By Doing What You Love, Success Will Follow

What an insightful article. Thank you for sharing it.

I've subscribed to that train of though for a while now, the whole "do what you love" philosophy. We all know of people who personify the ideas described in the article, and I have no doubt that there is truth in their stories. But what if you aren't exactly sure what your passion is? That's my hangup with the whole thing. And unfortunately that's the one thing none of the successful people will talk about is how they found what they love that made them so successful to begin with.

 

I'm in Hollywood. I've always been a writer. Now I have one of these companies' Vice President's behind me: Fox, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount, Disney, Universal. I never gave up. I loved what the guy behind the real 'I bought a zoo' said because it's my line of thinking as well. I don't have a plan B and people are beyond skeptical about that - but, to me I'm going to keep on working for plan A to work until it works. Doing what you love gives you the motivation to get ahead and achieve your dreams. I somehow wound up at one of these companies as a boy from a small town with the Vice President saying "I would have loved to buy this, so show me what else you have!" by following this. Basically, giving my example because - it works. Also to those saying "I'm too old" - it's never to late to try.

How do you find what you love that makes you so successful - some of us just inherently know or stumble upon it through some other means. I originally made home movies and from there started to write. Tobey Maguire? He was originally going to be a cook before his mom, I believe, convinced him to try acting. So it might come out of trial and error of trying things. Or it might just come to you early on.

 

I don't really agree.
My two main career goals are to either be a novelist or a cafe owner. The chances of me having a successful career in either two is... rather unlikely, no matter how hard I work.

 

Well, I guess the best thing to do is to take stock of your current options, and take the one that seems like it could be a success story. Might be you hit on a career for life and become wildly successful, might be you don't end up liking it at all. But even in the last case, don't think of that as a failure. Think of it as a useful piece of data tot take into account when planning the next thing.

In short: doing something (anything) is better than waiting for an epiphany.


I will confess that the story strikes a chord with me mainly because it is what worked for me. When I started off in engineering, I knew full well that there were not many local jobs in my area of preference (biochemical engineering). I went on interviews for positions that asked competences significantly above my experience as a mere grad school graduate.
But yet... one company did apparently see something in me and I've been loving what I do ever since (apart from apparently being reasonably good at it: close to 20% of you this week ate food containing ingredients I co-developed!).

If I hadn't found this job... I'd probably have picked the next best thing and kept scouring the job adverts every day, taking any and all experience I could get in the meantime (well, unless the next best thing would turn out to be awesome too)


Obviously, there are limits. Don't spend all of your life savings on a project when you see it's sinking. But even if you end up in a job you don't like, leading a life you don't want, never take it for granted, and stay open to any opportunities that present themselves.

 

I agree that doing what you love will help you be successful, but that isn't the whole reason. Luck is also a huge part of being successful. You need to be lucky enough to be born to a certain status, to know the right people, to be at the right place at the right time. People will see enthusiasm when you do what you love but that alone will not help you in this world.

Example: Many people are good at sports, yet only a few are selected for the top sports teams. People do what they love but they need to get lucky to be successful in their careers.

 

I combined these two for a reason. I mean, I'm in a spot that most would deem impossible. From a small town. Yes, my parents have money which enabled me to get a kick ass internship in Los Angeles which aligned me luckily to the right people. If it was any other company, there is a good chance I wouldn't be saying this right now. But, it was. And if it wasn't? Never giving up would have led me back to them in a circumnavigating way.

That said. Everyone has been telling me how difficult it is. That I shouldn't follow it. That I should grow up and be realistic. If I did that when I was young? I wouldn't have taken that internship. I wouldn't have pursued it. I wouldn't have in a sense made my own luck. I wouldn't be where I am now.

What I'm trying to say is this. You want to be a novelist. The only person standing in your way is you. God's honest truth. You can either give up in this world or go after your dreams no matter how impossible others may deem it to be. Those who give up are guaranteed never to make it, those with a give up attitude are almost guaranteed never to make it. Those with a can-do attitude do. You want to be a novelist? You can be. Luck is a huge part of it, granted, as I've admitted. But if I had given up? I wouldn't have been able to create my own luck.

Basically luck is what you make of it. Sometimes it doesn't work out in your favor. But taking a leap is often better than never taking it at all. I've heard older guys say "if I would have just followed my dreams like you are when I was young, I wouldn't be stuck at this dead end job." I took a leap at something that is impossible - not just being a screenwriter - but one that's affiliated with one of the top companies in existence.

