People say follow your passion. But is it really good advice?
Let’s talk about it.
First, as with every advice we get, it depends on the context or the perspective that you’re adopting. In this case, I want us to talk from the perspective of someone who has bills to pay and can secure a job.
What does “follow your passion” mean when you’re in that position?
Let’s start by acknowledging something you’ve probably heard a hundred times: Follow your passion and you’ll never work a day in your life. It’s one of those popular mantras that comes in many variations. And honestly, a lot of us buy into it.
Personally, I do. I believe in following my passion and doing things that energize me.
We also tend to assume that once you’re on the path of passion, life just gets easier, like your troubles magically shrink or disappear. And part of the reason we hold onto this idea is because of the time we live in. Today, we have the freedom to become almost anything we want. Many of our basic needs are already taken care of.
Think about it, most of us don’t have to worry about where our next meal is coming from, or whether we’ll have a roof over our heads, or if we’ll be attacked by wild animals in the night. These were real concerns for our ancestors. For them, survival came first. Passion wasn’t even on the table.
But for us, those basic threats are mostly out of the way. That’s why we’re able to climb higher on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and why pursuing passion feels like an option, even a right.
Why Passion Emerged as a Priority
Maslow’s hierarchy is a representation of all the needs we have as human beings and the levels they take.
Let me break it down:
- Physiological needs – food, water, rest. When you’re hungry or exhausted, you’re not thinking about self-esteem or belonging. You’re thinking about survival.
- Safety – avoiding pain and danger.
- Love and belonging – the need to feel part of something, to be loved.
- Self-esteem – wanting to be respected, admired, and valued.
- Self-actualization – becoming the best version of yourself.
When you talk about following your passion, what you’re doing is trying to achieve self-actualization, i.e., becoming the best version you can be by following the things that give you energy.
At this point, most of our lower needs are already met. We’re safe, we have friends and family who love us, and we feel respected. So what remains is the desire to be fulfilled. That’s why this idea of following your passion becomes appealing.
Personally, I was brought up in a functional family. I went to good schools and I never really lacked. I think most of us have that kind of background.
And the problem with this kind of upbringing is that it never really exposes us to the other side of the coin; the experience of lacking safety, stability, and those basic physiological needs we’ve talked about.
So, you don’t really see how valuable those things are. And that’s why it becomes easy to overlook them and just decide that you want to do something because it feels right for you.
Now it’s not wrong to want to pursue your passion. But it’s not an easy path. There are two reasons why it’s not easy.
You’re focusing on ‘ME’
You care about what makes you happy and what energizes you. And that’s not inherently bad. But if you’re aiming for success and fulfillment, you won’t get as much by doing things that only serve you.
You get fulfillment from doing things that solve problems for other people. When people benefit from your work, they give back. That’s how value is created.
If you want to make money, you don’t make it by solving your own problems. You make money by solving other people’s problems.
So when you follow your passion, you might be entering a path where it’s harder to succeed or find fulfillment quickly because you’re not yet solving a real, shared problem.
It’s an entrepreneurial path.
You’re building something from scratch. No systems. No structures. And it takes time, a lot of time, and serious effort to create something meaningful.
Now imagine trying to do that while also struggling to meet your basic needs, food, shelter, safety. It’s incredibly hard. The money doesn’t show up as quickly as you thought it would. There’s no financial cushion. That lack of a runway builds frustration. You’re doing what you love, but you can’t even meet your needs. That’s the point where many people give up.
What most people don’t realize is how much it actually takes to turn a passion into something independent and sustainable, something that pays. You think you’ll dive in, give it your all, and in a few months or a year, everything will fall into place. But that’s not how it works.
I had to learn that the hard way. I thought if I just worked on my passion for a few months, I’d get everything I ever wanted. But the truth is, it takes years. It’s long. It’s painful. It’s frustrating. And most of the time, it feels like you’re making very little progress.
So instead of just blindly following your passion, you need to follow it strategically.
And by strategically, I mean three things:
1. Responsibly
You have to keep in mind reality. You can’t follow a passion when you can’t meet your physiological needs.
Don’t neglect practical realities, your finances, your obligations, and your long-term growth. If you have a child or family depending on you, you can’t just quit your job and chase your passion.
You have to be responsible.
2. ‘Blendingly’
This is a word I came up with.It means using the opportunities you currently have and merging them with your passion.
Whatever you’ve studied, whatever job you have, use that to build a foundation and blend in your passion gradually. That job may not be your dream, but it gives you stability. Use that stability to build your passion.
3. Patiently
It’s not about grinding for two or three years and expecting a breakthrough. It might take five, even ten years to build something stable and fulfilling. And during that time, you’ll face doubts. You’ll see others moving ahead, and you’ll wonder if you’re being foolish.
But this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. If you expect quick wins, you’ll get frustrated and quit. Be patient. Trust the process. Build slowly. That’s how passion turns into something real and sustainable.
Now, here’s a simple way to bring all this together. I call it the
Reverse Passion Strategy.
Based on the idea that competency builds passion, this strategy flips the usual script.
Instead of starting with your passion and trying to force everything to fit around it, you let your passion follow opportunity and mastery. By opportunity, I’m talking about what’s already in your hands right now: a job you can do, a skill you can grow, a platform you can build on.
Whatever it is, lean into it. Give it your best. Show up fully.
Because the more you engage with it, the better you get. And as your competence grows, so does your sense of ownership. You start feeling proud of what you can do. That’s where passion begins to take root, not from daydreaming, but from doing.
You don’t think your way into passion. You work your way into it. Passion comes from mastery. Mastery comes from effort. And when you keep showing up and improving, passion catches up.
And here’s the interesting part; passion eventually breeds fulfillment. Fulfillment brings a deep sense of satisfaction. That word satisfaction comes from satis (which means “enough”) and action. It literally means “enough action.”
So if you want to feel passion, stop waiting to be inspired. Start acting. Take the opportunities around you seriously. Put in the reps. Passion isn’t something you find—it’s something you build.
What Passion Looks Like When It’s Real
Every profession has its downsides. No matter how much you love what you do, the moment you start doing it to make money, challenges will show up.
At the bottom of it all, even with your passion, you want it to make money. And once you get to that level, where passion meets pressure, it’s not always fun. So why not start with something that already pays, then build your passion with it?
Also, people start to hate their passions when they can’t commercialize them. This happened to me. I was passionate about writing. I saw other people making money from it and thought I would too.So I followed my passion. But when I couldn’t earn well and sustainably, and I didn’t see how I’d ever get there, it got tough.
If you don’t see results, passion feels like pain. But when you do see results, you’re making money, you’re happy, you’re recognized for it, that’s when it feels real.
Until you get to that level, you might suffer. Personally, I was in that space for a long time. I struggled to feel energy and passion because I wasn’t seeing the outcome.
What We’re Really Chasing
At the end of the day, what we are chasing is fulfillment. We want to make money so we can afford time and freedom to do what we love, things that fill us. So you need to approach this from the reverse way around.
The hack is finding fulfillment from what you already have.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re passionate about what you’re currently doing or not. You need to find a way to be happy doing it as you plan your future and incorporate your passion.
It’s not just about passion. It’s about the opportunities in front of you right now.
You need to balance idealism and realism.
So as you dream, also be real.