Want
to build a life and career around something you’re passionate about? Great! Now
how do you feel about intense struggle, repeated failure, and constant change?
To
be sure, those are things pretty much all of us are bound to face in our
careers, but it’s far more likely you’ll have a tougher go of it if you’re dead
set on following your passion. That’s why so many advise different approaches to finding
work, suggest ways to turn your ho-hum gig into your
“dream job”, or counsel giving up an a passion career
altogether.
But
the fact is that some people do follow their passions and find it actually
works out. One reason they’re a small minority, though, is because we live in a
world that glorifies words like “passion” and “purpose” when it comes to life
and career choices, but almost completely ignores the pain, failure, and even
chaos that tends to precede achieving that. That’s a recipe for widespread
disappointment.
So
we asked five professionals across a range of fields to share the raw,
unfiltered truth about struggles they experienced as they set out to follow
their passions and, ultimately, pulled it off.
Read my and Danielle Harlan’s
article in Fast Company to find out what they said.
Special
thank you to Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of the New York Times
bestseller How to Raise an Adult; Elizabeth Meyer,
funeral director and author of the upcoming book Good Mourning; Casey
Gerald, founder and CEO of MBAsXAmerica and TED speaker; Adam Braun, founder of Pencils of Promise; and Aspen Institute
fellow Cathy Casserly for
sharing their stories.
Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email,
or find me on Twitter.
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