Why You Will Fail to Have a Great Career

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Carly Watters, dreams, finding your passion, Larry Smith, TEDx Talk, writing

Blogger and literary agent Carly Watters recently shared a TEDx Talk by Larry Smith, Professor of Economics at University of Waterloo. In it, he discusses why people will fail to have a great career, and how passion plays a role in it. The video has gotten over five million views, and here’s the link:

 

I’ve talked about finding your passion before – I still think the phrase itself is overused, simply because it sprinkles fairy dust on an ideal instead of giving practical facts for pursuing a concrete goal. And how often do you hear about how much hard work is involved in pursuing your passion, assuming you’ve first identified it?

Larry Smith comes across as curmudgeonly in the video, but if you can put that aside, he has a few really good points. He puts a new spin on the whole “finding your passion” idea. Smith even says that people who’ve found their passion still won’t have a great career, because they’re living a life of excuses that build a wall of blocks between themselves and their true career. They’re hiding behind lofty ideals that mask fear.

Check it out and let me know what you think, both of the video and about the idea of “finding your passion.” Have you found yours? Are you actively pursuing it? If so, share how you got there!

Verrrry interesting…

 

 

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Finding Your Passion – Bloom Where You’re Planted

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20 Feet from Stardom, Academy Award, backup singers, bloom where you're planted, career, finding your passion, musicians, Oscars, painting, rock and roll, Sting

Recently I wrote about finding your passion. The past few weeks, I’ve been nosing around in what it means to find a passion, and if “finding a purpose” is a more meaningful way to look at things.

In my 20s, I worked as a secretary in the engineering office of a local factory. My coworkers were great – nerdy, engineer types focused on getting the job done, creating new solutions for problems, and not giving up until they figured it out. I liked the energy around me, but after a few years, I grew restless. My work didn’t seem like “enough” anymore, so I mentioned this to one of the engineers I worked with. Al pondered a bit, smiled and said very nicely, “Bloom where you’re planted.”

I blinked. Ouch. I was a little taken aback, actually. Secretly I probably wanted Al to come around the desk with a hanky and a hug, to say that being stuck behind a desk all day must be pretty darn boring. Pity party, poor me.

It made me think, though. That job certainly wasn’t my passion, or my purpose, but what was I doing to make things better in the meantime?

Things have changed over the last two decades. Today, the number of “followers” you have or the number of hits your website got can become a measure of popularity, or worse yet, worth. It’s easy to eat this online attention like food for progress without knowing what purpose it brings.

http://www.twentyfeetfromstardom.com

I watched “20 Feet from Stardom,” the 2014 Academy Award-winner for best documentary about the world of backup singers. “Millions know their voices, but no one knows their names,” the synopsis says. Wow – imagine that – really! Following your dream and never truly being named. I love the rich harmony these singers bring to my favorite recordings, and was glad to learn more about them as people. Several, like Merry Clayton and Claudia Lennear, attempted solo careers that fell flat for several reasons. They sang regularly with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, but flying solo didn’t cut it, which was understandably very difficult for these talented women to accept.

The director interviewed Sting, who said something very compelling, which applies to anyone trying to hone their craft – writers, artists, gardeners, teachers.

“For real musicians, there is a spiritual component to what they do. It’s got nothing to do with worldly success. The music is much more of an inner journey. Any other success is just cream on the cake. There’s this idea that you can go on ‘American Idol’ and suddenly become a star, but you may bypass the spiritual work you have to do to get there. If you bypass that, then your success will be wafer thin.”

Finding your passion, then, isn’t something that you’ll find under a rock or on a TV program. It’s part of your experience. My friend, Cassy Tully, is a wonderfully talented painter, capturing mood and joy with color and texture. Her most recent painting, Bloom, celebrates her artist’s journey. Not her success – her journey. I’ve written about jobs and passion before, and what I’m learning comes through very clearly: your passion isn’t “out there.” It’s more of a purpose, part of your journey, part of the way you serve those around you and the world at large. Don’t make it an unknowable, mysterious thing – start small and journey from there!

http://www.cassytully.com

 

 

“Finding Your Passion” is an Overused Phrase

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career, creative writing, finding your passion, following your dream, following your passion, L'Wren Scott, passion

Today I’m going out on a limb to share the growing concerns I have over the overuse of the phrase “finding your passion” in our culture.

It seems like if we’re not following our passion, searching out our passion, or devoting great amounts of time to even considering what exactly it might be, that we’re not truly fulfilled, not really living life to the fullest.

L’Wren Scott

What got me thinking was this week’s suicide of L’Wren Scott, a talented designer. On the outside, she had it all: wonderful career, exotic lifestyle, rock-star boyfriend, none of which was enough to keep her from taking her own life.

What seemed shining on the outside was probably very different from how Scott felt on the inside. We’ll never know, but it made me wonder about the exterior trappings of following your passion.

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating in our passion-driven culture. You are not your job. Really.

It’s just my opinion here, but I think people are getting so concerned about finding their passion that they’re merging it into their identity. When passion is outward-focused, a person will never be happy. The goal can never be reached. I see this in countless young people, who change jobs like they change their shoes, trying to find a career that fits, that rewards them completely. A job will never reward you completely, nor should it, because life needs balance.

We need to back up here and ask ourselves another question first:

I had dinner with a friend last week, and we talked about the way people seem to be stuck on finding their passion. Self-help books sag bookstore shelves, TV shows attempt to reveal the steps involved, and magazines blare the topic from their cover pages.

I wish my grandparents were still alive, because I’d ask them if they ever worried about finding their passion. I doubt it. They lived very quiet lives. My grandpa worked at the same factory for decades. Grandma worked as the school lunch lady, which allowed her to be home when their seven kids were. They gardened, bowled, and visited with their friends. Very unpassionate stuff, and yet they seemed fulfilled.

The internet changed the game, but it didn’t come with a rule book. Sure, it made us more connected, more aware of each other’s lives, but we became more inclined to make comparisons that hold no weight, kind of like how many viewed L’Wren Scott’s glamorous life. In the glare of the internet spotlight, suddenly it doesn’t seem “enough” to go to work and come home again, to be fulfilled by a simple life outside a job.

Steve Olsher discusses this dilemma in his post “Avoid Turning Your Passions into Your Career.” We’ve gotten off track, thinking that once you find your passion, money will flow into your pockets.

It doesn’t matter what you do; first you need to figure out what kind of person you want to be.

Then you might not need to hang your hat on the fact that you’re a famous writer. Or a celebrity chef. Because if you’re still comparing your “success” to others, you’ll never get there.

Carnegie Mellon commencement ’08

Hard work and a few knocks create success, and if you’re lucky, bring compassion for others. Simplicity, not job hopping, brings joy. Shannon Ables discusses this in her blog, “The Simply Luxurious Life,” and I especially enjoyed her post “How to Create Opportunities.”

It’s not that you shouldn’t be passionate – not at all! I hope you enjoy what you do, and go after what makes you fulfilled. Just don’t look outside yourself for the answer to “what kind of person do you want to be?” Then it won’t matter so much what you do; it’ll matter more who you are when you do it.