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I have a problem with MJ DeMarco (Follow your passion gets a beatdown)

just10

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First of all I have read the Fastlane Millionaire every year for the past 3 years or so. I love the book. And yes I already order Unscripted I'm still waiting for it in the mail.

I respect MJ DeMarco and his work but since the the first time I read his book I can't get over the fact that he says that money is more important than your passion. That doing what you love will not make you rich.

Imagine you're on your deathbed sweaty, nervous, trying your best to stay awake because you know that as soon as you go to sleep that will be the last time you close your eyes. You're dying on a 24k gold bedframe. But you don't care nor notice all that, you keep going back to that one thing you always wanted to be. A guitarist.

That was your dream and what you enjoyed most. But it wasn't paying the bills or putting food on the table. Nobody was buying your music either because they were been torrented. Yet you still enjoyed yourself and could survive off ramen noodles as long as your guitar was properly tuned.

But the pressure from your family to provide food and shelter made you take a detour on your dream. That detour led to riches but it also robbed you of your time with your precious guitar. Yet everytime you saw your dusty guitar in the coner of your room you told yourself next week I'll have free time to play. But you never did.

And yes I know money can buy you some good guitar lessons, your own record label, and even a recording studio. But unless you're Fastlane it won't give you time. So you either choose to strive to be rich or to follow your passion. Comfort in life or regret while dying.

Both passion and riches are essential for your life so is it possible to combine them both? Or are we forever force to decide for either or?

By focusing on what there is a demand for and what can make you money you can gain free time to focus on guitar or whatever your passion is without worrying if it will make money. Like MJ's example with free time allowing him to get back into piano.
 
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Iammelissamoore

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all of the world's top businessmen, from Elon Musk to Warren Buffett to Jeff Bezos
So lemme guess, if all of the world's top businessmen, from Elon Musk to Warren Buffet to Jeff Bezos tells you to hop off a cliff on one foot, you'd do it without questioning it simply because they - these world's top businessmen - said to do it? Many business people say to do a lot of things, yet, when scrutinizing how they built their wealth it's another story. Passion, isn't 100% a horrible thing - no it isn't, but, Passion is not usually the only principle these businesspeople would have used to get ahead in success. The problem we have isn't that they say passion guarantees millions, the problem is that alone isn't enough. However, who am I to say, after all - do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life!

Passion arises from success: you win at something, winning is pleasurable, so you like that thing a little more.

"Passion is the biggest lie to every entrepreneur" - Mark Cuban
44:05 in the interview.

Reprinted on Medium...
Chapter 29 on UNSCRIPTED

Beware! The Wonder Twins of Epically Bad Life Advice

""In 2005, Steve Jobs gave a legendary commencement speech at Stanford University. He echoed over and over, “Love what you do.” The now-famous statement has morphed into its syrupy cousin, “Do what you love.” And every time I hear it, I lose another millimeter off my molars.

Jobs’s universally accepted maxim exemplifies just how impervious a misinterpreted sound bite can become when eulogized literally — unite a survivor bias and narrative fallacy together and, wham, you get horrific life advice incontrovertibly ordained. And suddenly hordes of people want to jump off a building because someone famous told them to.

But wait, there’s more.

Do what you love” also has a twin: the pithy proverb “Follow your passion.” Again, another perilous dose of direction, usually dispensed by unknown bloggers with unknown track records who unknowingly don’t know the theology is hogwash.


Put ’em together and what you get is The Wonder Twins of Epically Bad Life Advice.""
 

Iammelissamoore

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Way over thinking this "do what you love" stuff guys...

The common theme with the Elon Musk's and Steve Jobs' of the world? They filled a NEED. (Or several)

Of course those people love what they do, they are in (or were, in Jobs' case) a positive feedback loop from providing tremendous value to the world.

If "do what you love" coincides with a need that you can fill, great...do it. But for the vast majority of people that isn't the case and only leads to failure from starting a business on the premise of "I love doing this so much that people should pay me to do it"

And Steve Jobs understood that having a passion for being the best and providing more value than anyone else was followed by money.

