We have all heard that phrase, haven’t we?  Follow  your passion and you will never be unhappy with your job.  Mike Rowe may just be my favorite keynote speaker at any NAA Apartmentalize Conference (formerly Education Conference and Expo), and there have been several I have absolutely adored.  His entire speech had me hanging on the edge of my seat in disgust as he detailed out his trip into the sewers of Boston, but this one piece of advice really stuck with me:  Don’t follow your passion.

We have heard the opposite all of our lives:  Follow Your Dreams!  So hearing the opposite sounds just wrong.  But as he dug into the concept, I found myself completely agreeing.  The basic premise was that what we are passionate about doesn’t always match up with what we are actually good at.  So while it might sound great to think that we can all somehow achieve the highest echelons in whatever we happen to choose, that path may not be realistic.  He gave the example of so many American Idol contestants who, no matter the amount of passion they had about their singing career, only could muster a screeching, off-key mess.  For those who will never be able to hit the right pitch, is it really the best advice to advocate that they continue to pursue a career singing?  Suggesting that these poor souls continue to focus on their passion is just not in tune with reality, and it could be damaging as they forego other opportunities that cross their paths.

But his advice wasn’t a dead end of depression, as instead he explained that while following our passion may not be the right choice, we should be taking our passion with us.  In his experience with Dirty Jobs, he has found countless examples of jobs that most people would find horrible, and yet people manage to do them with excitement and fervor.  In other words, they have managed to take their passion into whatever endeavor they approached.  They managed to find joy in the most disgusting, vile positions available, and if they can find a love for foul smelling excrement, then the idea of bringing your passion with you suddenly seems a lot more possible.  It may not have the feel good sense of fairy tales, but it probably ends in a lot more life satisfaction for most people.

I found a similar segment of this lesson below, although a YouTube video never can replace the real deal.  So if you ever have the chance to attend the Apartmentalize Conference, I highly recommend you do.  Because if you had attended, you would have experienced one of the best stories about the sewers I have ever heard in my life.