The Smartest Way to Follow Your Passion
Do what you love (without sacrificing your lifestyle).
Don’t ask successful people for career advice.
On one hand, they would be stupid to tell you their real success secrets. On the other hand, their answers often turn into romanticized hero stories about themselves.
Steve Jobs for example. In his famous Stanford speech from 2005, he urged teenagers around the world to “pursue their dreams” and “follow their heart”.
But his resume tells a different story: Young Steve never cared about computers or business. In fact, he was a long-haired hippie who hung out at the local Hare Krishna temple.
So how did he end up as one of the biggest innovators in modern history?
Here’s the thing: successful people are rarely good teachers. You shouldn’t listen to their rosy words but analyze their actions instead.
So that’s what I did —and I came up with an actionable 5-step process to turn your passion into a profitable career.
Step 1 — Sorry, You’re Not a Genius
Here’s the bad news — if you’re older than 15 years and not globally respected for your craft, it’s already too late. You (probably) don’t have what it takes to be a child prodigy.
When I talk about a craft, I’m talking about “winner-takes-it-all” industries like chess, piano, mathematics, or basketball. These kinds of fields tend to be hyper-competitive. Succeeding in such a field requires a God-given genetic disposition and even a decent amount of luck. I’m talking about extreme outliers like Magnus Carlsen, Stephen Hawking, or Michael Jordan:
- To become a worldwide known pianist, you need to have a perfect pitch.
- To become a mathematician, you need a high IQ.
- To become a basketball player in the NBA, you need to be at least 6.4 feet (195cm) or/and ultra-athletic.
It’s perfectly fine if you’re not destined to be a child prodigy. In fact, only 0.1% of people are lucky enough to discover their passion at such an early age. 99.9% of humanity needs another plan. And as you’re reading this article, I suspect you’re one of them.
Step 2 — Put Your Head Down & Work
Social media made us believe that anybody can become an influencer by posting his breakfast on Instagram. That’s a lie.
A successful career, be it as an employee or entrepreneur, is based on a simple economical equation:
“You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve” — Elon Musk
In other words, the more rare and valuable your skill(s), the bigger your chance of success.
This doesn’t mean you have to become the absolute best at your profession. But it means you have to develop a unique skill-set that sets you apart from the crowd that is just dreaming about success.
Now, there are ways to develop a unique skill-set:
- Master one skill and get in the top 5% of your industry (i.e. programming or video editing).
- Learn several skills & combine them in a unique way (this is also called skill-stacking).
Please keep in mind that developing a skill-set doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to get an academic degree.
In the information age, life-long curiosity beats academic degrees. There are sites like Udemy, Skillshare, or Coursera that teach you everything you need.
Step 3 — Get a Job
Equipped with your high-value skill, it now should be easy for you to get a “boring” 9–5 job.
I know, I know — that’s not what you want to hear. You’re meant for something bigger, right?
You want to go all-in, be the (wo)man, and live life on your own terms.
I feel you, I used to think the same way— but having a stable job has massive advantages:
- You won’t starve (and ideally save some money for the future).
- You’ll improve your skill-set & gain valuable domain experience.
- It’ll be easier to find a (better) job when you already have a job.
- You’ll get inspiration for future business ideas.
- You’ll learn what you like & don’t like.
Step 4 — Run Experiments
Let’s face it, most people aren’t passionate about their day job. They feel trapped in a daily routine.
One simple habit, however, makes all the difference in the world:
Run experiments besides your full-time job.
What is an experiment?
An experiment is a small personal project that creates new value in your life (i.e. new skill or an audience) and gains valuable feedback.
According to solopreneur Daniel Vasallo, a good experiment (which he calls small bet) has 3 characteristics:
- Low upfront costs: takes 1 month at most to complete & costs (almost) no money.
- Low maintenance costs: running your ongoing experiment should be easy for you.
- Low opportunity costs: you have no better opportunity to do.
It’s important to think small when you’re implementing a new idea. Don’t go into stealth mode and obsess about your idea for months or even years. Publish your project as quickly as possible:
- Don’t write the whole book, write the first chapter and show it to friends.
- Don’t code the whole app, use no-code tools and show your dirty prototype to potential customers.
Why Should I Run Experiments?
Life is unfair, and success is mostly luck. But smart people use this unfair fact to their advantage.
The more things you try, the luckier you get. Instead of creating the ultimate success plan, it’s far more effective to run multiple independent “bets” until one of them finally takes off. Like a good poker player, you’re patiently waiting for a good hand.
Besides running experiments, you should also:
- Visit events & talk to people (networking).
- Read books & brainstorm new ideas (inspiration & creativity).
- Spend time alone (sanity).
Keep doing these little things, and you’ll eventually get “lucky”.
Step 5 — Scale Your Passion
There’s a dangerous misconception about success:
Successful people don’t quit their job to follow their passion. It’s actually quite the opposite — they have to quit their current job because their passion project is becoming a full-time job. That’s a huge difference.
Mark Zuckerberg, for example, didn’t leave Harvard to start Facebook. He started Facebook as a hobby until he was forced to leave Harvard. It was impossible to continue his studies because Facebook required a 100-hour workweek. His decision wasn’t based on a naive dream, but on cold tangible facts.
In simple words: quit your job when your passion project makes more money than your day job. As an interim solution, you could work part-time or use your high-value skills to become a freelancer.
What I’m Trying to Say …
Passion in itself is worthless.
But once you couple your passion with the right strategy, you’ll become dangerous.
Focus on the following 5-step formula:
- Accept the fact that you’re (probably) not a genius.
- Disappear for a certain time & develop a unique skill-set.
- Use that skill-set to get a solid 9–5 job.
- Run smart experiments besides your day job until you get “lucky”.
- Double down on successful projects until you’re unstoppable.
Good luck my friend.