I mean, the early days of Apple are one of the best examples of a productocracy on the planet, and all people got out of Jobs' example was "do what you love"??
Yessssss, you said it - virtual hug sent your way!
 

MJ DeMarco

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Of course those people love what they do, they are in (or were, in Jobs' case) a positive feedback loop from providing tremendous value to the world.

Bingo.

I'm passionate about singing.

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

The club owner tells me to get lost and never come again.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll try my church!

I audition but my church does NOT select me for the choir or the vocal team.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll try YouTube!

I post a singing video and it gets no likes, all downvotes, and a lot of bad comments.

I repeat the cycle for months.

No one likes my shit.

And now the big question is...

Am I still passionate?

Am I being interviewed by TMZ telling everyone to follow their passion?

Last time I checked, though, none of them was a billionnaire.

Billionaires Cuban and Andreseen both said that the advice is destructive. As for Buffett, I don't believe a damn thing the dribbles out his mouth.

mean, the early days of Apple are one of the best examples of a productocracy on the planet, and all people got out of Jobs' example was "do what you love"??

Yes, because that is emotional and not logical. It gives young people the mental ammunition to play video games, baseball, and various other "loved" pursuits in hopes that someone will pay them millions to do so.

Telling youngsters that life is tough and not filled with "love" is not a pill people want to swallow.

Some people are lucky that they have talent in their passion which also happens to bring value to others i.e. LeBron James and Justin Bieber. And there are people like Elon Musk who are extremely intelligent which allows them to figure things out pretty quickly and dominate areas within Tech.But for most of us who aren't talented in our passion and aren't blessed with extreme intelligence, we have to do things we don't enjoy. We have to use the passion that comes from overcoming the challenge of doing something we don't enjoy to keep us moving forward. I've had a hard time coming to terms with this reality but it's the only one that has worked well for me so far. Life's not fair and only those who can adapt quickly can survive and thrive.

Great take from Felix Dennis. (Another billionaire?)

Telling people to follow your passion because Bezos and Buffett said so is like telling people to play the lottery because a few people won the Powerball.

Yea, OK.
 
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jsk29

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If you can be dissuaded from chasing your "passion" by other peoples' opinions, you're unlikely to persist through the struggles anyway.

Either go all the way in the likes of Orwell, Gogh, Nietzsche, etc.

Or choose a path with less variance and higher probability of success.
 

MJ DeMarco

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@Longinus posted this in the media section... (thanks!)

Relevant to this thread...

full


full
 

Lionhearted

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Bingo.

I'm passionate about singing.

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

I go on stage and get booed off.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll keep trying!

The club owner tells me to get lost and never come again.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll try my church!

I audition but my church does NOT select me for the choir or the vocal team.

But I'm passionate about singing, I'll try YouTube!

I post a singing video and it gets no likes, all downvotes, and a lot of bad comments.

I repeat the cycle for months.

No one likes my shit.

And now the big question is...

Am I still passionate?

Am I being interviewed by TMZ telling everyone to follow their passion?



Billionaires Cuban and Andreseen both said that the advice is destructive. As for Buffett, I don't believe a damn thing the dribbles out his mouth.



Yes, because that is emotional and not logical. It gives young people the mental ammunition to play video games, baseball, and various other "loved" pursuits in hopes that someone will pay them millions to do so.

Telling youngsters that life is tough and not filled with "love" is not a pill people want to swallow.



Great take from Felix Dennis. (Another billionaire?)

Telling people to follow your passion because Bezos and Buffett said so is like telling people to play the lottery because a few people won the Powerball.

Yea, OK.
100% Agree with you here MJ.
It's easy to say,"Follow your passion when you are a billionaire!" You can afford to waste millions on useless passions like a passion for sunbathing on the French Riviera watching topless ladies! Yea follow your passion! Right.
I like what Grant Cardone said about this,"The reason you don't like what you do or don't have passion for it is because you SUCK AT IT!" Master what you do and you will have a passion for it. BTW I do NOT think this applies to bottle cap collecting or underwater basket weaving but you never know, if you are creative enough I am sure you can even make those things pay. All the best.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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The reason you don't like what you do or don't have passion for it is because you SUCK AT IT!" Master what you do and you will have a passion for it.

