Follow your passion is bs

Just follow your passion. A phrase ornated by successful people who don’t tell the whole truth. It’s a cheap way to score points, but does not actually help anybody.

If you follow a passion, and try to turn that passion into a profession, you’ll eventually run into a wall. Because the things you like to do are way less fun to do when money is involved. You’ll have to ask money for whatever you do. In turn, the people who give their money to you will have expectations. That puts pressure on what you do. Not so fun anymore in comparison to a hobby.

In my personal experience: I love to cook. I thought myself how to cook and watched probably thousands of hours of cooking related videos. When I got the opportunity to work as a professional cook, I was really proud of myself. Turning a self thaught skill into a profession.

First, it was all fun and learning. But after a couple of months, my hobby turned into a slump. Now, cooking was not out of passion. There was less to none time to experiment. People paid, so I had to deliver up to their expectations.

After a year in the kitchen, I quit to become a documentary maker. That too has had the same negative passion to profession curve as cooking. But that’s for a different story.

I don’t think you should just follow your passion. You should follow your curiosity. What excites you. What makes your heart beat faster? What makes you forget about time? Go in that direction.

Then, on the opposite side of the spectrum, find a problem people have that you can solve. A problem that is worth solving, that people want to pay good money for. Become really good at solving that problem and charge good money.

Now, probably two things happened. First of all, you make good money and solving that specific money making problem now becomes sort of a passion. Second, you figured out what you are good at and somehow combined the problem solving with your natural curiosity.

A win-win. You still have a passion, and you make money. I think this is the way.