Our first reading was Cal Newport’s ‘How do people end up loving what they do for a living?’ I found this really interesting when he referred to an address given to a graduating class in 2005 by Steve Jobs. He said to the students “you’ve got to find what you love…If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking and don’t settle.” The response to this statement was incredible. Everyone loved this idea of following your passion and making a career out if it. His statement suggests that we have a pre-existing passion which we should follow, but what if that passion doesn’t line up with a career path? According to Newport, telling someone to follow their passion “reduces the probability the will end up passionate.”

The other interesting point Newport makes it that when you consider the advice Jobs gave, it wasn’t how he became so successful. Jobs did not have a pre-existing passion or love for computers or digital software. He simply stumbled upon Apple and developed his skills which therefore developed his passion for what he was doing simultaneously. Thus, Newport gives three steps on how to end up in a career you love:

  1. Don’t follow your passion
  2. Be so good they can’t ignore you
  3. Go deep

When Newport says, don’t follow your passion, he means be open it new possibilities and don’t necessarily become fixed on one hobby. Second, develop your skills. Spend time building up your knowledge and as Benjamin Bloom’s research suggests, as your skills develop, so does your passion. Finally, go deep. This means highly focused time spent refining your skills with no distractions.

Therefore, Newport believes that in order to have a career you love, you need to do what Steve Jobs did and not what he said.