Passion is important in everything you do but it also isn't everything you need. Despite the whole Confucius assertion that if you "find something you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life". We can attest, that that isn't true or quite as simple.
In an interview, author and entrepreneur Ben Casnocha was asked how much passion plays a role in a good career plan, if any at all. He gave the following answer:
Definitely plays a role. When you're passionate about something, you tend to do better work, longer. The question is whether you find passion or develop it through competence. And then how you square passion with other considerations - such as your aspirations and the market realities. So, passion is key, yes, but it's rather more complicated than many career writers would have you think. Passion without being good at it doesn't get you very far; passion that no one will pay money for is also limited in scope. You need to weigh various factors, passion being one of them.
You need to love your work to grow and get better but it can be difficult to love your work when you're not very good. People often lose interest in something they love because they have passion, or find out they aren't good enough and subsequently lose that passion to do what they intended or set out to do in the first place. Passion is great, but you'll have to have a plan, and couple that with market realities and change.
[The 99 Percent]
