Passion is a Powerful Word

Don’t forget that.

I’m a student. A freshman, actually. New to college , new to the startup world, new to adult (if you can even call it that) life and just about everything else in my life right now, the only real constant seems to be how truly little I actually know.

Very little.

Mind bogglingly little.

But despite the fact that I still feel a lot like Dorothy after the tornado plopped her down in Oz, there are some things that I do still know. And it took a conversation with a Harvard senior to remind me of that.

By pure serendipity, I got placed into a course called Tufts.io, a class taught by two Tufts seniors aimed at giving freshmen an early look at what the startup scene is all about. Every so often, we host guest speakers in class who are involved in the scene in one capacity or another. Tonight was one of those nights.

About halfway through the class, one of the seniors leading the discussions asked us something along the lines of ‘If you’re passionate about something, should you chase your dream?’ The question, while designed to be provocative, seemed like a no brainer to me. To my surprise, my new friend from the school in Cambridge had different thoughts.

He told the class that he disagreed with the question because he thought that not all passions were worth pursuing. He argued that some dreams weren’t worth chasing if their results didn’t warrant the effort. To back up his point, he cited the example of a college kid coming up with an idea that he thinks could be ‘the next big thing’ in a flash of brilliance and works on it all night, only to wake up the next morning and realize and wonder ‘what was I thinking?’ My friend from Harvard called this a passion gone wrong.

That’s not passion.

That might be interest. Or a hobby. Or even just a bad idea. It could fall under a whole lot of categories. But passion isn’t one of them.

Passion isn’t something that’s picked up and dropped on a whim. It’s not something that fades from your mind after 6 hours of sleep and it’s certainly not something you regret the morning after.

Passion’s much too powerful for that.

Passion isn’t what you wake up regretting; it’s what wakes you up. Passion isn’t something that fades away with time, but rather leaves you wishing you had more of it. Passion is what keeps you up at night and dominates your mind even when you know you should be focused on other things.

Most importantly, passion–unlike interests and ideas and hobbies–is what makes you happy. It’s what fires you up and makes you who you are.

Whether you’ve got a Harvard education or the farthest thing from it, you better remember that. What you do with your passion defines you.

And when it strikes, damn right you better follow it. Follow that passion, that dream, until you drop. And then do it some more.

It’ll make all the difference.