I have shared three excerpts from my buddy, Steve’s, new book called Millionaire Habits.
They are: The Millionaire Wealth-Building Timeline, Millionaires Maximize Income, and Millionaires Create Their Own Luck.
Today I have one, final excerpt for you.
This time it’s on why Steve thinks “follow your passion” is bad advice (a sentiment I agree with.)
I won’t get into my specific thoughts on the subject now (that’s at the end) as I’m more interested in what Steve thinks. Let’s let him share his thinking…
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“Follow your passion.” It’s advice I’ve heard all my life; chances are you have too. It’s one of the worst pieces of advice regarding making money.
It sounds good, though, doesn’t it? After all, we all want to love what we do for a living.
The problem with this advice? It’s unrealistic for most of us, and it could hurt your career income potential.
For most of us, our passions don’t pay the bills. Not like our strengths, anyway. Our passions tend to be more creative. More high-level. Our strengths, on the other hand, are often more practical and analytical. And while there are exceptions, most employers pay more for analytical-type jobs, not creative ones.
But that’s not the only problem with the “follow your passion” advice.
Problem: It assumes that our passions never change.
If we set sail along a career trajectory based on our passions as late teenage people, we will likely find ourselves looking for a change later in life.
The fact is, for most of us, our passions change. Our life experiences alter our passions every year. And when that happens, we could find ourselves working a job that we no longer enjoy because our passions are different as 30-year-olds than they were as 18-year-olds. Changing careers to reflect new passions is tough.
Think back to high school. What did you enjoy doing? Chances are you no longer do those things. Your exposure to life has formed new and improved passions today, and those new passions are the things you enjoy doing in your spare time. And 10 years from now, they might change again.
For instance, I love to write today (hence this book!), but I never enjoyed writing as a young person. I thought it was boring and uneventful. Through experience, I learned just how much wisdom can be spread through the written word.
Problem: It makes it seem like jobs should be “fun”.
First, let me get this out of the way: We should never work a job we hate. That’s certainly no way to go through life or a career. But let’s face it: jobs are not always fun. And we should never expect our jobs to be fun because when we do, we often find ourselves disappointed when they become stressful or difficult. And this is especially disappointing when we work a “passion” job because our passions aren’t supposed to be stressful. They are supposed to be activities we do in our spare time, without worry about making money or pleasing bosses or customers.
For example, say you love art. I can barely draw a recognizable stick figure (this is true), but you are a maestro with the pen (or paint). You love to draw and decide to pursue a career in graphic design, assuming your passion for art will make that job easy and stress-free. The problem? There’s still the “jobbiness” aspect of a graphic design career that you can’t escape. Like the impossible-to-meet deadlines. Toxic bosses. Unpaid overtime. Coworkers who just won’t shut up about their spouse. Insanely annoying clients who don’t know what they want, only what they don’t want.
By the time you get home, the last thing you want to do is draw. It’s your time to unwind from the day and think about other things until you’re right back in the office again pursuing something that turned from your passion into a full-time job.
Problem: Full-time jobs destroy passions.
I alluded to this above, but let’s go ahead and face this face full-on: If we turn our passions into a full-time job, the not-so-nice elements of the job could destroy any passion we once had for it.
Raise your hand if you like performance reviews. Or the pointless meetings. How about sitting in uncomfortable cubicles? Does anyone enjoy those things?
There is a lot about jobs that most of us don’t like. The last thing we want to do is associate something we enjoy with job-related activities that we don’t.
My passion has always been photography. I worked at a camera store in high school and had my own photo darkroom in my parent’s basement, where I developed my own film and made 8×10 prints. It was a lot of fun. And I still enjoy it because I chose not to make photography my career. Instead, I entered software engineering, a career field with demonstrably higher pay and better job opportunities.
Problem: Your passions are not your strengths.
Employers pay us a salary because we are good at performing a job they need to do. If you’re good at math, maybe you’re an accountant. Or if you’re a great writer, perhaps you write technical manuals or edit manuscripts for publishers. But our passions, which in many cases are highly creative activities, are different, aren’t they?
