I love this recent thread on Penelope Trunk’s blog (and I love her blog):
“How many people go to law school thinking they are going to represent the underdog and save the world? Thousands. And how many people can pay off law school loans and support a family and save the world? None.
People are making parodies about the save-the-world-types who apply to law school.
Once you get to corporate law, you don’t want to leave. This is what you tell yourself: You will just stay there to pay off your loans. Then you’ll stay there and do pro bono work. Then you tell yourself it’s silly to go to nonprofit law when you can earn so much in a big law firm and just donate the money.
It happens to everyone. It’s arrogant and delusional to think you’ll be the exception.”
So, is it possible to follow your passion successfully in a career? I answer strongly, yes. But it all depends on how you define passion. If you think of passion in terms of your interests (saving the world, sports, art, music), you will likely have a very hard time making a decent living. There’s not a lot of money in those sectors, and this is compounded by an oversupply of people wanting to work in these areas, which further drives compensation down.
But if you think of passion in terms of the challenges that most excite you, the activities day to day that most engage you, than you can absolutely find your way to that job and have a life to boot.
Interests and activities are very different animals, and can lead you toward very different outcomes. When following your passions in a career, look for sign-posts from activities.