Jeff Haden in his article tries to debunk the myth of following our passion. He said that it is easy to feel passionate about your goals until you are no longer passionate about it. People always confuse their hobby or interest with passion. According to him, a passion which can turn into a career is rare. I think the main them of the article is to enable one to differentiate passion from a hobby or a career option. He made the distinction between a job, a career, and a calling (Haden, 2012, paragraph 15). Jobs pay bills; careers are basically paths that lead to increasingly better work; while a calling is work that is an important part of one’s life or identity. It is not necessary for one’s passion to be his calling at the same time. He also mentioned that one can create his passion by working hard at an interesting job. The harder a person works for his job, the more positive feedback he can get and it, in turn, will convert his interest into a passion (Haden, 2012, paragraph 18). The author of this paper theorizes, as Haden reiterated in his writings, that working hard and obtaining the necessary skills (to perform better) on a specific job is the correct recipe behind growing a passion and not the other way around.
While there is a difference between a passion and a hobby, there were certain unacceptable arguments that Haden made in his writing. For one, Haden’s view on passion appears to be too materialistic, superficial even. He views passion as nothing but a mere recipe for starting a career path or establishing a business. He violates the fact that passion is and must be seen as something that is different from work or its various dimensions. His view on passion and hobby distorts the fine line between the two and he also frequently jumps on either side whenever he makes one point. That, in turn, causes confusion, as to which side of the argument he is really in. Haden mentioned that converting one’s passion into a full-fledged business takes time and this is something that is easily agreeable. However, the part when he said that one has to work hard and continuously receive positive feedback for him to love his job and make it his passion is unacceptable. This is because a person who sees his job or business as a passion would disregard the presence or lack of feedback and still continue accomplishing each milestone until he reaches the finish line. A person who truly wants to become an engineer would not mind the time required for him to work hard or how much (or little) appreciate he would receive along the way.
Steve Jobs (2005), the late former CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar (two of the most valuable companies in their respective industry), on the other hand, said that an individual should always go pursue his dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks, including death itself . Jobs delivered the said lines during his speech at Stanford University’s commencement exercises. What Jobs offers in this case is a unique point of view of what one should really do with his life. Death is the universe’s great equalizer. It is a constant reminder that time is not limitless and that a person cannot afford to procrastinate forever before working hard in order to realize his goals or fulfill his passion. Steve Jobs experienced being in a position where he can clearly assess everything—what he did in the past and what he can still do in the future with the little amount of time remaining for him to breathe. The words of a dying man can never be truer and more brilliant. When one is about to die, he often makes a lot of realization and to me, what Jobs said about what one should do and how one should live for as long as he is living (that is without a terminal illness like his) is golden and true. Life’s setbacks are nothing but mere setbacks. A person who has the ethics of a hard worker and the perseverance of a man who is nearly out of time to reach his end goal would make up the perfect recipe for success. Now, put in the passion to succeed and there would already be no reason for that person to fail.
In conclusion, what Jobs said about how one should live (before he dies) and Haden’s concept of hard work and passion must be combined in order to create the perfect recipe for success. I firmly believe in the concept of passion. Yes, passion requires hard work to become successful but hard work alone without passion or interest in that field amounts to and would lead to nothing. Wisdom is also important. In my case, I intend to use all these three (passion, wisdom, and hard work) to learn computer science and I will do anything to excel in that field because I believe that this is my personal calling.
References
Haden, J. (2012). Do What you Love? Screw That. Inc, http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/worst-career-advice-do-what-you-love.html.
Jobs, S. (2005). How to live before you die. Ted.com, https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.