Might sound like I'm rambling now, so, I'll just end it with this:

YOU ARE THE MASTER OF YOUR OWN DESTINY.

When you say something is impossible - it is. When you live as though it's possible - you may just have a chance.

 

You will spend the majority of your waking hours doing what you do to put bread on the table. It is idiotic to do otherwise. If you have chosen to do something for a living that makes you miserable and leaves you feeling unfulfilled, you have chosen to waste the majority of your life, no matter how much money you may have at the end of it. Unless you have something or someone to leave that money to that you truly believe in, it is dust.

 

I agree and this is why I find the way we now live unusual. The human rat race is a waste of time and is essentially pointless. We work for most of our lives in order to pay for our free time. We have made life miserable for ourselves, we either have to get the jobs that make us happy or go through life in misery just so we are able to enjoy our free time. We work away the best days of our lives so we can be happy in our twilight years. It doesn't make much sense at all.

That's just my thoughts on our current way of life.

 

I think with seeing things this way you may be happier with taking more risks in life. I'm not saying live on the brink. But, just take chances. The only way to ensure you don't become an office drone is to either settle down in a job that takes you on adventures or to, safely mind you, live on the edge. You can craft your life into being whatever you want it to be, but the problem is most listen to their elders who say buckle up and grow up. You can be, do, or have whatever lifestyle that makes you the most happiest. Just gotta find the drive. Not necessarily dream job. Just the drive and it all flows from there.

It's just most people don't take chances and do what is safest rather than happiest.
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Spooning sounds fun lol.

 

I am doing what I love with an utter disregard for whether I become successful because of it. I think that is the wrong reason to pursue something.

I recently watched a TED talk by an extremely eccentric Canadian economist on this topic. It's hilarious, uncomfortable and potent: Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career | Video on TED.com

 

its funny how everyone has related success to a means of making money or a job.

it sounds like to me IanGallagher had a passion and that in turn made him successful, i think its better to define success by the amount of happiness you achieve, and not by loving something that will gain you money or a career on the basis of gain, makes better sense that way.

 

/\ I think success is usually defined as professional career. But. That said. My ultimate goal is to attain what I define as happiness or bliss, one even I would chance my career for, is the wife kids and backyard barbecue parties lol. Or for you guys a husband or gals a wife. Ain't no call in life better than being a family man in my opinion. Dream job has brought me some happiness, but even there - I used to think I'd bring me everything - in the end I saw that it was just a job. An awesome job that rocks my world. But, still - what good is any life without someone to share it with? That's the next thing people are telling me is impossible lol. But there's plenty of screenwriters who do have families. Basically saying the real challenge in life is balancing your emotional and professional health and well-being.

 

I'm a bisexual guy who leans towards girls lol.

Unsure how it works over in London, but you might also want to look into "extra" or "background acting" a lot start off there. If I'm not mistaken, Andrew Garfield was an extra in Dr. Who now he's Spider-Man. Plus it's a lot of fun work, I extra-d on Baman. It was cool.

 

seems like a hell of alot of words to say the old addage of: Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life.

I am a avid writer, and currently waiting on a few submissions to literary anthologies, and preparing to jump back into revising a manuscript at the insistance of a few of my professors once I complete my theatre commitments.

It really depends on what you count as the measure of success. Some people would say being a bestseller is where you become successful... others say it is when you get a publisher to publish you (it doesnt count in any way if you pay a publisher to publish you, as they are not publishers, they are glorified printers)... and others say completing a manuscript for a full length novel makes you a success, as how many people see it to the end like that?

 

Well, it's popular to say that, but in a historical perspective, it's still a step up. Not too long ago, the best way of leading your life was to do whatever the local nobleman told you. Which mostly meant working for him, and any free time would be spent on making sure you could survive yourself. You could be happy if you made it to your twilight years, and doubly so if they weren't filled with illness or pain.
you were likely to lose some children to disease, war and famine, if you weren't unlucky enough to be conscripted for war yourself.

Okay, it wasn't all bad, but it wasn't a bucolic wonderland either.



Also: I don't think focusing on a goal is the only way to enjoy doing what you love. Sure, I love what I'm doing right now, but I might have been happy as a historian, or as a journalist. Maybe I'd even make for a good novelist, if I applied myself to it. If your goal isn't attainable, there's no shame in trying your hand at other things and you might be surprised at discovering there's tons of other things to love.