“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” ―Joseph Campbell
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” ―Steve Jobs
There’s a really interesting debate on the internet and with leadership and management gurus about the appropriate motivation for doing a job. Society has a knack of romanticising the sort of sentiment put forward by the above quotes. We love to imagine that successful people got to where they are because they work hard, obviously, but also because they have a real passion for what they do.
Some commentators would have you believe that there is no merit at all in the concept of following your passion. They contest that it is more important to work hard on chasing the money and being productive than worry about being happy and fully engaged in what you’re doing.
Just ‘dialling it in’?
And here’s where I have a bit of a problem with this. Have you ever been in a situation where you’re dealing with someone who clearly doesn’t want to be doing what they’re doing? And I don’t just mean in a retail or service situation. I mean even with a manager or colleague? It’s just so easy to see that they’re not engaged, not happy and may just be ‘painting by numbers’. How did that make you feel? Not particularly good I’d expect.
When someone isn’t fully engaged in what they’re doing or maybe just doing it for the paycheck the effect on the people they come into contact with is palpable. And you can bet your bottom dollar that the relationship won’t last much after that initial contact/interaction or will only ever be of a superficial, transactional nature.
So what’s the answer?
I was talking with one of my coachees about this a couple of months ago and we were discussing options for them to move forward with in order to grow their business portfolio. There were a number of potential avenues they could take, some of which might prove more profitable than others. The issue was that the more profitable options weren’t ones that were particularly inspiring for them.
We discussed that there were some obvious quick wins but in the end they decided to forgo the immediacy of the money and go for the more ‘interesting and engaging’ options. And the reason for this? We had discussed the authenticity and integrity of promoting something they believed in rather than something that would just make them money.
My personal view, and indeed how I operate my own business, is that it is more important to look for opportunities you are interested in, ones you are passionate about and ones you are good at than to go for those which are simply about the money.
Obviously if you can combine the two then happy days.