Follow your Passion or Become Passionate?

“Follow your passion and you will never work a day in your life”

This is probably some of the most common and least helpful advice we hear.

I heard writer and podcaster Scott Gallaway the other day say “The only people who say follow your passion are already rich”  

I spoke on a podcast last year aimed at school leaving age students and I challenged this common advice “follow your passion and never work a day in your life.”  

Instead, my career advice was to find something you find interesting or aligned with your values and then become passionate about it.

“Follow or find your passion” implies that passion is a hidden object waiting to be discovered, when in reality I think becoming passionate is something that is built, shaped over time through curiosity, effort, and reflection. 

Somebody I respect immensely is renowned VC and Benchmark Partner Bill Gurley. If you have not heard of him, I would encourage you to listen to some of his talks on YouTube especially this one.  Bill’s question that he poses to help define your passion is “What do you spend time doing and learning in your downtime?”

In addition to Bill Gurleys, questions such as the following also help define passion - 

What problems do I enjoy thinking about?

When do I lose track of time?

What topics do I return to repeatedly?

What type of work leaves me energised rather than depleted?

Well, the answer to those questions for me and how I spent the Christmas break was  re-reading a number of things about Boardcraft from @Patrick Dunne and Strategy and Value Creation from @Jon Andrews and preparing for 2026 in order to focus on personal development and be better at what I do.  

Some may say this is sad at Christmas time but I would say this is definitely something I have become passionate about and thoroughly enjoy.

Building further on this, if you are a CEO I would strongly advise you to become passionate about serving your customers and developing your team to do the best work of their lives. 

In addition, if you are in a commercial customer facing role, I am a great believer that if you become passionate about the history of your industry and invest time to study it this becomes a competitive advantage. 

Why? Well, it is highly likely that your customers are also at the very least very interested and probably passionate about your industry.  In a sales situation I have found that customers love discussing the history of their industry and learning from you or debating an issue.  I found it allows you to have very different conversations, building strong relationships for the future.  

At this time of new year, where many of us are reflecting on the past and planning the future.  Whatever your role, I would encourage you to ask yourself the questions above. Ask yourself if you are passionate about delighting your customers and developing your team? How well do you know your industry and do you invest time to study it?

As ever, I would be very interested in your thoughts.

Happy new year!