Why Your Career Should be Passion Driven

Career choices aren’t the kind to jump into, it demands that you apply the “look before you leap” technique.

Before we dive into the details of this article, let me enlighten you on the difference between a ‘career’ and a ‘job’.

Trent at the Simple Dollar recently suggested the following disparities;

• A job has minimal impact on your future work life, while a career provides experience and learning to fuel your future.
• A job offers few networking opportunities but a career is loaded with them.

Now these pointers are in line with my opinions, however your job could also lay a foundation for your career.

Never forget that.

Your career is a major reason you chose to get a degree in communication in the higher institution and the reason you try out media gigs.

Four years ago, I chose a career in writing and online media. I was pursuing a degree in English and communication (media) as well. Building a career in writing and online media and having knowledge of language and communication skills enhanced my abilities.

Your career is also the reason you took up the job at the marketing firm downtown even though you aren’t earning as much as your qualifications demand.

Last year, I worked part time for a consulting firm as well as a PRO firm while I wrote blogs for my website; therrietory.com and a few websites too. I needed the experience of working within office hours, meeting and beating deadlines and building my network. I had chosen a career in communication after all. These jobs helped me figure out what my career entailed.

Your focus therefore, is not on your current income but on the opportunities and network your job provides for you which could help you build your career.

Why is it important for your career to be passion-driven rather than profit-driven?

You are building a career and to stay on track, something has to drive you.

It is NOT what you stand to gain in the long run, but your love and drive for the career you have chosen.

I am not saying you shouldn’t build a career that will generate income in the future and secure a financially stable life for you.

What I’m saying is this; let your passion for your career drive you more than the zeal to make profit.

The reason is simple.

A career that is passion-driven will not be given up on.

On the other hand, when you build a career and profit surpasses your passion, you lose interest the moment the dollar bills aren’t rolling in as expected.

Passion helps you stay focused.

Profit is important, you do not plan to own a non-profit organisation after all.

Mind you, your passion isn’t necessarily your love for the career you have chosen.

Your passion could be the zeal to solve a particular problem through the implementation of your creative ideas.

It could be the zeal to create and serve the society something outside the usual.

Let us take a look at Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

When Mark started Facebook in 2004, he says he was simply solving a problem he saw around him.

The problem? “..you couldn’t find and connect with the people that you cared about, which as people is actually the most important thing”

“yeah, well, I never started this to build a company”, says Zuckerberg, speaking to Freakonomics Radio as part of its six-week series called “The Secret Life of CEOs”.

So you see, Mark built his career in social media by identifying a need and working towards filling that hole.

It wasn’t profit that drove him, it was the passion to bridge the gap that existed on the internet and to create a platform that connects people to their loved ones online.

Today Facebook has a market capitalization of more than $500 billion and more than 2 billion monthly active users, and Zuckerberg is worth more than $70 billion, according to Forbes. But he was famously just a college student at Harvard when he launched it in 2004.

In 2014, I picked up a liking for make-ups and makeovers. I loved giving people new looks and transforming not-so beauties into stunning damsels and I was inclined to art (drawing and painting precisely) which made the profession quite easy to adapt to.

However, I was more concerned with the money I’ll make from being a MUA than my passion for transforming looks.

I started on a path towards up my make –up studio; a brief make-up training session with Lale studios, never ending online makeup tutorials, even a Facebook page. I offered free makeover sessions to my friends and took photos of them which I posted on my page.

Had I not put in enough work already?

As time went by, I wasn’t getting the expected response, few persons contacted me and I hadn’t made any money. I lost focus and my pursuit of a career in beauty and makeover died within months of venturing.

To my last question, the answer is NO.

A profit-driven career most times is set back by the inability to see the efforts that need to be put to make the venture a successful one.

Let us start with improving on your skills. Passion for your career drives you to acquire more knowledge and expand your horizon. You should bring in people who share same career visions and work with them, this way you exchange and build on various ideas.

Bill Murphy Jr. published an article on Inc.com titled ’11 Inspiring People Who Followed Their Passions and Found Amazing Success’.

Among his list of successful entrepreneurs are people like Bill Gates, Walt Disney and Kevin Planck.

The story of Kevin Planck is one I want you to look into.

Plank was a football player at the University of Maryland, he designed shirts that could wick away sweat, and convinced his former teammates who went on to play professionally to try his product and share it with their teammates. The company that resulted, Under Armour has a net worth estimated at $1.05billion.

In an interview with Peter Guber, co-owner of Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Dodgers, Kevin Planck shared his motivation towards his career.

“.. I never started with ‘I wanna build a global sports brand’, I really just said ‘I wanna make the greatest T-shirts for football players’”.

You must be wondering why I singled out Kevin Plank from the long list.

I did so because his story boils down to passion, he did not design those T-shirts with the sole aim of making profit else he would have backed down when for the first seven months, no one seemed interested in his designs. He designed those T-shirts because of his love for football and a passion to create unique T-shirts that made players comfortable during a game.

The list goes on and on; Brandon Stanton, Jim Koch, Al “Bubba” Baker, Chris Michel, et cetera.

Every successful person in the world made it because they were motivated by the passion for what they chose to do, and with an input of hard work; the profits started rolling in.

What is key?

Passion