Don’t Follow Your Passion, Bring it With You

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What’s one of the worst pieces of career advice you can get?

Follow your passion.

Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most frequently given pieces of advice. There seems to be an idea that if you follow your passion, you’ll instantly find success in your career. But that’s not the case. 

The problem with following your passion is that it assumes passion exists outside of you and that you need to go chase it. 

I put together a video which talks about this in more detail. Please check it out below and if you want more content like this you can subscribe to my Youtube channel.

Passion isn’t one static thing that you can chase down. As you grow, learn, and experience new things, your passion will change and evolve. What you were passionate about five years ago might be totally uninteresting to you now because of how you’ve changed.

Not to mention, most of us can’t figure out our passion before we figure out what we want to pursue. That’s a lot of pressure on people to find your passion before you jump into a career.

I wasn’t passionate about the future of work, employee experience, or speaking until I started doing these things. I saw a void I could fill and an opportunity to build my personal brand. But as I started sharing my ideas and took advantage of these opportunities, the passion came. Now I’m extremely passionate about my work and the messages I share.

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Over the last 15 years, I’ve had the privilege of speaking and working with some of the world's top leaders. Here are 15 of the best leadership lessons that I learned from the CEOs of organizations like Netflix, Honeywell, Volvo, Best Buy, The Home Depot, and others. I hope they inspire you and give you things you can try in your work and life. Get the PDF here.

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I didn’t follow my passion—I brought it with me to my career.

Whatever you do, bring that passion with you. Don’t feel boxed in to where your passions take you. As you change and grow, your passion will change too. Let that lead your career in new directions.

What’s the best career advice you can get? Don’t follow your passion—bring it with you. 

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If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

1. Subscribe to The Future of Work Podcast where I interview business leaders around the world each week. 

2. Grab a copy of The Future Leader which has been endorsed by the CEOs of MasterCard, Best Buy, Oracle, Audi, Unilever, Domino’s Pizza, Ritz Carlton, Kaiser, and Marshall Goldsmith. It explores the most essential skills and mindsets for future leaders.

3. If you are or want to be an entrepreneur then my wife and I just launched a brand new podcast on how to Be Your Own Boss, called the BYOB Podcast where we share what we did and how we did it. You can subscribe to that here.