Six years ago I had it all figured out — really I did. I was going to college to get into the world of business (at the time sports management, but I ended up with something titled “marketing”). Of course, like most 18 year old kids, I had no real idea of what I wanted to do for the next 45 years of my life, but business seemed like a ‘Rafael Nadal winning the French Open’ kind of safe bet. So I ran with it, or so I thought…

The wrong approach

There is never only one “right” way to approach a situation, but there are wrong ways to approach them. Ask Lebron James. Ask Penn State. Ask American Apparel — multiple times. My time in college was four years with the wrong approach, conformity. I did everything my professors asked of me, making sure that I was doing what I had to in order to get the “A.” I learned and applied.

Lather, rinse and repeat…for four years.

Results are deceiving

After four years, I had what every scholar aims for when leaving college: a degree… with a 4.0 GPA, job offers, friends, a network and soft skills sharp to the touch. But there were two glaring things I didn’t have: technical skills and passion.

Part of the technical skills problem was my degree. I mean, marketing strategy isn’t really a technical skills type of degree, right? Maybe. Marketing in the 21st century is developing into a technical skills degree, focused on technology. Digital marketing is revolutionizing the industry but I couldn’t conceptualize and execute the design of a website, banner ad or even a complex logo and for me, that’s a bit of a problem. However, it’s certainly not as tragic as graduating without passion: passion for something, anything.

Practice what you preach

I was fortunate enough to be a Presidential Scholar for the university I attended, so I made appearances and spoke at different alumni functions, new student orientations and other types of events. Every time I spoke, I was a hypocrite. Not because I wanted to be, but because I thought I needed to be. I would preach passion. “Find your passion, hone the skills needed and then find a way to make a living of it” was my generic response, but was marketing my passion? Absolutely not. It was my comfort zone.

At the time I thought, “How can someone that has had the success I’ve had, tell the sad narrative of being trapped by conformity? Tell them that I based my decision off of potential future earnings, what was easy, and what I had the most success in, rather than in something I loved to do?” That’s not inspirational, that’s down right depressing and doesn’t help the university or provide hope to the incoming freshmen. So I hid my lack of passion behind my success, until 6 months ago when I finally couldn’t anymore.

I ultimately had to admit to myself that maybe I had made a mistake. Maybe marketing isn’t for me, but then again maybe it is. Am I good at it? For my sake, I hope so, and the feedback and opportunities have been positive, but I’ve discovered (admitted) something about the old “is the juice worth the squeeze” cliché — it’s easier to admit the juice isn’t worth the squeeze when you’ve already squeezed out all the juice.

Admitting there is a problem is always the first step, now finding the courage to change directions seems to be the next.