I was having coffee with a friend of mine last week, we started talking about how some athletes were making ridiculous amounts of money throughout their careers. Zak (My friend) was talking about how these athletes were passionate about their work, and that he always dreamed of finding out what his real passion was. Which reminded me of a book I had read a while ago: So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport.
I can’t recall enough times where I’ve heard things like, “Follow your passion” or “Find your passion in life”. Just like many people, I’ve always asked myself about my passions and how it could become lucrative so that I’ll never work a 9-5 job. THE passion, the one that would make me enjoy my work so much, I will never work a day in my life. Yes it’s kinda cheesy, but we all dreamed of it at some point.
I think that everyone should read that book at least once in their life. Even if some of you might disagree with book’s idea from the start. Trust me, you’ll still learn a lot!
What a way to start a book!
For some people, following their passion works, but it simply shouldn’t be something you blindly live by. You need to consider other possibilities too, and this is exactly what this article is about.
Don’t follow you passion
That’s basically what almost every guru out there tells you. One of modern American society’s most well-worn themes in the last decade or so.
I do believe that we all have passions, but is it really about finding your passion. I hear you saying that you don’t want to follow the conformism path and that’s legitimate. That’s exactly what I’m trying to tell you. ‘Follow your passion’ is just the new normal! See where I’m going with this?
Let’s say you truly want to follow your passion. The first step is to find your passion and then you need to find a way to turn it into a job/business that can generate money. But what if you’re passionate about painting? Many artists died poor and unknown, and their paintings only sold for millions, if not billions, decades after their death.
Let’s take another example; let’s suppose you’re in college, and you’re passionate about playing guitar. Would you simply drop out of college just to play guitar? Unless you have a plan, that would be a bad idea. So what’s your plan? Quit college and be a street performer? There’s nothing bad about that but no one will stop and listen to you play unless you’re somehow good at it, right?
My point is, there are a lot of stories about people being passionate about what they do. But the more you dive deeper into examples of the passion hypothesis, the more you recognize its rarity.
In a research led by organizational behavior Amy Wrzesniewski, where she surveyed college administrative assistants, it appeared that the more experience an assistant had, the more likely she was to love her work.
Love what you’re doing, until you do what you love. The perfect example must be Steve Jobs, from a ‘creepy’ hippie on his old campus after dropping out of college, to the CEO of one of the most admired and influential tech companies. Yes you heard it right, no one would’ve guessed it! I, too, was shocked when I first read the true story of how Jobs began his journey.
From trying to make a quick buck, he turned a simple hustle into what we know today as Apple. But there was more to the story than that. A lot of failures and mistakes later on, he build his company now worth over 2.8 trillion dollars.
Self-Determination Theory
The self-determination theory tells us that motivation requires to fill 3 basic psychological needs:
- Autonomy: the feeling that you have control over your day and that your actions are important.
- Competence: the feeling that you’re good at what you do.
- Relatedness: the feeling of connection to other people.
This theory agrees with what organizational behavior Amy Wrzesniewski and her college administrative assistants research. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Be so good they can’t ignore you: The Craftsman Clarity
Basically, the passion mindset is about what the world has to offer you. The Craftsman mindset on the other hand is about what you have to offer to the world.
You need to shift your mindset from questions about whether your job is your true passion and focus on being a top performer. That you way, you will not only feel a sense of achievement but you will also become so good they can’t ignore you.
Stop focusing on little details, Instead focus on become better! You have to be willing to grind out long hours for little recognition, in service for a greater purpose; mastering what you do.
The Power of career capital
In Newport’s words, career capital is building up a rare and valuable skill to offer in return of a job you will undoubtedly be passionate about.
There are 3 main characteristics that define a great job; creativity, Impact and Control.
Creativity is what’s going to make your work different from others. Impact is how your job will be fundamental to achieving better results. And finally Control, which is offered to you depending on how much people will trust your process. But as you may know, these traits are rare and valuable as they’re key to making a job ‘great’.
Basic economic theory says that in order to get something rare and valuable, you need something rare and valuable to offer in return. Most jobs don’t offer their employees great creativity, impact or control, especially if you’re a newly grad-student
So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
Now that we know what to look for, this transactional interpretation of compelling careers becomes suddenly apparent. You need to offer great work, in order to get a great job in return. That’s what Newport calls the career capital theory of great work.
The career capital theory of great work is basically this 3 based spectrum:
- Great work is defined by rare and valuable traits (creativity, impact and control)
- Your career capital needs to be rare and valuable in order to get that great job you always dreamed of
- Acquire a craftsman mindset to become so good they can’t ignore you.
Don’t get me wrong, not every job opportunity is THE one. Newport suggests a basic 3 step disqualifier for a job that isn’t meant for you:
So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
- The job presents few opportunities to distinguish yourself by developing relevant skills that are rare and valuable.
- The job focuses on something you think is useless or perhaps even actively bad for the world.
- The job forces you to work with people you really dislike
If the job you’re in satisfies one or more of these traits, you probably need to look for new opportunities where you can explore your full potential and, ultimately, build a career capital.
In a world where the mantra of “Follow your passion” echoes ceaselessly, Cal Newport’s book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” stands as a beacon of pragmatic wisdom shaking the idealism a lot of us live in. I personally found myself challenged, provoked, and ultimately enlightened throughout this book.
The notion of blindly chasing passion as the ultimate compass for career navigation is both romanticized and misleading. While passion undoubtedly holds its place in our (my) aspirations. When faced with facts, it becomes hard to believe that ‘passion’ as some describe it, shouldn’t be the sole determinant of our career choices. Through introspection and analysis, I’ve come to understand that the pursuit of passion, without rare and valuable skill acquisition and craftsmanship mindset, often leads to disillusionment and frustration.
Newport’s book offers a refreshing perspective shift: it redirects our focus from what the world can offer us to what we can offer the world.
Through the concept of career capital, Newport underscores the importance of building rare and valuable skills. This framework challenges us to overcome the illusion of immediate gratification and instead invest in a long-term journey to mastery and, ultimately, loving what you do, and doing what you love.
You can grab a copy of the Full Book here! 👇🏻
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