We may not be good at our passions, even though we enjoy doing those things. That’s what makes them passions. We don’t have to be good at them. We just need to enjoy doing them. For instance, there are far better photographers than I am. Better photo editors. Better equipment to use. And you know what? That’s fine. I don’t have to be the best photographer around to enjoy it. In fact, that makes me enjoy it even more. It’s about me, not about impressing clients or magazine editors.
Our passions don’t pay the bills like our strengths do.
Our strengths are what we are naturally good at, and our strengths tend to be more analytical. Disciplines like math and science, problem-solving, marketing, and business are all desired skills in the marketplace. These are the skills that most employers look for. And these skills also result in the longest and highest-paid careers on average.
Problem: You might not know your passion.
Most of us choose a career path when we’re young. We go to college, get a degree, and then enter the workforce ready to start making money. But what happens when we don’t know what we are passionate about?
This happens more than you probably realize. Very often, passions are not necessarily readily apparent, especially at such a young age.
So, “follow your passion” is bad advice. What should you do instead?
I encourage everyone to follow their strengths.
Our strengths are those we are naturally good at, almost without even trying.
Remember that jackass who got straight As in science class without even trying while you had to bust your butt to learn every little thing? Yeah, that’s the kind of strength I’m talking about. And while these things can (and do) change over the course of a lifetime, they don’t tend to change quite as rapidly or as fully as our passions.
I’m good at working with computers. Building websites and writing computer programs come naturally to me, so I chose a career aligned with that strength. And believe me, computers aren’t my passion. I don’t get up every morning and look forward to building my next computer. That just doesn’t happen.
But, my decision to follow that strength set me down a high-paying career path, helped me build wealth rapidly, and gave me time to pursue my passions on the side without having to worry about monetizing those passions.
In general, our strengths are easier to earn a living off of. For instance, some of us are gifted marketers. Others are skilled at writing complex math algorithms. You might be a natural “people person,” making you great at human resources. Employers worldwide are looking for these types of strengths and are willing to pay handsomely for skilled labor (in other words, you) to do them.
How many people are “passionate” about human resources? Probably not many. After all, who likes organizing mountains of paperwork, resolving employee disputes, and fielding petty grievances among their staff? Your HR director at work is good at what they do and earns a nice salary.
Following your strengths at the office means you can more fully embrace your passions at home without turning them into a source of full-time income. In other words, we shouldn’t force our passions to pay the bills. Instead, we are free to pursue passions simply because we enjoy doing them.
And don’t forget, most of us have a good idea of what we’re good at, even at a very young age. Some of us are great at math or science. Others, language or history.
School makes it easy to determine what areas we are naturally gifted in, and by following our strengths instead of our passions, we can more easily pursue a career path that will likely set us up in a well-paying career field over the long term.
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I’ve addressed this topic in other posts, though I call it “do what you love” advice. It’s the same as “follow your passion” though.
Specifically I talked about it in Money Lessons from Failure, Part 2 where I said the following:
In money the whole passion thing raises it’s ugly head most in the area of picking a career. People are told to “do what they love” (i.e. follow their passion).
This sort of advice, in part, is responsible for kids borrowing $100k+ for college degrees that produce $20k per year jobs. It just doesn’t work.
The author of Rise: 3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, and Liking Your Life completely agrees that “do what you love” is bad advice, saying the following:
“We all get told at some point (if not over and over again), “Do what you love and the money will follow,” and it’s just plain bad advice. The number of people who make a lot of money doing what they love is so insignificantly small that it’s an unrealistic and useless thing to model. The most unfortunate thing about this is that it makes people feel like they are failing when they don’t achieve it.
This plays out in two destructive ways:
1. Because they don’t have the same feeling of love for their work that they do for their family or leisure activities, they feel like they are selling out or living life wrong. They waste a lot of time feeling unfulfilled, unhappy, or plagued by the feeling that they should be doing something different.
2. Others, who try to do the things they love full time, find that the effort to make a business of it and a living at it takes away all the enjoyment of it. They end up turning their love into a job they don’t like, one that generally doesn’t pay very well. They end up not loving life after all. And they waste time that they could have spent earning money.
