Your passion is useless, unless you know this...

I used to be a passionate guy. For a larger part of my young adult life, wherever I go, I talk big about passion. That I want to become this. I want to become that.

In 2020, during the COVID lockdown, I happened to read the book, "So Good They Can Ignore You" written by Cal Newport. That completely changed how I perceived my goals and how much effort did I think it would take to achieve my goal.

“Follow your passion," says Cal Newport "is a dangerous advice.” It has become a common dialect for younger generation in the 21st century. In this book, the author contends why having a passion mindset is a bad idea and what is the antidote to that.

The two mindsets

The author introduces two different mindsets: Passion Mindset and Craftsman Mindset. In the passion mindset, a person asks, “what the job can offer me?” Whereas in the craftsman mindset, a person asks, “what I can offer the job?”

Problems with the passion mindset

The passion mindset gives an illusion that there is always a perfect job waiting for you somewhere beyond the horizon.

If a person adopts a passion mindset, he ends up having a sense of entitlement that he deserves to be satisfied every now and then. Since this doesn’t happen more often in any domain, it makes a person hyperaware of what he doesn’t like about the job, leading to chronic unhappiness. Most entry-level jobs ask you to ‘change the watercooler’ before giving you ‘change the world’ type of work.

Passion mindset is also extremely cool and glamorous. We see stars in sports, movie industry, and pop culture who are famous, rich, and noteworthy in their domain.

Thus, it feels so believable when the words like “chase your dreams”, “do what you love” coming from their mouth. However, we tend to overlook the fact that people who are that famous statistically account for an extremely miniscule percentage of the global population.

There are a lot of other factors – timing, opportunities, economy – that need to come together for a person to become a star. Therefore, stars who advocate passion are exceptions to the rule and not the rule themselves.

Traits of a craftsman mindset

As discussed, the person with craftsman mindset does not have sky-level expectations for personal satisfaction and is always on the lookout for what he can offer to the job at hand. Regardless of how we feel about the job, adopting a craftsman mindset will be the foundation on which a compelling career can be built.

The craftsman mindset asks you to leave behind self-centred concerns about whether your job is ‘just right’ and instead put your head down and plug away at getting really damn good.

However, there are 3 exceptions for applying the craftsman mindset:

• The job presents few opportunities to distinguish yourself by developing relevant skills that are rare and valuable. i.e. the job itself is very menial or a dead end.

• The job focuses on something you think is useless or perhaps even actively bad for the world.

• The job forces you to work with people you really dislike.

If you are very sure about the applicability of these three exceptions in your life, you can consider changing your job or your line of work.

What if you really want to do something else?

If you want a great job or career, you need to have skills that are rare and valuable. The author names this set of skills as Career Capital. Without enough career capital, it is unfair to expect the market to reward you disproportionately.

A lot of people feel like quitting their job because it does not offer them a sense of control. You may think that if you quit your day job to become a yoga teacher, you will have more control and autonomy in the work you do. But again, expecting control in your work without earning career capital is a dangerous place to be. Attempting to be a yoga professional simply after attending a 100-hour tutorial is a very foolish proposition.

Control without career capital is a trap.

Does having a compelling mission sell?

The author answers, the probability is still very low. Even if you want to excel in a non-profit line of work and even if you propose a globe-saving mission, you still need career capital in that line of work. In order to convince people in believing your mission, you need to be exceptionally good at what you do.

In the music industry they say, “the tape doesn’t lie” i.e. when you hear back what you have recorded in the tape, you know where you stand in your practice, how much skill you currently possess and how far you need to cover. The tape doesn’t lie.

When you become so good at what you do that other people can’t even ignore you, you would not have hard time convincing others about your mission, business model, or anything. You can call the shots.

So, what is the way out?

Adopt a craftsman mindset and try earning career capital in the current job so that over a period of time, you earn the right to gain more control and to express creativity. Eventually you will end up liking the work.

However, if you are so sure that the current job is not your future or if you are covered with the three exceptions to the craftsman mindset or you are genuinely interested in doing something on your own, you need to make yourself familiar with the following aspects.

• Career capital base: Do you have enough career capital in the new thing that you want to do? Remember, if you want something that is rare and valuable, you need to offer in return – something rare and valuable. Ask yourself, “Do I have that something exceptionally rare and valuable to offer in return?” The only way to increase your career capital is to do deliberate practice. To sit down and do the work that others hesitate to do. Do not fall for the control trap. If you need more control in your work, you need more career capital.

• The law of financial viability: If you quit your current line of work and do an abrupt changeover to the new thing you want to do, can you stay financially afloat for a considerable period of time? How financially viable is your new idea? In other words, do only what people are willing to pay you for!

• The law of remarkability: How unique is your new thing going to be? Are you going to be one-more-something in that field? Unless you are potentially sure that you can make a serious disruption in the industry or you are going to create something remarkable, it is time to get back to the boarding room and keep working. In the words of Seth Godin, “in the land of brown cows, will your thing be a purple cow that stands out?”

• Think in little bets: Prototype. Make a lot of trials and sampling before you venture big. The famous stand-up comedian Chris Rock goes unannounced to bars with minimal audience to try out his new jokes to get feedback as to which ones are working and which ones fall flat. This minimizes his risk when performing to a large audience.

If you do not find convincing evidence in any of the above aspects, you need to exercise a little patience, side-hustle to do more deliberate practice and gain more skill base and then make the changeover.

Conclusion

A lot of text written in this summary might appear very uncool and hard to swallow. But this is the safest way the author prescribes for us to flourish in any career and also can save a lot of bitter experience and headache. At the end of the day, instead of looking for the right work, it is important to do your work right.

Note: It might appear that the author is trying to demonize the very aspect of passion in this book and it might appear very uncomfortable. Even I am very much a passion-oriented person. However, things need to be understood in the right spirit. The author does not demonize passion, the author only demonizes the passion mindset; the mindset that displays a sense of entitlement. The mindset that expects undue reward before putting in the work. Passion is okay as long as we are willing to work like a craftsman.