• Musings

    Follow Your Passion – Good Advice or Bad?

    quotemm-lovewhatyoudo-large Follow Your Passion - Good Advice or Bad?

    From the day we are born, we are forced to think that in order to have a lavish life – we need to make lots and lots of money. Who can enjoy all the good things? – People with money! Who can travel abroad and explore the world? – People with money! Of course, there are a lot of other ways to travel, like studying, getting a scholarship, it easy if your parents are stinking rich. But not all of us are scholars and not everybody’s parents can afford to send their kids to study abroad. The urge to earn money is so strong that it makes people love the jobs they actually hate. I was discussing this few days back with one of my friends who is working with JP Morgan, she told me she hates her job. The only reason she is into that shitty job (these were her exact words) is because they pay her pretty well and she get to travel.

    It’s no different with me except the fact that I don’t love my job and neither they pay me well.There are people who love their jobs and make tons of money from it. They get to travel, get whatever they want -good for them! But, what about those people who find their happiness or passion in careers (such as circus, dancing, construction, waiter) and they do not get paid well (at least in India). What are they suppose to do? They are happy & content in their jobs – but they don’t make a lot of money out of it. What about them? Do they have to compromise their dreams to travel or buy a particular car or buy a house just because they love their jobs and they find it difficult to do something they are not passionate about?

    Proverb- ‘DO WHAT YOU LOVE’ is very inspiring and all motivating, but is it really fair to those people who do what they love, but do not earn what they should be ideally earning!? As much as I hate to say this, sometimes this doesn’t seem as a practical advice to me. DON’T DO WHAT YOU LOVE. LEARN TO LOVE WHAT YOU DO – this makes more sense to me. I understand following your passion makes you more connected to what you do, bring you happiness and contentment, but is it really feasible in low paid careers!?