Passion Is Overrated, and It Almost Cost Me My Health and My Career
Almost every startup or a business conference attendee has probably heard it countless times: “Follow your passion!” — Or — “Do what makes you happy! And even if you don’t frequent such events, you probably read it online or heard it from other people.
I am here to share my experience of how passion blinded us, made us try and justify wrong decisions, and almost robbed me of my health and career.
Passion is easy. Almost too easy.
Falling in love with passion is easy. The passion in business can be perceived enchanting, charming even. It is often romanticized. The obsession with “follow your passion”adage has gone so far that it became universal career advice.
Why is so tempting to fall in love with passion? Firstly, it is an idea so broad and vague that it seems overly simple. Just “follow your passion” — how difficult is that? Sounds so easy! What does it exactly mean? Who cares!
It is a dangerous deception to think that all you need to succeed is a passion. Some people might even find themselves under the pressure of needing to have a passion which can lead to making them feel inadequate. And as heartbreaking as it may seem, you just might not be really good at things you (think that you) are passionate about.
By now, you might wonder — who are you and what do you know about the passion? I am the guy who left a great job at a fantastic company to follow his passion, start his own company and even used the word passion in its name. And for the next seven, eight years, followed that passion “truly, madly, deeply.”
Our story
The story goes something like this… Together with my cofounders, I built a company and a culture around it that put more value on passion and emotion, than it did on some other things. We did some great work. Especially for our clients. And we did it for years. I was there for eight of them.
But we also failed terribly when building our own product. We fell in love with it. We were, as we liked to tell ourselves, passionate about it.
And that was the problem.
Following our passion clouded our judgment. In an eternal feedback loop, we got stuck. “Let’s just add this feature — I am sure, users will love it. Let’s just invest 300 more people-hours!” Days, weeks, months and even years passed by. Our competitors run us over, but we were blinded by our passion.
We fell in love with our product. We didn’t even see the reality around us. We invested hundreds of thousands of dollars during the 5 years in this process only to shut the product and project about a year after we launched it.
All the profits we earned from our other services — we reinvested them — living very modestly during that period. Convincing ourselves and our families that this is just a temporary thing. After all, we were following that damn passion. It has to pay off at some point, doesn’t it?
Turns out, it doesn’t.
Perfectionism
And we were slow. As founders, we believed in perfectionism.
“We can’t possibly launch that thing without all the features, and all the design finalized and refined. Our customers will see it and think that we are not capable and professional enough.”
And iteration after iteration, thousands of hours after thousands of hours, we were driven by the passion. Fooled by it. Enchanted and mesmerized.
And then, the reality struck!
Wake up call
We launched our product, and while there was some commercial success, it was far from our expectations and hopes. For the team, for myself, it was a very anticlimactic finale of our passion-driven product development saga.
But in those moments of near-despair, something profoundly changed. Faced with the reality and responsibility that was still around (people need their paychecks, clients need their projects delivered), I decided that the passion cannot and should not be our (only) future driving force.
Upon further reflection and countless sleepless nights, I’ve come to the understanding that passion itself is incredibly selfish. It is all and only about YOU, about what YOU like to do, about what makes YOU happy. It was a wake-up call.
After this experience, I decided to take a step back. My health deteriorated, my relationships suffered (my friends and girlfriend knew that the best). The toll was too high.
Awakening
Fast-forward to the present day. I am now running and building a new company, Point Jupiter. While we still have passion in our hearts, we also learned to use our brains.
I was ruthless when it came to starting a new business and deciding areas on which we will focus. Instead of passion, we followed meaningfulness, contribution, and common sense. We changed the approach when hiring people. We started our new company with new people.
A clean slate
A simple rebranding or a change of the name would not be enough. We needed a profound change. One that would affect all aspects of our work — from leadership to processes, types of clients, deliverables…
And we achieved that. We are more efficient, we deliver better services and products than ever before, and we are aware of the reality. We rely more on data, informed decisions and a bit more structure than before. We learned how to use passion, but more importantly, we learned how to not get used by passion.
Use it, don’t get used by it
To really follow your passion — do what you are good at. Develop yourself in ways where your contributions are meaningful and unselfish. Following the passion blindly will make you limit yourself all the while thinking that you are growing. Don’t make the same mistakes I/we did.
But, don’t throw away passion in your life. One of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences I am having right now is the fact that I am now witnessing my passion for the work I do, develop alongside that work.
Passion should be a consequence of great work, not the sole driving force. As such, it can be a powerful ally. We, humans, are emotional beings and passion is a part of our DNA — whether it is in romantic relationships or business. We all need it in our life. But we must be mindful about it.
Use your passion, but don’t get used by it. Passion is not to be followed. It is to be found and developed.
