Why 'Be Passionate' Is Awful Advice
inc.com
inc.com
"This sort of advice would have you believe that if you simply put your all into something you will be successful."
... that's not what it says at all. In fact, it says the opposite: If you don't put your all into something, you're much more likely to fail.
'Be Passionate' is great advice.
I've never understood that. It seams to me that you either feel passion or you don't. If you are already passionate you don't need the advice, but if you don't, what are you supposed to do? say "OK, I'll be passionate from now on"?
Same with "be confident".
and as for "be passionate", I dont see if as something you learn, but if you arent passionate and realise that is an important fact, you can redirect your efforts to something you are passionate about.
I agree and if you give someone detailed, effective directions on how to do that learning, you may have indeed authentically given them good advice.
But if you only tell to "be confident" then you haven't really given them the details they can use for anything.
Like 'Be Confident', it is not really advice at all.
I'm also tired of passion being thrown all over the place as if that actually helps anyone.
Instead, the reason people I know are great at the things they are great at is because that's all they do: when they wake up in the morning the first thing that pops into their mind is to grab their computer or violin, head to the library or laboratory, and be "doing something".
These people don't often have much else in common: their methods may even look like madness, with atypical technique permeating their self-taught landscape of awesome. There was not this "moment of hesitation" before they jumped in to do something.
And to me, nothing demonstrates this "moment of hesitation" better than someone who isn't doing something because they feel they aren't ready yet. I've seen people sit around for years, somehow operating under the principal that eventually the magic potion will appear, they'll drink it, and be great.
My contention is that these people will not become great. Now, I /don't/ believe this is incurable, but I believe that it requires someone really passionate about what they do to try to explore that passion with them: to help break down those walls that are keeping someone from "already" being great.
However, even more often, I think these people are in the wrong field, and here is where I believe "be passionate" goes from platitude to "advice": it is the advise to do something else that you are /actually/ passionate about instead of the thing you are currently sitting around talking about.
So, if you are currently languishing trying to build a company: you don't see how other people can spend the time they are doing, you can't bring yourself to occasionally make a fool out of yourself in a negotiation... you simply consider the thing "work" as opposed to "the most important thing to be done when you wake up in the morning", you are starting the wrong company.
This might involve choosing a different area, one you really believe in, but it may also just involve removing road blocks, whether they be external or internal, from the problem so you can relax: maybe you need an assistant, someone who has a passion for organization, to help you out with things you find boring.
Here is where you may then say: "so the real advise is get an assistant; saying be passionate is just some weird cop out". No: being passionate was the only concrete advise; it is the core belief you can use to rapidly take your issue and convert it into an action item. You start with "be passionate", identify why you aren't, and then solve it.
Now, the stupidest part of this is that I actually "agree" with this article, but I still think the author totally missed the point: I'd say this is the checklist used when you /are/ passionate about something to determine "is this a business".
Just because you are passionate about something does not mean you will (or even can) make money doing it. As wccrawford says, if you aren't putting your all into it, you are all the more likely to fail, and the thing that is going to allow you to put your all into it, day after day after painful horrible day, is "passion".
It is awful advice. Find your passion is somewhat less so.
1. Passion is not something we discover. It's something we cultivate over time.
2. Being effective involves more than being passionate. But, it's nearly impossible to be effective without passion.
http://wayofthescholar.com/passion-misdefined
http://wayofthescholar.com/passion-properly
http://calnewport.com/blog/category/features-rethinking-pass...
The crucial thing here is "do a reality check". "Put your all into it" is only, only good advice if you combine that all with a reality check. Otherwise, it's the fodder of wasted lives.
My startup is extraordinarily stressful. But I'm not in it just for the money. I was sick of working in a highly paid position in a field that I couldn't muster any passion towards. From the authors perspective, I imagine that my decision to walk away from that salary, and the bonus (oh, the bonus...), was a mistake. But, for all the hard work that I am committing to what we are doing and for all the stress it entails, I'm a happier person.
That's not a bad place to be.
It's like working with people who carp about having "a sense of urgency." I always want to set them on fire. We'd then see a genuine sense of urgency. Most of what they actually do is just pestering people.
Passion is something you discover, sometimes by accident. Discover passion is better advice — the verb is much more likely to get you moving in the right direction. Once you have a clear understanding of your passion, it's pretty hard not to be influenced by it — the "be" part takes care of itself.
I think passion is generally stupid for a couple reasons. First off, we use it as a defense mechanism. "If I am passionate, I won't care about failure because I'll be doing what I love!" Not only will you have a hard time pivoting or calling it quites all together but this mentality already sets you up for failure on a bunch of other levels.
Secondly, how many people have been passionate about their projects that ended up failing? We tell ourselves to be passionate because Zuck was passionate about Facebook or the Groupon guys were passionate about their project, if we're passionate about ours WE CAN'T FAIL!
We don't need passion to succeed, we need brains to succeed. Think critically about what you're doing and you'll be way better off then loving your dumb idea into the ground.
The phrase "Be passionate" says nothing about discipline or determination. Most of his points seem to focus on these qualities. Sure, I've been part of many passionate conversations that started "Wouldn't it be cool if...?". Many of these ideas never made it past the beers they were shared over. But for the ones that did, passion is a good start.
If you are passionate over a long period of time, you will be good at what you do. This is not the same as making money, but you will be good at whatever it is you do. You can fake passion for a job, but those who matter will notice.
He should have singled out Gary V to make his point. The guy didn't start with only his passion and a video camera. He started with employees and a multi-million dollar business. Responding to comments is not hustling.