True dat, plus the echo of the market loving what you do, and you will love what you do.

You can't stay passionate about X when the world hates how you do X.

We are better off pursuing passionate interests without the validation of the world and/or money.
 

AFMKelvin

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True dat, plus the echo of the market loving what you do, and you will love what you do.

You can't stay passionate about X when the world hates how you do X.

We are better off pursuing passionate interests without the validation of the world and/or money.

O.K everything you wrote sounds good. And I'll go ahead and come clean the whole follow your passion idea for me came from reading the Baghavad Gita when I was younger. The central teaching is that you must do your duty for it's own sake not thinking about the outcome. So it lead me to believe that it translated to follow your passion because a passion you do it because you enjoy doing it, not for it's results. The whole point of the entrepeneur is working on something for the results it'll give him later.
 

Conrad B

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First of all I have read the Fastlane Millionaire every year for the past 3 years or so. I love the book. And yes I already order Unscripted I'm still waiting for it in the mail.

I respect MJ DeMarco and his work but since the the first time I read his book I can't get over the fact that he says that money is more important than your passion. That doing what you love will not make you rich.

Imagine you're on your deathbed sweaty, nervous, trying your best to stay awake because you know that as soon as you go to sleep that will be the last time you close your eyes. You're dying on a 24k gold bedframe. But you don't care nor notice all that, you keep going back to that one thing you always wanted to be. A guitarist.

That was your dream and what you enjoyed most. But it wasn't paying the bills or putting food on the table. Nobody was buying your music either because they were been torrented. Yet you still enjoyed yourself and could survive off ramen noodles as long as your guitar was properly tuned.

But the pressure from your family to provide food and shelter made you take a detour on your dream. That detour led to riches but it also robbed you of your time with your precious guitar. Yet everytime you saw your dusty guitar in the coner of your room you told yourself next week I'll have free time to play. But you never did.

And yes I know money can buy you some good guitar lessons, your own record label, and even a recording studio. But unless you're Fastlane it won't give you time. So you either choose to strive to be rich or to follow your passion. Comfort in life or regret while dying.

Both passion and riches are essential for your life so is it possible to combine them both? Or are we forever force to decide for either or?
@kelvinfernandezm , you make a valid point, but only from the "slowlane" perspective of things. If you indeed have read the Fastlane - every year for the past three years, if I read that correctly - then it seems you've had a blind spot for one of the most important principles of the Fastlane.

Let me try to explain this as briefly and plainly as I can. I'm new, so I'll shout out to @MJ DeMarco while I'm at it.

The one thing better than having fun with family, the one thing better than playing a properly tuned guitar, the one thing better than eating ramen noodles (there's probably a million things better here, to be fair), the one thing better than engaging your passion; is doing all these things while wealthy; doing all these without financial pressure; doing all this when your time is independent of your income; when money is not a factor.

We do not have to choose either passion or riches. Leave that "tough" decision for the slowlaners. Your goal as Fastlaner, is to strategically have it all. Sacrifice everything else including your passion for a while, achieve financial freedom, and once money is no longer an issue, follow and enjoy your passion, forever.

If you, for instance, discover at 19 that you're madly passionate about playing guitar, where's the harm in putting that guitar aside for the next 5 to 10 years, doing every thing in your power to pursue and achieve financial freedom, then picking that guitar back up at 24 or 29, dusting it (with teary eyes), and then proceeding to have a lifetime of guitar-playing, ramen noodle eating and fun with friends and family?!

The idea is to know your goal, your destination, and to be certain of this,lest you get lost in the traffic!
 
