This was the discussion I had with a colleague as he was discussing some interesting points from a book you read.
I find the argument pretty valid – ‘What if your passion was juggling? And what if you weren’t all that skilled in juggling?’
Would you still quit your day job as an IT analyst in an investment bank and pursue juggling?
Like all things, I think the ‘pursue your passion’ requires some perspective. To begin with, it probably requires your passion and skills to match (for eg: I have a real passion at football but I’m just about average at the game => I don’t dream of being a professional footballer). And secondly, even if passion and skills match, I think it also matters as to what your goals are, and how happiness at work fits in with the bigger picture.
For eg: if you are a manager at GE and are also married with 3 kids, you may want to just continue being a manager till you have enough in your bank account to sustain yourself and your family before becoming a professional juggler.
Pretty obvious, you say? Yes, absolutely. We tend to do this more often than not but the sad part is that we always romanticize about the ‘ideal job’ and the ‘ideal situation’. In my limited experience, there hardly ever is the ‘ideal job’ or ‘ideal situation‘.
Decide to make it ‘ideal’, decide to have ‘fun’, make enough money to make sure your parents (and/or spouse and kids) are okay, then quit everything and do what you love.
(If you are going to argue that all entrepreneurs are doing what they love, I would disagree. Entrepreneurship involves a LOT of dirty work which nobody would enjoy – what entrepreneurs enjoy is the thought of realizing their vision/their dream.
Is cleaning the office ideal? Probably not. But the dream makes it so..
And nobody stops you or me from dreaming.)
A Learning a Day 