DON'T Follow Your Passion! Do this instead

I recently found a video that Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, did for Prager University titled Don't Follow Your Passion. Naturally intrigued, I clicked on the video to hear what he had to say. And by the way, there is a link in the description to that video.

The core message of what Mike is sharing is never follow your passion, but always bring it with you.

Personally, I love that message, and later I'm going to share with you why it resonates with me. But while Mike does have some great examples and perspectives, there are some things that I don't fully agree with in his video, and that's what we're going to break down today. So let's dive in. Now, if you've clicked on this because you're not really sure what your passion is or how to find it, or you hear people say that you should follow your passion, that you shouldn't follow your passion, and you really just want to find a career that you genuinely enjoy. Maybe you're considering being an entrepreneurial type. Should I start an online business? Should I go for an online business? Even if I did, what would my idea be? What would I sell and how would I sell it? How would I actually get customers? If these are the questions running through your mind, my 5-step guide will answer all of them. I'll help you find your profitable idea along with the target audience that's actually going to find that idea valuable. I'll teach you how to build a business on generosity and explain the type of digital product that you can build and how much to sell it for. And I'll show you a simple system for you to sell that product on autopilot 24/7 without having to pay for ads, unless you want to do that. Now, I've seen people use this system to build 5, 6, or even 7-figure businesses online. To get your guide, just go to ProfitYourKnowledge.com/guide, or there's a link in the description as well. So Mike opens up by explaining how he cringes when he watches the Oscars and these people go up with their trophy in their hand and they're explaining their success and how they became successful and giving their words of wisdom, and how they always say things like, don't let anyone tell you that you don't have what it takes. Never give up on your dreams. And here's what he had to say about that.

Look, I understand the importance of persistence and the value of encouragement, but who tells a stranger to never give up on their dreams without even knowing what it is they're dreaming? I mean, how can Lady Gaga possibly know where your passion will lead you?

It's a pretty valid point. I think when people share the message of always follow your dreams, they're typically thinking from a place from inside themselves when not everybody else has the same ambition or same dream that they do. It's easy to think that people are on the same page as us when we can be passionate about becoming a singer or a business owner of some kind, while that other person can be passionate about hanging out and eating pizza. Personally, I am a true believer that if you can conceive something and believe in it, you can achieve it. But Mike follows up with a really great example about American Idol contestants.

Year after year, thousands of aspiring American Idols show up with great expectations only to learn that they don't possess the skills they thought they did. What's really amazing though is not their lack of talent. The world's full of people who can't sing. It's their genuine shock at being rejected. The incredible realization that their passion and their ability had nothing to do with each other.

Now dovetailing off of what I said earlier about not really knowing what somebody's truly passionate about, they could be passionate about being an award-winning singer or achieving some entrepreneurial success. But what's amazing is how people think that if I can just just be passionate about it and just think about it, it's going to happen. And they don't truly understand the amount of work and resilience and skill building that goes into acquiring great success in a specific area. Like, I'm passionate about playing drums, but I am not the best drummer in the world. I do love playing drums. I'm in a band and we do well, but to be like a Dave Grohl takes a different level of commitment. Mike goes on to explain the skills gap.

Right now, millions of people with degrees and diplomas are out there competing for a relatively narrow set of opportunities that polite society calls "good careers." Meanwhile, employers are struggling to fill nearly 5.8 million jobs that nobody's trained to do. This is the skills gap. It's real. And its cause is actually very simple. When people follow their passion, they miss out on all kinds of opportunities they didn't even know existed.

Chances are you want to find a career or start a business, do something that you're passionate about so that you can never work another day in your life, which is bullshit, by the way. Life has so many peaks and valleys and curveballs that come flying at you and stop signs and roadblocks. And no matter what career path you pursue, you're gonna hit those walls. Take me for example. I left a career in construction, a very lucrative career by the way, to start an online business. I wanted to do coaching. I knew that I loved teaching. People always told me I was a great teacher, that I was really good at helping people, and I realized that I could turn that into an online business. And in my coaching institute, I saw so many people with great success in a short amount of time, and I figured, I'm gonna be that guy. I can make six figures in my first year. Yeah, okay, after that first year went through, I did not make six figures. I did make about $20K in my first year of coaching, which is still pretty good. I did not realize the amount of external and internal work I had to do to become skilled enough to actually be a successful business owner. And Mike does have a great point when he says, just because you're passionate about something doesn't mean you won't suck at it. So it is important to know what you really want to pursue. And if you're not happy where you're at, like I was in construction work, you're just not happy. And if you're not happy there and you can see that no matter how long you stay in that career, it's still not going to change anything, you're just not going to be happy even if you make more money, and you can have that honest conversation with yourself, then leave and do what I did where I said I'm only going to make money doing things that I enjoy, even if it is working for somebody else. Mike goes on to share story about a septic tank cleaner that he met while on Dirty Jobs.

I remember a very successful septic tank cleaner, a multi-millionaire, who told me the secret to his success. I looked around to see where everyone else was headed, he said, and then I went the opposite way. Then I got good at my work. Then I began to prosper. And then one day I realized I was passionate. About other people's crap. I've heard that same basic story from welders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, HVAC professionals, hundreds of other skilled tradesmen who followed opportunity, not passion, and prospered as a result.

The reason that I went to construction work was because I followed my dad's footsteps. Really, I followed my dad's passion, and he was really good at what he did. But by working with clients as a life coach, I felt more like a therapist than anything, and it wasn't really aligned with what I wanted. And I knew I wanted to help people have a career or something in regards to building a career and doing something that they really enjoy in terms of work, making good money, being able to live a healthy lifestyle and not have to be working all the time so they could spend time with their kids, they could pursue their passions and hobbies, because that's what I love to do. And that became my mission. But I always knew that idea of what I really wanted, and it led me to leadership coaching, to productivity and performance coaching. And along the way, I was building up skill sets on how to run an online business. And through Through self-reflection, I had this awesome aha moment where I realized that I could teach people how to start and grow their own online business, and I've never looked back since. So I had this idea of what I wanted, I saw an opportunity, and I went for it. And along the way, over the years of trying things, I never gave up on it. Thought about it a couple times, but eventually I did find that thing that I was passionate about, that I cared about, and that I enjoyed and was good at, and that a lot of people found valuable as well. You do need passion. It's like fuel in a car, but you also need to find what's valuable to other people. And that's the opportunity. But there are many people who follow something that they're passionate about and make no money along the way. So rather than just following the things that you're passionate about, look at the world and ask, what problem do I passionately want to solve? Focus on the contribution that you can give rather than just the passion that you can follow. This now leads me to the core message of this video, which is never follow your passion, but always bring it with you. Like I said before, if you're not happy where you're at, you can change it just like I did. Look to something that seems intriguing to you or try it in your spare time. But if you're not happy, try more, do more, because the more that you do, the more you find out what you like and what you don't like. And always remember to be open to the shifts and changes that come along the way. If you really want to make money doing something that you're passionate about, pay attention to the opportunities all around you. Look for the problems that you can passionately solve. In the words of Zig Ziglar, you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. Now, if you passionately know that you don't want to work a 9-to-5 and you'd love to start an online business teaching people stuff that you know, you have to start by finding your profitable idea, which is exactly what I show you in that last lesson. So let me know down in the comments what you agree with, what you don't agree with from my video, from Mike's video as well. And remember to download your 5-step guide. I'll see you in the next one.