Don't Just Follow Your Passion

Writing at Inc., Betty Liu considers the career advice mantra, "Follow your passion," and finds it wanting.

I have made the mistake of telling people to "follow what they love and then the money will follow" because, frankly, I didn't know any better. It seemed to be what had worked for me, until I dug deeper and realized that I had done something others hadn't early on in my career.

I found:

1. Something I liked to do (writing)
2. Something that people were willing to pay me for (writing)
3. Something that I was good at (writing)

The intersection of those three things allowed me to thrive in my journalist career.

Plenty of us aren't so lucky. Some may have mastered (b) and (c) but not (a) and find that after a while, all they're doing is working for a paycheck...

Liu works through the other permutations, and then offers a creditable solution involving a Venn Diagram and complete honesty with oneself.

-- CAV