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SirPsychoSexy

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The "Follow your passion" credo is as old and boring as the concept of love. These shits are fairy tales: you're not supposed to believe in them past your 20s. I mean, even talented people struggle to make it because art is a commoditized product now. It's mass consumption. Producing your EP, publishing it on Soundcloud (RIP), and trying to become millionaire with it is like growing your tomatoes in your garden, making ketchup with it, and trying to become the new Heinz.
 

TheFrancophile

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Telling people to follow your passion because Bezos and Buffett said so is like telling people to play the lottery because a few people won the Powerball.

No, MJ, it isn't. There is absolutely NO logic at all to your argument. What you're saying is a non sequitur.

What I'm saying is that the vast majority (if not all) of the world's self-made billionnaires became super rich by following their passions and connecting them to profitable business projects which met previously-unmet (or poorly met) human needs (although in Tesla's case, there was absolutely NO need for electric cars - gas- and diesel-powered ones were doing just fine and most people thought, and still think, that electric cars are just an expensive boondoogle).

The vast majority of these self-made men openly say so (a few do not), and contrary to what some people have said on this thread, those billionnaires have NO interest in misleading people, bc they are far, far more successful than anyone listening to them will ever be.

And they're not just Bezos and Buffett, they're also Jobs (RIP), Gates, Musk, VP, Zuckerberg, Paphitis, etc. etc. etc.

Being passionate about what one is doing IS necessary for a very important reason, already evoked by Steve Jobs : building and running a business is very hard, so much so that most people will quit when the times are hard. Only the truly passionate (indeed, obsessed) ones will stay and keep fighting no matter what happens - because for them, it's not just about money or meeting "the market's needs", it's about something much more important - their deepest passion and what they believe to be their purpose in life.

A truly correct analogy in this case would be to compare a businessman lacking passion for his business to a soldier who lacks the motivation to fight. He might have up-to-date precise information about the enemy and the weapons to defeat him, but if he lacks the willingness to fight, he will not fight. Period. As Napoleon has said, the moral factor is even more important than physical factors.

As for your analogy to someone being booed off stage and then rejected by the local church, etc., Mark Cuban is instructive here. Cuban says (as does Trump) that one should NEVER give up, no matter how often one is rejected, because you don't have to be right all of the time, only once in your life.

There's actually a somewhat similar, real-life story about a female Canadian singer. As a girl, she sang in the church choir and then her family send her recordings to some agents, hoping that their daughter would get a chance to perform before one of them. No response. So they called one of those agents and DEMANDED a hearing. She performed well, and now she's one of the world's most famous singers. I'm talking, of course, about Celine Dion.

Jack Ma (the founder of Alibaba) was rejected many times by the Chinese police, by department stores, and 10 times by Harvard (yes, ten times!). Myself, I've been rejected by the vast majority of the French universities I've applied to. But I've been admitted to a few others, and voila, in September, I'm going to France to study :)

Your story, as told in your own book, MJ, is even more instructive : by your own admission, all of your early (Chicago-era) business ventures failed or made miserable profits. Yet, you kept trying, and eventually, you succeeded. And I don't believe for a second that you acted solely to meet some business need, irrespective of your passions. It's clear from all your writings that you have an enormous passion for cars and for running businesses.

Anyone trying to succeed in any venture in life will fail/be rejected many times before finally succeeding. It's the passionate, motivated person who will eventually succeed. Others will quit. It's as simple as that.
 

AndrewNC

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No, MJ, it isn't. There is absolutely NO logic at all to your argument. What you're saying is a non sequitur.

What I'm saying is that the vast majority (if not all) of the world's self-made billionnaires became super rich by following their passions and connecting them to profitable business projects which met previously-unmet (or poorly met) human needs (although in Tesla's case, there was absolutely NO need for electric cars - gas- and diesel-powered ones were doing just fine and most people thought, and still think, that electric cars are just an expensive boondoogle).

The vast majority of these self-made men openly say so (a few do not), and contrary to what some people have said on this thread, those billionnaires have NO interest in misleading people, bc they are far, far more successful than anyone listening to them will ever be.

