Daniel Pink argues that "follow your passion" is bad advice because it assumes passion exists before you start working. Meaningful work emerges from sustained effort instead. He offers three questions to find fulfilling work: what you do when nobody's watching, what you'll struggle through, and where you can genuinely help others.
Follow your passion. It's some of the worst advice you could ever get. It puts pressure on you to find a perfect answer, it treats feeling as a life plan, and puts you at the center of the universe. Big mistake. That's not how meaningful work actually happens. Most people don't discover what matters to them first, they discover it after putting in the effort. So here are some better questions to ask yourself. What do you do when nobody's watching? What kind of work are you willing to struggle through? And where can you actually make a contribution? Please, please, please don't follow your passion. Follow your curiosity, follow your effort, and follow your ability to help.
