Passion, a Myth?

You know how they tell you to follow your dream? To do what excites you? Or, if that’s not possible, be passionate about what you do. Gets to you, doesn’t it, especially since most people are stuck in, well, boring jobs?

Guess what, all that hype about passion might all be, well, hype. Sure, there may be a handful of people who did follow their heart and became hugely successful, but they are such a microscopic minority that it would be very risky to try that course.

Or so Scott Adams would have us believe.

So what are Adams’ reasons behind his assertion? For one, he argues that passion (often) blinds you to reality. Which, more often than not, will lead to disaster. Of course, it’s passion and being somewhat blind to the obstacles that produces outcomes that change the world. But the success rate for passionate people is low.

Of course, this being Adams, he suspects a cynical reason as to why many successful people talk about passion:
“Naturally those successful people want you to believe that success is a product of their awesomeness, but they also want to retain some humility. One can't be humble and say, "I succeeded because I am far smarter than the average person." But you can say your passion was a key to your success, because everyone can be passionate about something or other, right?”

Oh, the odious social norm that prevents us from bragging! And the lies we speak to be humble and politically correct!

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