And they're not just Bezos and Buffett, they're also Jobs (RIP), Gates, Musk, VP, Zuckerberg, Paphitis, etc. etc. etc.

Being passionate about what one is doing IS necessary for a very important reason, already evoked by Steve Jobs : building and running a business is very hard, so much so that most people will quit when the times are hard. Only the truly passionate (indeed, obsessed) ones will stay and keep fighting no matter what happens - because for them, it's not just about money or meeting "the market's needs", it's about something much more important - their deepest passion and what they believe to be their purpose in life.

A truly correct analogy in this case would be to compare a businessman lacking passion for his business to a soldier who lacks the motivation to fight. He might have up-to-date precise information about the enemy and the weapons to defeat him, but if he lacks the willingness to fight, he will not fight. Period. As Napoleon has said, the moral factor is even more important than physical factors.

As for your analogy to someone being booed off stage and then rejected by the local church, etc., Mark Cuban is instructive here. Cuban says (as does Trump) that one should NEVER give up, no matter how often one is rejected, because you don't have to be right all of the time, only once in your life.

There's actually a somewhat similar, real-life story about a female Canadian singer. As a girl, she sang in the church choir and then her family send her recordings to some agents, hoping that their daughter would get a chance to perform before one of them. No response. So they called one of those agents and DEMANDED a hearing. She performed well, and now she's one of the world's most famous singers. I'm talking, of course, about Celine Dion.

Jack Ma (the founder of Alibaba) was rejected many times by the Chinese police, by department stores, and 10 times by Harvard (yes, ten times!). Myself, I've been rejected by the vast majority of the French universities I've applied to. But I've been admitted to a few others, and voila, in September, I'm going to France to study :)

Your story, as told in your own book, MJ, is even more instructive : by your own admission, all of your early (Chicago-era) business ventures failed or made miserable profits. Yet, you kept trying, and eventually, you succeeded. And I don't believe for a second that you acted solely to meet some business need, irrespective of your passions. It's clear from all your writings that you have an enormous passion for cars and for running businesses.

Anyone trying to succeed in any venture in life will fail/be rejected many times before finally succeeding. It's the passionate, motivated person who will eventually succeed. Others will quit. It's as simple as that.

Did anyone else literally hear a mic drop at the end of this?

*Grabs the popcorn*
 
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SquatchMan

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Anyone trying to succeed in any venture in life will fail/be rejected many times before finally succeeding. It's the passionate, motivated person who will eventually succeed. Others will quit. It's as simple as that.

Ironic that you advise others to follow their passions when from your intro:

By contrast, I was an excellent History student and graduated with top grades... and useless degrees that didn't help me at all find a job. Once I graduated, it was very hard to find ANY job, even the most meagerly paid one. So I had to work as a telemarketer, a door-to-door salesman (and later as a store employee) for telecomm providers, and concurrently as a waiter.

How did following your passion working out?

Edit: It literally proves the point that blindly following your passion is bad advice. If your passion is in an industry with unmet needs, then that is a different story, which is the point that we (and you) are trying to make.

(I was history major in university too. I think it's a great major.)
 
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Raoul Duke

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MJ DeMarco

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What you're saying is a non sequitur.

What I'm saying is that the vast majority (if not all) of the world's self-made billionnaires became super rich by following their passions and connecting them to profitable business projects which met previously-unmet (or poorly met) human needs (although in Tesla's case, there was absolutely NO need for electric cars - gas- and diesel-powered ones were doing just fine and most people thought, and still think, that electric cars are just an expensive boondoogle).

The vast majority of these self-made men openly say so (a few do not), and contrary to what some people have said on this thread, those billionnaires have NO interest in misleading people, bc they are far, far more successful than anyone listening to them will ever be.

And they're not just Bezos and Buffett, they're also Jobs (RIP), Gates, Musk, VP, Zuckerberg, Paphitis, etc. etc. etc.

