Maybe It Doesn't Have To Be Either Skills or Passion

I was having a conversation with my partner yesterday around passion. She was struggling with her next steps because she didn't know what her passion was. That conversation reminded me of so many other similar conversations I've had with people. It also reminded me of a book by Cal Newport called So Good They Can't Ignore You.

The premise of the book was that following your passion is bad advice and instead, to build up your skills which will ultimately lead you to living a fulfilled life. Or something like that.

Anyway, I then started walking her through my decisions that I've made so far in life. And after I gave the whole breakdown, I realised that it can become a blog piece that should be shared. After all, I didn't fall into the follow your passion path. Nor did I go down the forget passion, just build your skills. I was somewhere in between...

But before I get into the weeds, please keep in mind that it's only really been 4 years since I've had to navigate the whole passion vs "real life" conversation (AKA 4 years since I've graduated).

So, how did this all work out_

I graduated from university 4 years ago. In the last 2 years of uni, I was living the follow your passion life (it's hard not to when you were heavily involved with AIESEC). After graduating, I didn't want to just get a job. I had an idea of a business that I had started working on nearing the end of my uni days and wanted to continue pursuing that.

And so I did. I continued having conversations with people who might be interested in the idea. It was a lot of fun. But when it came to getting commitment from someone, they backed out.

And that's when I also started losing interest.

You see, I'm the type of person who loves creating. But unless I have someone to bounce that energy off of, it eventually dies off.

In other words, the "passion" had died.

With no other reason to stay unemployed, I started looking for a job.

Being someone who had the opportunity to work for different companies throughout university, I knew what I didn't want. Also, being someone who had been heavily involved with AIESEC, I knew that I wanted to work for a company where if I excel at, society would also become better.

And so, after scanning through the different opportunities available, I applied to only one job that I could connect with. The job was with an education technology company and the role was in sales.

I figured if I could get good in the role, that more companies would buy the software which meant more students were being positively impacted. Plus, sales seemed like a great skill to learn as it's super transferable.

Having some sales experience from AIESEC, I knew that I had the upper hand compared to other recent graduates.

Within a month later, I had landed the job.

I spent the first 4 months learning the foundations and another 12 months refining my skills. It didn't take long for me to become the top performer within the team.

But due to internal politics, I had lost interest in being at the company. My want to explore my "passion" had started building up and so I left the company after 16 months.

After leaving, I applied to go through a startup program with another idea that I had. One of my mentors also suggested that I talk to someone he knew because our interests were aligned. And after talking to him, I realised that his vision was far bigger than mine. And so I decided to work for his company.

This time, the role I had was more of a hybrid of sales and marketing. I figured it'd be a great place for me. The sales part I was pretty confident about and I did do quite a bit of marketing from my AIESEC days. Plus, the more I could learn how to do B2C sales (by using different marketing channels), I would be able to improve more people's quality of life and at the same time, be able to gain some very useful skills for myself.

4 months later, I was let go.

Luckily, I had been able to qualify for Canada's unemployment insurance which would pay me enough money for me to get back on my feet for up to 11 months or so.

So what did I do after that incident?

I decided to continue exploring my passion.

I spent the first 3 months renovating the basement of my house (which I had bought 6 months into my first job).

Realising that I really enjoyed creating, I spent the next month writing daily to what I thought would be a book.

From there, I realised that the content in the book was good, but there was no way to get it in front of people. That's when I decided to the book into a blog.

During the next few months, I continued to write more for the blog and at the same time, continued to learn how to get more eyeballs onto the blog. In other words, I started to learn how to market it (via SEO).

It seemed like I was starting to find things I really enjoyed.

But that wasn't all that was happening.

After being let go from the job, I was starting to think what exactly it was I wanted to do next. The idea of living abroad had been instilled in me through my AIESEC days and was something I really wanted to experience. Having no real commitments holding me back, I decided that I was going to do that.

I also reflected on my first 18 months of work. More particularly, I focused on what I didn't enjoy about it. I didn't enjoy being held back from what I believed was my true potential (which is why I have a whole thing about being worth more than what people think). I didn't enjoy working with people who didn't seem to have aspirations for themselves or for the world. And I definitely didn't enjoy having to deal with people's ego.

Which led me to become clearer on what the next company should be like.

It should have people who want to see me as successful as I can be. It should have people who were actively trying to create their ideal future. And it should definitely not have people who prioritize their ego over the team.

That's when I remembered that there was a company called Mindvally, which seemed to have fit all the criteria I had.

I started off by applying for a copywriting role (once again, thinking that it'd be valuable for me to have the skills in), but was offered a role on the customer support side. I knew there were things to learn there, and also believed it would be a lot easier to move internally. So I took it.

Fast forward 18 months, I am still at the company. As always, I continue to go into teams where I knew that the skills gained from there would be able to benefit me in the future (in this case, paid advertising).

But more importantly, I continue to connect with people that I enjoy being around. I continue to get all the resources I want to grow personally and professionally, and I do not have to deal with anyone who prioritizes their ego above the team.

I also get to do much more traveling than I had initially expected. Since joining, I've traveled for at least 4 months to almost 10 countries. Definitely getting my living abroad experience.

So where did the passion go?

Well, I'm still doing what I'm passionate about - financial literacy - daily. In fact, once I got here to Malaysia, I created a Malaysian version of the personal finance site and have been building it on the side over the past year. It continues to grow bigger and bigger and I believe that this year it'll explode.

In fact, I've started partnering with financial advisors to help people get a financial roadmap created for themselves.

I've also partnered with another financial planner after I was told about a product that essentially gives women free insurance.

In other words, I'm living a life that I'm very happy with and I know it's only getting better.

Which brings us to the final part - how can you do something similar?

I believe there were a few values that stayed consistent which helped me constantly move forward.

The first one was that I was clear about the type of company that I wanted to work with. All the companies were tackling big issues faced by society. And I knew that by excelling in those companies, I was also making society a little better.

Which leads to the next part. All the roles I've taken have been in areas where I knew would continue to expand my options in the future. There was always going to be a demand for the skills. And I can become so good, that they can't ignore me (see what I did there?)

Finally, when it came to passion, I gave myself a lot of space to explore, to be curious. And when it became something that has substance, I continued to work on it on the side.

And when the day comes where this passion project becomes bigger than a part time gig, I know I will have many skills that I have accumulated from my full time job to help grow it even bigger.

So maybe the question isn't skill or passion, but rather, how can you develop and discover them both simultaneously.