I found this on the Divine Caroline site, written by a woman who's a writer. I could not have said it better.
(T)his drive to write has got me thinking—if a person feels this strong obligation towards anything, shouldn’t that define his or her career path? Can the key to career success be to do what you absolutely can’t go without doing? Doctors are driven by medicine and science; they can’t imagine doing anything else. A passion that comes from within; you cannot teach it, recreate it, or fake it.
Thats the compulsion that I always thought I was supposed to have about my job, and never did. Even now, I don't have it, about anything. Those articles that say to 'find your passion'? Passed me right by. I'd wonder if I'm too casual, but most of the people I know are like that. Are there passionate people, these days?
4 comments:
I think so, but not passionate about things like work. At least not me. I guess if I had pursued a passion I should be running a book store or have been a veterinarian. I didn't think I could do all that science, though.
The classic model is a job that you like so much, its not work at all -- or at least, it is, but you're so captivated by it, or by the prospect of success, you do the work willingly. I am able to believe that such compulsion is a part of that, but I've never felt the drive. I've just been happy when I liked what I was doing.
One thing that has mildly surprised me about being retired is that although I do things I never did before -- primarily, baking, and some cooking -- I feel no compulsion, no feeling of Now that I have the time, I can really ... Nope. Life is pretty much as it was. I just don't go to work. Or, you know, get paid. That part does bother me, a little.
I'm not sure I agree with the lass - passion helps, but someone has to stock the shelves in a supermarket... (Usually at $8.50/hr, in this part of the country.)
I was passionate about my work in Wall St IT - and the rewards were commensurate. I was passionate about building excellent furniture, but the rewards weren't quite so, well, commensurate. I think it behooves us to remember that work is work - and I also know a doctor who was passionate about having a sex change; doctoring simply paid the bills.
Carolyn Ann
PS I also know a doctor who hates the job. But, and this is odd, he can't do anything else - he's not trained well enough!
A black and white (which, when it comes to making decisions, are my favorite colors) view of success would say that passion is a prerequisite for success -- alone, it guarantees nothing (perhaps a reputation as that crazy guy who is always tinkering in the garage), but in combination with other factors, yes, it can deliver material success. Those are the people who show up in the pages of Wired, or MIT Tech Review, or driving the baby-blue BMW with the top down.
I think its also possible to acheive material success without passion. You need it at the beginning, when something has to motivate you to write ten more lines of code, examine ten more phages, read ten more Supreme Court decisions, but after a while, you can be successful by applying those early efforts. I think those people show up in Wired, too, though the article carefully doesn't mention that its been a while since they've done any groundbreaking work.
Thats not to imply that you need passion. Thousands of people show up in the morning, do a respectable amount of work ('fair days work, fair days pay'), and go home to what they really like to do. As you point out, they keep the wheels turning. They're not necessarily drudges; they just don't scale the heights of recognition and success.
The lucky ones are the first kind. The fortunate ones are the second. The third -- that's me and my coworkers. Well -- former coworkers. I'd work again, if I could, though my image of the perfect job is still the one I read about in Doonesbury, decades ago -- mellow environment, coworkers interesting, not too competitive. To which the speaker's father replies, exasperated, So you don't intend to GET a job!
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