Many people cannot understand this simple but powerful perspective so I would like to elaborate on it a bit. I think it is one of the most important perspectives you could even understand and it will change the way you look for a job and the success you have forever if you really get it.
After my first semester of college at the University of Chicago I had a mandatory meeting with a counselor. I had gotten a B+ or around a 3.3 average for that semester despite taking a difficult calculus class and a few advanced classes which made me study harder than I ever had in my life. In terms of grades, out of the 50 or so people I knew at school and how they had done my grades were the best of anyone of them. I had known the smartest kid in my home town who had gone to the school the year before me and he had actually flunked out of the school his first year. I was feeling pretty good about myself for getting these kind of grades.
The counselor asked me what I wanted to do in the meeting as a profession when I got older. I told her that I was interested in going to law school. She told me that if I wanted to have a “shot in hell” of even going to a top law school–specifically, the University of Chicago–that I would a need a minimum of a 3.6 grade point average. That meant, essentially, that I could not get any grades below a A- for the rest of my time in college. At the time this seemed like an impossibility.
I spent several weeks that semester thinking about this while I worked harder than I ever had in my life and then it hit me: I would get A’s if I simply took the kind of classes I loved and knew I would do well in. The University of Chicago had thousands of classes. All I needed to do was take classes I loved. Over the next three and a half years that is exactly what I did. I took strange classes in anthropology that studied strange sexual initiation procedures in African cultures, I took a class where I studied my hometown of Detroit, I took classes where I got to study and write about the strange personalities of American presidents throughout history. The point is that I did what I loved.
This worked. In fact, my junior year of college every single grade I received was an “A” and I received only one “A-”. This was not because I was smarter than other people. It was because I did what I loved and when I did what I loved I was able to be enthusiastic about everything, I absorbed more learning, I read more on my free time, I wrote more, I talked more in class–in short, my passion came through.
During this same time I saw other students flunk out of school–or come close to doing so. Many students had parents pushing them to be doctors and these students took one class after another that they hated and almost ended up flunking. Other students believed that they should be majoring in economics because their parents wanted them to do business and these students struggled through one economics class after another that they absolutely hated and did poorly at. I watched all of this going on around me and continued to read about tribes in Africa, take course about fossils and other sorts of things I enjoyed. Quite simply, I took the sorts of courses I loved.
When all was said and done, I ended up with great grades and a real love of school. I ended up having more opportunities—jobs, law school admissions and so forth–than I would have had if I had followed the pack and done what I believed I should have done.
I think the world would be a much better place if everyone followed the advice that I ended up giving myself. I think people would enjoy work more and succeed much more if they did what they loved. I know that my career and life would be vastly different than they are right now. You need to do what you love.
Several years later as I was spending 12 hours a day in an office tower in downtown Los Angeles practicing law I thought of this advice again. I was practicing law at the time and I did not love what I was doing. I did not love what I was doing to the degree I knew I should. As I investigated options and things I could do I spoke with legal recruiters and incredibly this actual sort of job had massive appeal to me. I liked the creative aspect of it. I liked the fact that I would be able to do research the way I wanted. I liked that I would be able to speak with lots of people. I liked that I would be able to write. I liked that I would have more control over how much I earned. I knew instinctively and deep down that this job was something I could do forever and would love.
I quit the practice of law, walked away from job offers and started being a legal recruiter. I had no income coming in whatsoever but I knew it was something I would love doing. Despite a good salary as an attorney, despite the prestige, despite all of the work I had put into becoming an attorney, I knew that I would be much happier being an legal recruiter than I would ever be practicing law. I also knew that I would do much better at this job that I would be as an attorney.
The hardest thing about this was going in the face of what everyone told me I should be doing. Leaving the practice of law like this made me look like “a fool” to the other attorneys I was working it. My parents were disappointed in me. My law school classmates could not understand. It just was not what people expected of me. It is, however, what I wanted for myself.
You need to take charge and understand that when you love what you are doing it changes everything. We are also typically much better at something when we love what we are doing. When we love what we are doing we are simply much happier as well.
There is a final point I want to make as well. When you find what you love doing and you practice it with passion you are able to touch more people with your work and create much more value in the world. You inspire more people around you and more people want to work with you. You also fulfill a higher purpose and have a life that has more meaning than it would otherwise. I do not care who you are. You can bring greater joy to the world and yourself when you find exactly what it is that gives you joy and that you succeed at.
It does not matter who you are or what you do. One example I can think of is of a woman who has two career choices. One choice is she can be a filing clerk in an office. If she works in an office she will have the prestige of working in an office. She will also be around other people who work in an office. Working in an office is also generally quite site. In addition, she will also have a very steady paycheck. Her other option may be a waitress job. If she works as a waitress she will not have the prestige of working in an office and her job may be entirely dependent on tips. She will also get food all over her at work from time to time and will have to deal with rude people now and them.
Many people would prefer the waitress job. Many people would prefer the office job. When I was growing up there was a small restaurant up the street that had the best waitress I have ever seen to this day. The waitress would anticipate your every need, remember your name, smile and basically make you feel very good for coming to the restaurant. In fact, the waitress was so good that many people probably came to the restaurant just to see her. As it would happen, I also had a relative who was a waitress at the same restaurant. I found out years later that this waitress made probably 3x more money working the same hours at this restaurant as the other waitresses. The waitress absolutely loved what she was doing. In fact, when I went there with my friends when I was younger I remember some people actually made fun of her. I do not think she would have done nearly as well in an office job. I can imagine, however, that most people would tell her an office job is more prestigious and desirable than working in a diner. Who cares what other people think! You need to do what you love!
You need to find what it is that makes you passionate and grab it by the horns, hold on and do this for your job. You need to love what you are doing. Be passionate about your job and your career. If you do this and nothing more you will have more success than even you can imagine. Find what you love and do not be told or influenced by others as to what you should do.
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