two wheels and speed of course). At 16 I was the kitchen manager at an international pizza franchise, at 18 I was the buffet manager and banquet chef of well known 5 star resort. At 20 I was the Head Chef/kitchen manager of a small steakhouse and saloon. Over the next 5 years we built that small place into one of the most notable steakhouses in America, I say that based on reviews published internationally. At 25 I went out on my own buying a small cafe, with no loans or investment capital. 5 years of hard work lead to reaching the limits of that building. Once again I opened a new place with no aid of the financial instatutes. Sadly due to misplaced trust and a building that need much more then I had anticapated I was not able to survive. Now I am using my skill as a welder and fabricator to earn a living as I watch for the next chance to do what I love. Anyways, the point of all this is simply to say without passion for it I would not have succeed the way I did. I am good at what I do know and always look to be better, but it is not a “passion”. I do not wake up and feel excited to go to work. I believe interest and passion are part of success, and that does not mean mearly money. One must be willing to suffer and go without in order to follow a passion as a profession. There were plenty of times my family lived off less then a grand a month.