By Richard Reis

Hello dear,

One of the most common questions people ask themselves is “what should I do?”

Can’t blame ’em. Finding your place in the world is tough.

However, one advice you’ll hear often is “find your passion.”

That’s where things get iffy.

Sure, maybe you’re Tiger Woods and you’ve shown off your golf skills on late night shows since you were 2. If so, you probably already have a preeeeeetty good idea of what career to pursue.

But, I’d say the vast majority of people have no idea what to pursue. Let alone what their “passion” is.

Even if they think they know, they could be wrong.

For instance, picture the thousands of people who line up to audition for America’s Got Talent every season.

Most of them don’t make it.

“They weren’t passionate enough!” you say?

I disagree.

First of all, I think it’s unfair to tell them they weren’t passionate enough. You don’t know how many hours they put in.

Secondly, most of them cry if they don’t make the cut. I don’t remember the last time I cried about anything, let alone because of an audition. That sounds pretty passionate to me.

“So what’s the solution?”

I doubt there’s only one solution. But I know the answer isn’t passion.

Let’s break it down together.

I hope things will get clearer for anyone asking themselves “what should I do?”

Onward.

What is Passion?

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let’s bring forth the defendant; good ol’ passion.

So, who is this culprit?

The dictionary defines it as “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.”

Ok, so there’s no magic. Passion is simply being very excited about something.

In that case, let’s think from first principles. What do you get very excited about?

You get excited about things that are going well.

Think about it! If you suck at doing something, you won’t like it. On the other hand, if you’re good at it, you’ll love it.

“Thanks captain obvious!”

Not so quick. I know this sounds obvious, but remember there’s 100,000+ people right now living in Los Angeles trying to become actors/ actresses.

I would say most of those people believe passion is the key to success (because most people everywhere believe passion is the key to success).

However, only a few hundred people (the same over and over) are rotated between movies each year.

This means the other TENS OF THOUSANDS of people start blaming themselves and thinking “maybe I’m not passionate enough.”

I say this: forget passion.

Passion is Overrated

I’ll bring forth the first witness, Dilbert creator Scott Adams.

Sidenote: Scott has recently gotten a lot of attention because of politics, but forget that.

The most important lesson I’ve learned from Scott came from his book “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” (I know, bad title. But great book! Which happens a lot).

Here, he gives great career advice. We’ll talk about it in a bit.

First, I want to start with a quote from Scott:

“You interview a billionaire and they say ‘passion is the secret to success, gotta have passion.’ But what else could they have said in public that wouldn’t make them sound like jerks? […] ‘Well, I’m smarter than poor people.’ No, you can’t say that. You can’t say ‘I did some insider trading and that got me started.’ You can’t say ‘I was lucky’ because that ruins your mystique. There’s nothing else you can say.” — Scott Adams

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.

If Passion Isn’t The Key, What is?

We’ve seen passion isn’t a requirement. It’s more of a byproduct.

You’ll eventually be passionate about whatever you’re good at.

But, how do you get there?

Here are a few tips (from Scott).

1. Your Surrounding

I’ve talked about this before; surround yourself with people who inspire you.

“But I don’t know anyone like that! ”

In that case, spend all day:

Reading their books.

Watching their videos.

Following their advice.

Thank God we live in this day and age.

“ To change yourself, part of the solution might involve spending more time with the people who represent the change you seek.” — Scott Adams

2. Your Skills

This is very important. Pay attention.

Don’t try to be the best at one skill. Be good at several complementary skills.

If you try to be the best at one thing, your odds of succeeding are much lower (e.g. If I wanted to be the best physicist alive, I’d have a hard time beating Lawrence Krauss. But if I combine my physics knowledge, my marketing genius, and my silky-smooth voice, I’ll become Neil deGrasse Tyson).

You don’t have to be the best at one thing. Be good at two or more complementary skills.

Sidenote: Sure, you could still be the best in the world at one skill (someone has to be!). The problem is the odds of that happening are much much much lower.

Let’s look at some other examples.

Example #1: Steve Jobs was an ok engineer (not as good as Woz), an ok businessman (not as good as Markulla), and an ok designer (not as good as Ive). But he knew how to combine all those skills (and bring the best people together) to become Silicon Valley’s greatest icon.

Example #2: Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t the world’s greatest programmer. But he combined his programming skills with his psychology knowledge (he’s a psychology major) and created Facebook.

Example #3: Tim Urban isn’t the best writer, and he’s not the best cartoonist either (c’mon… he draws stick figures). But he’s good enough at both those skills. This allowed him to create the incredibly successful blog, Wait But Why.

“Good + Good > Excellent Successwise, you’re better off being good at two complementary skills than being excellent at one.” — Scott Adams

3. Your Luck

How do you become lucky? With math!

Specifically, the law of large numbers.

The more you do something, the higher the odds of achieving your desired result.

Scott calls this “systems over goals.”

Thanks to “Personal Finance Series,” I have some experience in this department.

Not to tute my own horn, but let’s look at my example (it will show you even a shmuck like me can do something right by following these principles).

Before starting this series, I had two choices:

Have a goal (e.g: I want the series to reach 1,000 followers).

OR

2. Have a system (e.g: Write a blog post a week).

As you already know, I went with option #2.

This allowed me to achieve wayyyyy more than I expected:

Currently 5,200+ people follow the series.

The series gets about 20,000 views a month.

Some posts have been shared on big platforms like Quartz and Startups.co (more coming soon).

Now, imagine I picked option #1.

If all I thought about was gaining 1,000 followers, do you know how much I’d worry about making each blog post perfect??? I would have written once a month or less (probably less).

Instead, I forced myself to put something out every week. This allowed me to: ignore perfection, iterate each week, become a better writer, and reach 5X the amount of people I would have otherwise!

One of my favorite quotes on this topic comes from the writer, Neil Gaiman.

“Assume that you have a million words inside you that are absolute rubbish, and you need to get them out before you get to the good ones.” — Neil Gaiman

Just replace “words” with whatever it is you do (songs, movies, startups, etc…).

When it comes to luck, quantity beats quality.

Sidenote: I say this because quality often comes after quantity (the more you do, the better you’ll get…. I think people call this the 10,000 hour rule).

Do all those things well, and I guarantee you’ll find your passion.

And that’s it for today!

Today, we learned:

“Find your passion” is bad advice.

Passion is overrated.

Passion isn’t a requirement, it’s a byproduct (you’ll be passionate about whatever you’re good at).

Surround yourself with great people.

Don’t try to be the best at one thing. Instead, be good at two or more complementary skills.

To be lucky, use math. The more you do, the higher your odds of succeeding.

See you next week (follow the series here to be notified).

Be well.

R