So good they cant ignore you
Mastery over passion in career fulfillment
Description
The popular idea is to follow your passion and money will come. But when starting out, this is impractical. People hire you for skills, not passion. Instead of finding passionate work, build career capital. Once you have capital, use it to gain control and do meaningful work. That's the smart path to a fulfilling career.
Don't seek work you love. Be so good they can't ignore you. Conventional wisdom to follow passion is flawed. For many it causes job shifting and angst when reality falls short. Working right beats finding right work. It frees you from catchphrases like "follow your passion" that cause confusion. It provides a realistic path to engagement.
Focus on excelling so opportunities come to you. That beats chasing elusive dream jobs. With skills, you can eventually do more fulfilling work. But first build leverage by becoming invaluable. That's the pragmatic road to an enjoyable and meaningful career.
Table of contents
01Rule #1 - don't chase your passions
The common advice to find happiness in your career by matching your job to your preexisting passions is flawed for most people. This "passion hypothesis" sets unrealistic expectations that lead to disappointment.
In his famous 2005 Stanford commencement speech, Steve Jobs told graduates, "You've got to find what you love." He urged them to keep looking until they find fulfilling work aligned with their passions. This speech has been viewed over 3.5 million times on YouTube, cementing the passion hypothesis in popular culture.
The problem is that when you examine how passionate people like Steve Jobs really built their careers, the story is much more complicated. Jobs never planned to start a technology company or change the world. He and Steve Wozniak started selling circuit boards to make money so Jobs could pay his tuition at the Los Altos Zen Center. When a local shop owner offered to buy fully assembled computers instead of plain boards, Jobs and Wozniak jumped at the chance. Apple Computer was born from this lucky break, not preexisting passion. If Jobs had followed his own advice to only pursue work he loved, he likely would have become a popular teacher at the Zen Center. Passion is quite rare in reality. Most careers unfold in ambiguous, messy ways rather than following grand plans. People often stumble into their specialty by accident, then find they have an aptitude.
02Rule #2 - master your craft
Instead of wondering "What can the world offer me?", adopt a "What great things can I offer the world?" mindset. Become an absolute expert at your craft. Accumulate rare and valuable skills to build the career you love.
Comedian Steve Martin said "Be so good they can't ignore you." Don't seek validation. Obsessively improve your work's value. Invest time honing your craft, not worrying what others think. This mindset is crucial for a fulfilling career, regardless of your work. Concerns about finding the "perfect" job are misguided. Great careers are earned through grit and hard work, not owed. Emulate this mindset's dedication and practice. Forget seeking your passion for now. Focus on becoming excellent.
This mindset builds "career capital" - the rare and valuable skills that define great work. These are acquired through extensive learning and practice. Adopt the mindset that maximizes accruing career capital. Its practical focus surpasses the passion mindset. Getting good brings opportunities. This mindset delivers.
It works for most careers, with three exceptions:
First, jobs lacking chances to develop rare skills offer little career capital growth. Second, work seen as useless or harmful cannot be approached this way. Third, disliked colleagues impede accruing capital.
03Rule #3 - prioritize control
One of the keys to loving your work is having control over what you do, how you do it, and who you work with. To gain this autonomy, you must build up your career capital until you have enough leverage to negotiate for more flexibility. The crucial thing is to develop skills that are rare and valuable - do work that people and organizations are willing to pay for.
As Cal Newport explains, "If your goal is to love what you do, your first step is to acquire career capital. Your next step is to invest this capital in the traits that define great work. Control is one of the most important targets you can choose for this investment." Gaining control can be tricky, but research clearly shows that giving people more autonomy over their work increases happiness, engagement, and fulfillment. It's understandable why control is so central to our dream jobs.
A study by Cornell University researchers found that small businesses focused on empowering employees grew at four times the rate of control-limiting counterparts. Some companies now embrace a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) where the only thing that matters is output. Employees can work whenever and however they want. Best Buy headquarters adopted ROWE principles and saw turnover drop 90%. Clothing company Gap piloted ROWE at headquarters and found 80% of employees felt more engaged and 90% said it enhanced their quality of life.
04Rule #4 - start small, aim big
To build a fulfilling career, first focus on gaining control and autonomy in your work. This requires building up "career capital" by mastering rare and valuable skills. Only once you have enough career capital can you sustainably pursue a meaningful mission.
As Cal Newport argues, "follow your passion" is not the best advice. Most people don't have pre-existing passions waiting to be discovered. Instead, first build career capital through developing expertise, then use that capital to obtain autonomy and purpose. Newport explains, "If your goal is to love what you do, you must first build up 'career capital' by mastering rare and valuable skills, and then cash in this capital for the traits that define great work. Mission is one of these desirable traits, and like any such desirable trait, it too requires that you first build career capital—a mission launched without this expertise is likely doomed to sputter and die."
Gaining autonomy and finding a mission are key to loving your work. A mission provides a unifying focus for your career, spanning various jobs and providing meaning. People with a sense of mission find their work more satisfying and energizing. But as Newport cautions, a mission requires career capital to be sustainable.
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