How many times have you heard the phrase “Follow Your Passion”? I reckon that this is posted on Instagram multiple times a day to some extent.

For example, the phrase “Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life” is used by soooo many people as “motivation.”

I totally get what they’re trying to say: “If you really do love what you do, then you will enjoy it and therefore it won’t feel like work per se.” Because work can’t be fun, right?!

The thing is, I love what I do and I even choose to work on holiday and on the weekends when many people consider this wrong”. But I really enjoy. Sometimes on holiday, it’s all I want to do. I’d rather do that than lie on the beach. Sometimes. Not all the time.

And frankly, if you can be at a stage in your life where you can choose to do whatever you want to do, then I think you’re in a good place!

The problem is, this mantra has been overused and now there are people who are using it as an excuse to quit their jobs prematurely. Or start businesses about something they’re passionate about but actually have no clue about.

I totally love that passion comes into it, as I am very clearly passionate about what I do and what I want to achieve, and I think that’s super important. However, I don’t think it should be the sole reason behind your motivation.

“Passion” is so easy to sell. It immediately sounds inspiring if someone says they fell in love with something and just went all in on that thing and then they became super successful and it made them happy.

Sure, we’d all love to hear that kinda story over and over. But sadly, this is not what happens most of the time.

Now, I want you to think for a moment about the people you know – how many of them are truly passionate about what they do? How many have known what they wanted to do since they were little kids and have just set out on this path to do this and succeeded?

I think this is so rare.

I LOVE what I do now, but never in a million years I would have thought I’d be running a members club for entrepreneurs. In fact, I had no idea I’d even be doing entrepreneurship at all! I went to medical school as I had always wanted to be a doctor.

And if you look at a lot of other famous people, they didn’t start out super passionate about what they do. A lot of the time, they started on a different path.

I think a hugely prominent example I can think of is Sara Blakely, one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the world. Now yes, I didn’t even need to say “female” there, as the statement would still reign true. But I wanted to highlight how she’s such a huge inspiration for other female founders out there by what she’s achieved.

For example, in 2012, she became the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire! There are others now, but this was still remarkable.

So, she founded Spanx in 2000, but not because she had a pure passion for shapewear or even fashion. She really wanted to become a lawyer, but actually failed her LSATs… twice!!!

She then worked as a door-to-door fax machine salesperson for seven years—definitely not something she was passionate about.

Her journey into shapewear started with a personal frustration with available products, leading her to create Spanx. Her passion for entrepreneurship and innovation developed as she built her brand and started solving real customer problems

Then there’s Steve Jobs. Contrary to popular belief, Steve Jobs didn’t start out passionate about technology. In fact, he was more interested in Eastern spirituality, design, and calligraphy, and had no deep love for computers.

He only tried to make a quick buck while selling a part to a local computer store. He then saw an opportunity to make more money and took it. This accidentally grew into something more, but he never really cared that much about it at the time.

It’s funny because Jobs famously said, “You’ve got to find what you love,” but his own career shows that passion came through solving real-world problems and mastering his craft.

Then you have people like Andre Agassi, who is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He famously has said that he hated the game. His father pushed him into it and he had no interest in playing tennis.

He certainly wasn’t passionate about it at all, but he somehow managed to win 8 Grand Slam events.

This is because passion isn’t always there at the start. It can totally develop later on, and it almost always does for people to get to the top.

Passion is often a result of becoming really good at something, rather than the initial driver of success. Once you gain competence, autonomy, and recognition in your field, passion tends to follow naturally.

It’s fun and exciting being good at something – you learn to love it and your passion grows. It’s completely natural.

So many people start out skilled in a certain area and follow that as a career path. Then, as you develop your skills more, you develop a huge passion for it.

I do think work is so much more effective if you enjoy it – you’re more likely to get better results, but that’s just because it also drives motivation. No matter how passionate you are about something, if you’re not that good at it, it can get quite frustrating, especially if you’re trying to make a career out of it.

So, this is my issue with all the Passion Bullsh*t that’s out there.

If you simply follow the advice of “Follow Your Passion”, it could land you in a lot of trouble.

For example, if you want to start a business and you’re super passionate about a certain topic, then most people will say “YES – GO FOR IT!!” Your passion will drive you! Say yes now and work out the rest later.

This all sounds great and motivating, but isn’t practical advice!

If you start a business on a whim and you don’t possess any of the skills required to start the business, then you’re not going to do well, regardless of how passionate you are.

Plus, being so passionate and being told that this is one of the main things you need might make you more blind to the reality of your business idea.
For example, many people have started “passion projects” and haven’t realised that there’s just no market for it. People are not interested in paying money for your passion.

A study by the University of Montreal in 2013 which looked at harmonious vs. obsessive passion saw this happening in many people who chose to “pursue their passion”. They described harmonious passion as when a person engages in activities that are a good fit for other areas of life, while obsessive passion leads to an unhealthy fixation that disrupts life balance.

Many who ended up creating a business based on their passion became so obsessed with making it work that they would work ridiculously long hours, which led to anxiety, depression and burnout.

So passion can have the opposite effect.

Now, think how much worse it is when this advice is all over social media and people quit their steady high-paying job on a whim because they’re told to “follow their passion” and improve their work-life balance, thinking that their corporate job is too stressful and “just a job” and they’re not “passionate” about it.

