Allow your passion to become your profession
Everyone has talents, what’s rare is the courage to follow it to where it leads.
"A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” —John C. Maxwell"
There would be rejections along the path and at those times you would need to stand tall to make decisions that will align your career with your passion. Don’t fail to listen to your heart, focus on what excites you and above all don’t let anyone limit your dreams because the best feeling is getting paid for doing what you love .
Legendary investor Warren Buffett says,
"you should do something that makes you want to tap dance to work every day"
Every artist, chef and athlete was a hobbyist they became a professional.I'm right?
What is the difference between passion and profession? Can they not be the same? Shouldn’t they be?
This question mystified me as I was growing up. Why doesn’t everyone pursue their passion as their field of study or work? What could be the reason for deviating from your passion? For not pursuing what you love to do? For not pursuing the field that you know you are better than most at?
For most working people, the inability to market their skills is the biggest cause for abandoning their passion in favor of a well paying job.
Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
For many, the need for steady and sure flow of income to support their family prevents them from pursuing the things they would love to do. This is often the case in poorer families.
A lack of learning support has also hindered many from pursuing their dreams. However, in this day and age, the sheer volume of information one can access is immensurable. Since its inception in 1990, the World Wide Web has grown to store 4 zettabytes of data by the year 2013. This wasn’t possible even 10 or 15 years ago. Thus, a lack of information is not an excuse for not learning and growing in the field that you are passionate about.
Another major cause for abandoning passion in favor of profession is insecurity. Often times, to follow our passions, we must step out of our comfort zones, and explore entirely new, and frightening possibilities.
In 2010, Swedish student Felix Kjellberg had managed to obtain admission into the Industrial Economics Course at Chalmers University, one of the best universities in the world in that field. However, his passion was gaming.
Within a year, he had quit and was selling hot dogs on the roadside in order to support his passion of creating gaming videos. Fast forward 5 years, and Felix’s YouTube channel ‘PewDiePie’ is the most subscribed channel on YouTube, with 44 million subscribers and twelve billion channel views.
He was also reported to earn $12 million in 2015, according to a Forbes Report. Felix sold paintings he had created in Photoshop for design practice to buy a laptop and recording gear to support his passion. He fought tooth and nail to do what he loved, and even more importantly found a way to market those skills, and share his passion with the world.
Would all of us make the same choice in his situation? The answer is most likely not.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
It is always good to have a degree. Finish your degree and then pursue whatever you want.
Develop Your Passion
Once you’ve identified your passion, spend some time working to develop it. If writing is your passion, work on it. Practice! Write in a journal. Join a writing group. Have friends read and critique your work. If it’s photography you love, then go out and take some photos! Take all kinds of pictures—close up and from a distance, at home and at big events.
Get a decent camera and learn how to use it. You get the picture (pun intended). Whatever your passion is, follow it. Your dream, your passion, may require a college education, so look at making plans to start a degree program in your area of interest.
One’s passion is uncompromising, and yet we often compromise on pursuing our passion for the sake of money or security. Did the world’s leaders compromise on their passions? Steve Jobs didn’t. Bill Gates didn’t. Mark Zuckerberg didn’t. Jack Ma didn’t. So why should you?
"You would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
Thanks for reading 😍😍😍😍
Shiva M