Passion Is Bullshit
You often hear advice from successful people that you should “follow your
passion.” That sounds perfectly reasonable the first time you hear it. Passion will
presumably give you high energy, high resistance to rejection, and high
determination. Passionate people are more persuasive, too. Those are all good
things, right?
Here’s the counterargument: When I was a commercial loan officer for a large
bank in San Francisco, my boss taught us that you should never make a loan to
someone who is following his passion. For example, you don’t want to give
money to a sports enthusiast who is starting a sports store to pursue his passion
for all things sporty. That guy is a bad bet, passion and all. He’s in business for
the wrong reason.
My boss, who had been a commercial lender for over thirty years, said the
best loan customer is one who has no passion whatsoever, just a desire to work
hard at something that looks good on a spreadsheet. Maybe the loan customer
wants to start a dry-cleaning store or invest in a fast-food franchise—boring
stuff. That’s the person you bet on. You want the grinder, not the guy who loves
his job.
🤔 Умозаключение - Заха, аз мислех, че теб и Рабина съм ви "ударил в душите", ама Скот Адамс направо си "избърса гъза с тях". 😆 "Следвайте мечтите си" - ти ще успееш с "игра виртуална реалност", а Рабина с "колайдер" - вервайте си!
So who’s right? Is passion a useful tool for success, or is it just something that
makes you irrational?
My hypothesis is that passionate people are more likely to take big risks in the
pursuit of unlikely goals, and so you would expect to see more failures and more
huge successes among the passionate. Passionate people who fail don’t get a
chance to offer their advice to the rest of us.
But successful passionate people are writing books and answering interview questions about their secrets for success every day. Naturally those successful people want you to believe that success is a product of their awesomeness, but they also want to retain some humility. You
can’t be humble and say, “*I succeeded because I am far smarter than the average
person.*” But you can say your passion was a key to your success, because everyone can be passionate about something or other. Passion sounds more accessible. If you’re dumb, there’s not much you can do about it, but passion is something we think anyone can generate in the right circumstances. Passion feels very democratic. It is the people’s talent, available to all.
It’s also mostly bullshit.
It’s easy to be passionate about things that are working out, and that distorts
our impression of the importance of passion. I’ve been involved in several dozen
business ventures over the course of my life, and each one made me excited at
the start. You might even call it passion. The ones that didn’t work out—and that
would be most of them—slowly drained my passion as they failed. The few that
worked became more exciting as they succeeded.
For example, when I invested in a restaurant with an operating partner, my
passion was sky-high. And on day one, when there was a line of customers down
the block, I was even more passionate. In later years, as the business got
pummeled, my passion evolved into frustration and annoyance. The passion
disappeared.
On the other hand, Dilbert started out as just one of many get-rich schemes I
was willing to try. When it started to look as if it might be a success, my passion
for cartooning increased because I realized it could be my golden ticket. In
hindsight, it looks as if the projects I was most passionate about were also the
ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success.
Success caused passion more than passion caused success.
🤔 Умозаключение - 😆 Скот Адамс ви сипва "с големия черпак". Сега разбирам защо един познат наркоман на който му помогнах да изкара 30 поправки в гимназията и на който му викахме "Васко - Тъпото" почна да ме съветва да "следвам мечтите си" и да "специализирам".
От една компания ми предлагаха по-малко пари, значително повече, но "мечтата и страстна" работа, а в текущата повече пари и по-малко работа и аз си останах в текущата. И тоя ми вика:
"Ама брат - трябваше да последваш страстта си. Защо не почна в оная другата компания? Правят те меринджей - ще отговаряш за сериозни приложения с много потребители. Ще се развиваш и ще успееш!"
А аз му отговорих:
"Колега - не ме занимавай с глупости, бе! Брат, аз на идиот ли ти изглеждам!? Да отида да бачкам повече за по-малко пари? Тъп съм, ама чак пък толкоз!?"
Е тва е - за туй Заха, ти и Рабина никога няма да успеете. Гоните мечти, а не ходите там където "са парите". А Чарли Мънгър е казал:
