Employees and students often ask where the “passion” is in this definition of jobs. After all, they say, if I’m passionate about the job, isn’t it more likely that I’ll be more interested, happier, and do better work?
These folks are still stuck in thinking that the job is about them. Too many people think in terms of what they are capable of doing or what they like to do. Too many are playing in their heads the song “What a Feeling” from the 1980s hit movie Flashdance and singing along with its refrain: “Find your passion; make it happen.” A private K to 12 school in Pittsburgh even made this its marketing slogan.
Really?
Passion is over-rated, over-played, and often mis-directing.
In my many years of university teaching, I’ve found that nothing paralyzes students more than being told to find their passion. The message they hear is that if you don’t feel deeply intense about something, then it is not worth doing. It’s an extremely high hurdle since most people do not feel passionate about much. They may have an interest, but does it rise to the level of a “passion”?
Asking students to find their passion is like asking them to find the Holy Grail. So these students freeze up, not wanting to make a mistake in their job choice because no job shouts “passion” to them. They also feel guilty and somehow inferior because they haven’t found it, thinking that everyone else has. Or they latch on to the fad-of-the-day like organic farming or saving the tree beetles or electro-punk music. The passion they find, like our earlier example of John and Millie, the beekeepers, leads them down the path to personal economic trouble.
Let me be clear that I’m not against passion. If you do find it, then good for you. If you can find a job that lets you pursue your passion, then bravo for you. Just remember that even that passion needs to be put in the service of the organization’s critical path.
If your passion, for example, is to “do good for _____ (you fill in the blank)” and not “waste your time making money,” then you better be able to find someone who is willing to pay you to do just that. Keep in mind that you better be doing enough “good” so the person who supports you is willing to continue doing so; the funder who pays for your passion is more interested in the amount of good you do than whether you get to pursue your passion.
Or, if you are independently wealthy, you can engage in whatever life activities you desire. You can take as much time as you like trying to find your passion.
But most of us don’t have that luxury. Fortunately, we don’t need it.
I’d suggest that society should dial back the focus on passion to a less intense standard, like finding a job that brings satisfaction. Most of us have a variety of interests that can be satisfied in lots of different ways. Think of the earlier example of poets, the vast majority of whom satisfy their passion on their own time. Similarly, we might be intrigued by many different industries. Or, we may enjoy different groups of people. We have a range of interests, talents, and skills. In lieu of passion, those are more than enough.
Likewise, rather than think about your me-centric “passion,” think about work from the organization’s perspective, not yours. What does the company need to be successful, not what do you need to be happy? How can you apply your talents, skills, and interests to make yourself useful to them? Yes, focus on how you can be useful to your employer!
An important key to your success is making yourself meaningful from the organization’s perspective, not yours. Do something that helps them make more money than they pay you. Better yet, make substantially more money for them—so much that they notice you and find you particularly valuable.
Rather than worrying about passion, focus on what you can do to serve customers extremely well so that it leads an organization to being profitable. Learn how to contribute to that endeavor. Become really good at something that helps organizations be successful.
Mastery of such skills might just make you feel good about yourself and what you do every day. Making money so that the organization can grow will make the organization feel good about you so that they are willing to pay you more and treat you better. If that happens, maybe you’ll have found your passion, or, at least, be in a better financial position to pursue your passion someplace else.
Bottom line—whether you are passionate about your job or passionate about leaving your job, you must always create enough monetary value for the organization so that it is willing to keep paying you.
Critical Path Action Items
How can you be useful to an employer in their money-making activities?
What critical path activities do you like to do that will help an organization make money?
What can you become really good at that helps an organization make money?
What can you do to serve an organization’s customers extremely well so that they “buy” more from the organization or bring in other customers?