As we said earlier, many people are not so passionate about their jobs, especially early on in their careers. They develop this passion over time.

So they see these motivational posts which says they quit their job and 6 months later they’re making millions of pounds.

Now the problem is, most of this stuff on social media is just bullsh*t. The person writing this post is probably crapping their pants because they quit their job and now have absolutely no money because running a business is wayyyyyyy harder than all these influencers make it out to be online.

But they are utterly humiliated that they made such a big deal about quitting their job to follow their passion that they absolutely cannot let on that they regret their decision and so they’re posting this incredibly inspiring story so they can be used as a poster child for bravery and success instead.

If I could have a full-time salary while building my own business, I’d be loving life.

Knowing that I can pay all my bills easily but also still working on my dream project? Fantastic. Plus, I have starting capital for my business too and don’t have the constant pressure of having to make money so I can make better decisions and take things slower.

But that’s so not as glamorous. Because then there’s the other narrative – if you’re not all-in, then you’re not serious.

Honestly, screw all these people!!!!

Sure, it’s not as glamorous, but it’s way more sensible. But sensible isn’t sexy. And sexy is what sells.

This is why the job market is a bit iffy at the moment. On the one hand, people are saying that there’s such a huge pool of incredible, young talent out there and they’re eager for jobs.

BUT, this young talent pool are all looking for jobs that “fit their values’. The company have to be offering them meaningful work and it needs to be fulfilling and satisfying.

Companies are no longer interviewing candidates, but candidates are interviewing the companies. These businesses need to show why the candidates should choose them. It’s all very backwards now.

So, the candidates pick jobs that they think are “rewarding”, but then as soon as they find themselves doing work they don’t enjoy, they’re put off. They say that “the passion isn’t there” and they look elsewhere.

This is no different in entrepreneurship either! People have conflated passion with easy. That damn quote about never having to work a day in your life.

As you’ve probably heard me say about 200 times – ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS HARD!! And the posts that tell you otherwise are just lying to you.

Many new entrepreneurs have started their businesses by following their passion, but as soon as they run into roadbumps, they don’t want to continue. They think… “passion should be easy”. This isn’t passion.

Researchers at Stanford (Greg Walton and colleagues) actually did a bit of work on this. They conducted a study showing that people who believe in the idea of “finding your passion” are more likely to give up when facing challenges. Their research revealed that those who see interests and passions as fixed (rather than developed) often expect the journey to be easy. When things get tough, they are more prone to abandoning their pursuits, thinking they’ve chosen the wrong path.

So, research actually proves that a fixed passion mindset leads to reduced resilience, while people who believe interests can be developed are more willing to persist and adapt.

I also have always believed that you should always start a company, or go into a job for the right reason. If you’re doing things for the right reason and being driven internally, then you’re more likely to succeed.

A Yale psychologist actually looked at this. They conducted a study that categorized people into three types regarding their work orientation: job, career, and calling. Those who viewed their work as a calling were more satisfied, but importantly, this feeling often came after years of experience and developing skills, not from the start.

So, people tend to view their work as a calling after they’ve built competence and experience, not because they started out passionate about the job.

Which goes back to everything I’ve been saying about things developing over time. We cannot expect results to happen immediately. But the problem is, so many people expect instant results for everything now and people have less and less patience!!

Therefore, the question is – what should we do instead if we shouldn’t be following our passion?

Well, first up, read Cal Newport’s book – So Good They Can’t Ignore You. He totally smashes the passion hypothesis in there and talks about how passion follows mastery. He says that you should follow curiosity instead of passion as curiosity allows you to be more adaptable and open to new opportunities, instead of being narrowly focused on one passion.

He believes passion often follows mastery and skill acquisition. As you become more competent in a field, you grow passionate about it because you gain autonomy and recognition.

Which is why I love the book, because it’s everything I believe too.

But he has a lot more studies and examples to back it up.

But think about it – doesn’t it make sense to actually be good at something first? Skills are easily sellable and always come in useful. You can get investment for good skills. No investor is going to back pure passion.

It’s definitely a bonus for sure. But it should not be the driving factor.

While we’re on reading material, I would like to make two more book recommendations:

– Grit by Angela Duckworth: Yes, it’s a book, but she actually did a research project at U Penn, which is the driving force behind the book. In her work, Angela Duckworth shows that success is often more about perseverance (what she calls “grit”) than about passion. Her research indicates that people who consistently work hard and persist over long periods of time are more likely to achieve success than those who rely solely on passion to guide them. Success in any field comes from a combination of passion and perseverance, but perseverance often trumps passion.
– The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: I’m currently re-reading this book now, as its over 10 years old but it’s still so relevant today. In fact, it feels more relevant because so much advice now is so airy-fairy and this is really practical. He says to focus on solving problems for customers and adjusting your approach as needed, rather than being tied to a single passionate idea. It’s all about Building, Learning and Measuring. A real practical approach to building a startup.

So, this episode is not about saying that passion is not relevant, but it’s just giving a bit of warning about how dangerous it is to just blindly follow your passion.

It could actually cause more harm than good.

I hope that it also offers a bit of hope for those who perhaps don’t quite love their jobs yet, but believe they’re on the right path. You don’t need to quit in search of passion. Passion will often come and find you!

I hope that you enjoyed this week’s episode on passion bullsh*t and I will catch you next week for another dose. But until then, keep sniffing out the bullsh*t!