Should we talk about passion?

Juha-Matti Santala
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

I recently read Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You and listened The Minimalists’ Podcast 027: Passion which both talk a lot about passion and how we shouldn’t advice people to follow their passion. While I agree with many of the things they talked about, I’d like to counter and say we should talk about passion.

I think Follow your passion is a great advice. One of the key arguments from the book and the podcast is that one should not just drop everything and start working on something (like start a business teaching yoga) they are passionate about but unskilled. I totally agree with this. However, I don’t think following your passion means necessary that you do that.

For me, following one’s passion is all about going (almost) all-in for the thing you love to do. You shouldn’t do it stupidly but if you’re passionate about something, you are (or should be) already working on it and thus getting much better at it. Work for a few years for someone else to build the career capital that Cal Newport talks about.

The Minimalists’ claim that follow your passion implies that we all have one passion that we are born with. It does not. Your passions can change and it can take years to find that passion but once you do, try your earnest to make it happen. If you can make your passion into your work and the source of your income, it’s fantastic. It still feels like working but the highs are much higher and the lows are less devastating. Because you know that it’s worth it.

Photo by Ian Espinosa on Unsplash

I am currently following my passion and I’m planning to follow it* for the rest of my life. Often it means taking risks: leaving a comfortable position at work with good pay or jumping in the unknown like moving to another side of the world. Even the safe and comfortable life has its challenges and hard days. The difference is that when you’re doing what you’re passionate about, you find more strength in overcoming those tough moments compared to working on something that is only a job — something to bring income to your life.


Of course I understand that not everyone is able to do that. I’m in a very lucky position that working in IT is currently one of the hottest industries and as a single, white and healthy man makes it possible for me to do all these things. And I have a fantastic social safety net in my family and friends that I know there’s something to fall on if I fail majestically. It would be waste of that opportunity not to follow it.


*what ”it” is, might change a few times during the next 40 years and that’s totally cool

Juha-Matti Santala

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I have moved my blog to my personal site at https://hamatti.org/blog/

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