Don’t put this pressure on yourself!
KEY INSIGHT: Consider thinking about your work/life strategy like this:
- Do what you love for free.
- Work for money.
- Change how you do your job to feel less tortured about it—and maybe even feel pretty good about it.
- Spend the money you make on doing the things you love when you’re not at work.”
And here’s a great comment from a reader of my former blog:
Yes, you missed something VERY vital. Under #2) Not working to maximize your career, you should have added: “Make sure you pick a career that pays a decent amount of money. DO NOT ‘do what you love’ just because you have a lot of yes-men in your life saying ‘ALL YOU NEED IS PASSION! You can make a living wage at any career!’, because that advice is false, false, FALSE.”
I followed my dreams to become a graphic designer, because I was sure that all I needed to do was be passionate about it, and ‘do what I love’ and the money would follow. I found out the hard way that life doesn’t work this way. Some jobs are over-saturated, and have too many people doing them, and not nearly enough work, not even enough to employ half of the people who need jobs in that field.
This brings up an interesting conversation. Which is the true way to “maximize your career”?:
- Do what you love – The old saying goes, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” And even if it doesn’t, the consolation is that you’ll probably be happier since you are in a profession you enjoy.
- Do what pays – This concept says forget doing what you love — go for the money. Work is work, it’s meant to be hard. Work hard at something you may not enjoy, make a bundle, and get enjoyment from after-work activities.
Personally, I don’t think “do what you love” works in most situations.
Do you know what most people LOVE doing? Nothing. Most would LOVE being paid a ton of money for little work.
In addition, people LOVE what is fun. Examples: going to the movies, playing video games, sitting on the beach, etc. But those are not work options — they are pleasure options. They call it “work” for a reason.
Here are things I LOVE:
- Spending time with my family
- Playing video games
- Traveling to tropical islands
- Watching TV/movies
- Reading
- Relaxing
- Exercising
Unfortunately, these don’t pay much (if anything.) Sure, I could start a “travel services” company, but that’s not the same as “traveling”. In fact, doing the former might kill my love of the latter.
Working in a job you hate just for the money doesn’t work either. Eight to nine hours each day of having the life sucked out of you starts to wear on you pretty quickly. You won’t be able to enjoy your off-time if you really hate your job.
“Do what you like” is the solution IMO. Find a profession that you like (one where you enjoy most of the job to a reasonable extent) and that also has decent pay. This is the balance between the two (generally accepted) options above, one that has worked for me, and a concept that I think will work for most people.
Anyway, what’s your take on the issue?
As we end this series, I’d like to invite you one last time to pick up a copy of this book.
IMO it’s a GREAT book for those who are just starting off on their financial journey or those who are down the road a bit but need an extra push or two.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the excerpts as much as I have!
Mark says
Love this article!! In my case, my job, which I mostly like, funds my passionS!
Bernd Doss says
For some inexplicable reason I found doing what i “liked” was also linked to my life long military career. I gained a passion for travel and the Service provided the means and covered the costs associated. I’m not financially orientated, but the end result is a lifetime income in retirement. Working hard at what you do provides stability. Good reading these these several articles.
Financial Fives says
This is a lot of what Cal Newport’s book was about, So Good They Can’t Ignore You. People who have become more valuable through skills are able to enjoy their work more because they are able to demand conditions that make their work more enjoyable, like Monday’s off, remote work, free tuition, etc. I will say there are lots of people who love what they do and follow their passion, like interior designers, Zumba instructors, baker’s, mechanics, celebrities, etc. If people have so much money they don’t need to work, but they still do, does that point to that they do it because they love it?
PassionForArt says
I’ll start by saying I agree with the sentiment behind this, as a high percentage of people will likely not make it to the level that’s needed to make a decent living in some highly competitive and niche ‘passion’ disciplines.
That said, as someone who made a drastic career change to pursue her passion in art, going back to (a renowned art) school, with a tough portfolio review application process and curriculum that weeded out a lot of candidates, each step of the way was a step towards following the dream of making it in my chosen field in art.
With a move across the country, and a strong willingness and work ethic to succeed, I’m proud to say I was able to build a strong career that pays well in my ‘passion’ field.
