Find Your Passion: The Biggest Lie in Modern History

I have been kicking this subject around for the better part of 25 years. It started around the whole “what color is your parachute” conversation and ended with one of internet’s favorite talking heads saying, with a grin and a squint, that passion is a God given right all leaders should pull out, even extricate, from their workers. “Find your passion”, they told us, as we nodded our heads continuously, our lips formed in circles, and we grunted like primates.

Too much emphasis on “passion” at work, and “finding your passion”, I will strongly argue, is a sign of a society in decline. You never heard of such profanity in non-western countries: the masses being coached by money-hungry talking heads with slick sophistry. Developing nations worked; their citizens found work, and then they worked quickly.

There was no time to ponder one’s deepest feelings and desires about turning levers and spinning wheels. Unfortunately, the unemployed western masses have a lot more time these days to give to the talking heads on motivational videos. People of today also have fewer jobs, fewer business options, possibly due to overcrowding, automation, saturated markets, and quasi-legal monopolies.

The optimists will hear nothing of this; the truth will just ruin their day. But there’s no denying that talk of passion for one’s vocation is a luxury. It’s amazing we even get to consider generating revenue from novelties like Social Media Influencer or Success Coach, and getting sponsored to unpackage toys on video. It’s become so commonplace; we don’t give it a second thought. In truth, it’s more awesome and shocking, given our colorful evolution of human history, than landing a rover on mars.

Thousands of years ago, almost a third of the known world was subject to some form of slavery—building cities, pyramids, structures, statues, ditches, roads—and serving rulers. Passion as a word itself, coined sometime after 1100AD, in Greek and Latin, was used to denote pain or suffering. If you asked the average person back then what they were passionate about, in today’s meaning of the word, they would have told you to fuck-off! Not so today. We spend hours and days discussing our passions and interests and how we can turn superfluous activities and useless creations into money.

The problem with thinking about passion is that, left unchecked, it tends to go too far. What’s there to stop someone who’s intently looking for some deeply hidden and intense desire? The reason for looking in the first place is because the interest is nowhere to be found. Maybe there is no deep desire; and if it was intense to begin with, don’t you think one would have known about it?

After months or years, for the unlucky, of failing to find a suitable passion (because it doesn’t exist), we’re told it’s probably a general concept like “my passion is to help others find their own passion—their own ‘why’”! Can this be anymore ludicrous? That’s like saying: if something doesn’t exist, pay me to help you find it.

When we turn our heads, still others are in the wait imploring us to “live with passion!” Did anyone ever ask why? Do we really need work that feels like sexual desire? Let’s not misunderstand each other. By all means, each individual should explore their own interests, and, even better, find meaning and fulfillment in some gainful work. It becomes problematic, however, when we turn toward the extreme, toward more, to excess. In this regard, passion becomes the extreme itself—and the one living with passion, the extremist. 

Some in the trades I may have been unfairly referring to are probably thinking this man is bitter; he just wants to criticize others. Could there be countless job openings for foreign skilled workers because otherwise employable locals are too busy trying to get in touch with their inner passion? Where the hell did everyone go—another seminar? Too passe! Perhaps they’re watching a Talk.

Basically, if one is inspired to do something specific, they should get on with it. Conversely, for one desperate to work or get money, the path forward, in terms of readily available means, should be a given. Otherwise, if neither inspiration or desperation are present, one probably shouldn’t be doing anything—least of all encouraging online coaches and influencers: the most lost and hopeless of us all.

For those who finds themselves in no desperate need, with little motivation, and a strong sense of self—to forgo unfulfilling work out of social pressure—: it’s okay to have fun, to help others, or just walk around aimlessly. Eventually, the answer will come to you.