Don't follow your passion, it can be fatal!

I come from a nation that produces 6.5 million engineers, doctors, architects and scientists every year. As per the global report commissioned by the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering , it is revealed that while just 20% of 16 to 17 year-olds from the UK and 30% from the USA are interested in an Engineering career, in India the rate is as high as 80% - the highest in the world.

Why these stats?

To set the context for what I want to say. To discuss why quitting my job and sitting at home 'coz my job is not my passion' or 'coz I don't feel great in my job' or 'coz my boss isn't the best boss in the whole world' is not an option for me and for many others.

I will state a few hard facts of the environment in which I was raised.

From where I come, we are dependent on our parents till we get into a proper job which earns us money and our parents, the respect they hoped to earn all along as they were raising us. For most of us, even after we start earning, we continue living with our parents. Even when we get married and have children, we dont leave our parental home, unlike in the western countries. And so there is a constant interactions between parents expectations and child's response to those expectations:

1. An average parent in the 80s and 90s in India did little to please themselves and more to have a successful brood. They invested heavily on their children and almost nothing on themselves. Their entire focus was only and only their children and in pursuit of success for them. Children, who grew up during this time, including me, felt the weight of these expectations everyday and were all too happy to deliver on those expectations. This meant working hard at school and at college to excel in studies. All this to get into the coveted jobs that would make our parents proud. I remember getting placed in the first company that visited my campus for placements during engineering and of how happy that made my parents. For most of us, the happiness that our success brings our parents is second to none and inimitable.
2. So you land a job and a job that earns you well and is also to the satisfaction of your parents. So one is enticed into keeping it for his own sake and for the general happiness at home. You try quitting it to pursue photography, mountaineering etc etc and see the fight marathons unfold at home. It has led to families falling apart and some of them I happen to know personally. Parents, dejected and overwhelmed at the 'audacity' demonstrated by their children don't leave any stone unturned to exhibit their distaste of such frivolous self centered pursuits. Most of us don't have the stomach for such drama in life. So we happily fall in line sooner or later for a more harmonious existence.
3. What also plays a significant role is the practical impossibility of the 'basic survival' situation that 'following our passion' leads to. Passions don't bear immediate fruits and from the way we are raised, with all amenities at our disposal, we are not able to sustain a lesser environment during the difficult period the predates the path to self discovery (and hopefully success) that following our passions puts us on. So we back out sooner or later. The environment, we are raised in is bound to have a lasting impact on our individual journeys, they will shape the way we look at a situation and ofcourse the way we deal with it. A job that pays is always better than a passion that doesn't. That's as real as it gets.
4. Try getting married with a passion in hand and no job in your pocket. Just try, and you'd be freaking lucky to find somebody who sees what you're able to see and also believes in it but to get him or her to get married to you is going to be an uphill task if not herculean. Passion and following it is a fancy narrative being sold all over the world blinding people away from reality and selectively showing what people want to see - that is, the light at the end of the tunnel and nobody talks about the darkness that fills the tunnel, which is where your tenacity is tested and where most people buckle out. In the absence of related factors like families to support, societal pressures, economic difficulties, one can go on and pursue their dreams (to success or not) but with these factors in play, its not practical neither possible to put everything on the line to do what excites you and not something that gets you money to pay the bills and the tuition fees of your kids!
5. In a growing economy, especially one that has booming talent every where (read para 1), one has to always be on his feet to keep up with the expectations (however undue they may be) of his job, forget following the passion. Even if that means, keeping up with a toxic boss! You quit and they will replace you within hours if not minutes and you will be left scurrying for a job for survival.

This is not to dissuade anybody from anything. If your heart wants to follow a certain journey, please be on it and don't allow anybody to tell you anything that distracts you. I have more than enough examples that are nothing short of miracles in terms of stupendous achievements people have made in pursuit of their dreams. But these people have been economically backed by somebody that stood with them shoulder to shoulder supporting them, believing in them and telling them to go on that made what they achieved possible.

In the absence of such angels in your life, you can chart a plan for a side hustle (which a lot of people do) and keep it practical and sustainable. This way you can start something on the side and still be on your feet and tread slowly into building a niche for yourself in the domain of your liking.

After all, life is about living and making your mistakes. Courage doesn't mean you don't get afraid, its about not letting the fear stop you from moving ahead. So, push ahead people!