And while it comes with everything else that a job comes with, the passion part of it comes into play to make those difficult moments of a typical job worth enduring.
I am very cognizant of how fortunate I am and the fact that my career path is more the exception than the norm, as the majority of my art school class did not make it into dream art industry jobs, though many are still in some sort of creative field.
MI-285 says
This article really resonated with me. Specifically the section about how the encouragement to do what you love and money will follow leads many people to a destructive thought process because so few people making money are actually doing what they love. Because I wasn’t doing something I loved, I spent many years feeling as if I was selling out just for the paycheck. I felt unfilled and feeling like I should be doing something else. I really enjoyed the people I worked with so it wasn’t awful, but I didn’t have passion around the work I did. The last 3 or so years before I retired, I shifted my perspective to one of gratitude. Because I had a good paying job it allowed me to retire early and do things I DO love and that are my strengths. I feel blessed every day that I can focus on what I want to do.
Great article! Enjoyed it a lot. Thanks!
Tyler says
I understand what the article is saying, but at the same time I’m glad I didn’t read this before I started my career. I know I am in the minority, but I did follow what I love and most days are pretty decent at work. Certainly not perfect, but I can’t imagine being in an industry I didn’t like.
ESI says
I don’t think he’s saying that you shouldn’t “like” what you do (and I know he’s not saying you must hate what you do), but for most people, doing what you “love” is going to be a difficult road if you want to make a meaningful income.
Making the choice to do what you love and thus earn less is a viable path, but then the person can’t lament their lack of earning potential when they knew that was part of the original decision.
SMB116 says
Great advice! Wish I had read this 30 years ago……I was lucky in that I liked the area of interest that I worked in over the course of my career. I was able to switch positions and companies into complimentary roles which provided a nice change and built upon my skills and strengths…and income. I recently retired and always loved investing. I met with a friend recently and have been presented with an opportunity to work in this area for a major investment firm. I am giving it serious consideration and am studying for the SIE exam and have about 6 months to decide. I will keep reading Steve’s book for additional ideas and advice. I picked up the book you recommended, Win The Retirement Game and looks like I need to read it.
LW says
My father gave me the same advice growing up. He used to expand on this by saving “always reach YOUR top potential.” Admittedly, I am probably one of the younger readers (24) here, but that advice really played a crucial part in my life so far. I was not the most naturally gifted student, and had to try really hard to make good grades. Whereas, my siblings and close peers were all outstanding scholars and now have successfully careers in Wall Street, Medicine, etc. However, they all knew their strengths early on and were able to work towards the necessary steps to get into those aforementioned careers.
Everyone has different abilities and varying levels of potential. I knew early on, that I did not possess the same skills and natural ability that others did. It was hard for myself not to compare myself to others, but I made a decision to focus on my skillset and reach the top of my potential. Now, only after a few removed from college, I have made great strides in my career that I did not think was imaginable even 3 years ago. I’ll probably say the same thing 3 years from now!
I still have my passions and love setting time aside to pursue them outside of work, but I also take a lot of satisfaction in my hard work and progress!
Thanks for sharing
pat says
I learned early in my Eng JOB that it would not provide the financial goals I hoped to achieve. Mindless meetings, office politics & long tedious hours for what?
So I embarked on buying properties that needed a complete rehab, but had to get seller financing as banks were reluctant to loan @ 18% (circa 80’s). I spent some very frugal, hard labor years rehabbing & rented every room in every property to survive financially. I guess RE became the proverbial passion mentioned, one that effectively allowed me to retire after 10 years from one W2 JOB, into one I enjoyed the challenges of. We have subsequently achieved a large RE portfolio & a healthy passive income flow allowing us to be free & clear on all properties, plus debt free since 1998.
All of our kids graduated without student loans, have RE holdings that subsidize the carrying costs of their homes & vehicles as well as healthy passive income streams to dump into their retirement accounts.
We live between 3 homes during the year & in the process of estate planning we are starting to sell off/transfer to the kids much of what we own.
Over the years our wealth has been the free time we gained, not the financials.