Like me, if you had well-meaning parents, they probably told you that you could be anything you wanted when you grow up.  When I was a kid, I remember wanting to be everything from an astronaut to Captain American and the President, which was cool when I was younger. But by about 13 years old, your skills should be shaped toward a more focused direction.  However, for most of us, the advice we are given for our adult life is not much better.

The Twin Towers of Bad Advice

There is a recognizable difference between good advice and bad advice.  Good advice applies perfectly to the situation at hand and delivers desired results most of the time. Bad Advice might not apply to the given situation and is undoubtedly bad if it does not produce promised results.  The twin towers of bad advice, if followed literally, advice always fail.  This is, of course, “Do what you love” and “Follow your passion.” This advice is garbage. No matter how much you love eating ice cream on your back porch, no group of consumers is willing to pay you to do it.  This might be a silly example, but the same is true, so some people’s passion for dancing to bagpipe music, Jim’s poorly drawn artwork, and Jill’s handmade cat mittens.  What you love and or passion is not enough to supplant market demands, valid business models, and the principles of a market economy. Therefore, the twin towers are terrible advice.  If your passion is not marketable and in-demand first, following it is a grave mistake.  I think Mark Cuban, a billionaire,  says it best “One of the great lies of life is ‘follow your passions.’ Follow your passion is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get.”

All Eyez On Me

The problem with following your passion and doing what you love is inherent selfishness.  If your business is all about you and what you love, you are your customer base.  You are channeling 2Pac “Live the life of a boss player, All eyes on me.” When you use the Twin Towers as a guide for life, you abnegate any fiduciary duties and replace them with self-serving motives. This career of following your passion is often no different from being at a grocery store and grabbing an arm full of chicken nugget samples in those plastic shot cups. Nobody cares about your passion, to put a fine point on this concept.  The market is far more self-centered than you. So, if your passion does not solve people’s problems, your passion will not pay the bills.

Be A Problem Solver

Does a market exist for what you love? Does what you love fulfill a need? Most often, the answer is no. There is no market for off-key singing. And your passion for singing will not make anyone want to pay for your screeching. Does what you love solve a problem for many people? You loving baking will not make your couscous and cranberry muffins taste good to anyone.  But if you make something of value and can communicate that value, you will succeed. Whether you love what you do or not.  Fill a need for many people, and riches will follow. Follow a path that makes other people’s lives better. Success has a much chance of happening when you add value than when you follow the course of the twin towers.

Dollaz and Sense

Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life, might be accurate, but most people who blindly follow this advice have trouble eating every day.  In the words of another 90’s rapper DJ Quik “if it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.” If you listen to the world’s worst advice and follow your passion, please do yourself a favor and answer three questions:

1. What problem do you solve for people?
2. How many people have this problem?
3. Why should people use you instead of everyone else doing the same thing?

If you have a solid answer to these questions, success is not guaranteed, but if do you do not, failure will follow until you do.  

Go Get It

Gentlemen, as we know, the world will not just hand you success; you must go earn it.  The good thing is that most people are not even looking to make a mark on the world.  So really the competition is few, but the competition is tough.  People will try to distract with the easy, feel-good route that ends in frustration and loss. Success is a product of how many people lives you affect or how much you impact the lives you touch.  Success happens to you because of what you do for people who are not you.  The twin towers of bad advice focus on making yourself happy, precisely in the wrong direction. When you find frustration, headaches, bad customer service, or solutions that cover but do not solve existing problems, you have an opportunity to add value.  This is where your success lies. Gentlemen identify that problem then cast that solution onto the world.  Success is yours for the taking. Go get it.