Being passionate about what one is doing IS necessary for a very important reason, already evoked by Steve Jobs : building and running a business is very hard, so much so that most people will quit when the times are hard. Only the truly passionate (indeed, obsessed) ones will stay and keep fighting no matter what happens - because for them, it's not just about money or meeting "the market's needs", it's about something much more important - their deepest passion and what they believe to be their purpose in life.

A truly correct analogy in this case would be to compare a businessman lacking passion for his business to a soldier who lacks the motivation to fight. He might have up-to-date precise information about the enemy and the weapons to defeat him, but if he lacks the willingness to fight, he will not fight. Period. As Napoleon has said, the moral factor is even more important than physical factors.

As for your analogy to someone being booed off stage and then rejected by the local church, etc., Mark Cuban is instructive here. Cuban says (as does Trump) that one should NEVER give up, no matter how often one is rejected, because you don't have to be right all of the time, only once in your life.

There's actually a somewhat similar, real-life story about a female Canadian singer. As a girl, she sang in the church choir and then her family send her recordings to some agents, hoping that their daughter would get a chance to perform before one of them. No response. So they called one of those agents and DEMANDED a hearing. She performed well, and now she's one of the world's most famous singers. I'm talking, of course, about Celine Dion.

Jack Ma (the founder of Alibaba) was rejected many times by the Chinese police, by department stores, and 10 times by Harvard (yes, ten times!). Myself, I've been rejected by the vast majority of the French universities I've applied to. But I've been admitted to a few others, and voila, in September, I'm going to France to study :)

Your story, as told in your own book, MJ, is even more instructive : by your own admission, all of your early (Chicago-era) business ventures failed or made miserable profits. Yet, you kept trying, and eventually, you succeeded. And I don't believe for a second that you acted solely to meet some business need, irrespective of your passions. It's clear from all your writings that you have an enormous passion for cars and for running businesses.

Anyone trying to succeed in any venture in life will fail/be rejected many times before finally succeeding. It's the passionate, motivated person who will eventually succeed. Others will quit. It's as simple as that.

Wow. If you want to talk about logic, you've provided a wall of text that includes multiple survivor biases (survivor spotlighting) the narrative fallacy (podium popping) and string of non-sequiturs.

A truly correct analogy in this case would be to compare a businessman lacking passion for his business to a soldier who lacks the motivation to fight. He might have up-to-date precise information about the enemy and the weapons to defeat him, but if he lacks the willingness to fight, he will not fight. Period. As Napoleon has said, the moral factor is even more important than physical factors.

So starting a business and fighting for your life on a battlefield is a logical equivalency? Ha Ha. You're reaching my friend.

She performed well,

Ya mean, her feedback loop was kicked on and she was told she was good? Probably also done by her parents as well because they spotted a talent?

Yet, you kept trying, and eventually, you succeeded.

But passion was no where to be found. It was purpose.

MEANING AND PURPOSE motivated me.
MEANING AND PURPOSE got me to grind.
MEANING AND PURPOSE helped me overcome failure.

The passion ONLY came later when I started to succeed and see the positive results of my effort.

Winning inspires passion.
Success inspires passion.
Improvement inspires passion.
Overcoming a problem inspires passion.
Learning something new inspires passion.
Achieving a goal inspires passion.
Conquering a fear inspires passion.

You don't follow passion, passion follows you.

Anyone trying to succeed in any venture in life will fail/be rejected many times before finally succeeding. It's the passionate, motivated person who will eventually succeed. Others will quit. It's as simple as that.

Sounds simple, even logical, but it is wrong.

It's the person with the strongest MEANING and PURPOSE who will win.

MEANING AND PURPOSE are things that are more intangible -- like freedom. Like walking into a car dealer and paying cash for whatever I want. Like freeing my family from poverty. Like wanting to live debt free. Like waking up at any time. Like going anywhere, anytime, and at any cost. Like never having to work another day in my life. That motivated me -- not passion.

As for your idealistic fairy tale, you're talking about following passion on a microeconomic level -- oh, I love cars! Start a car dealer! I'm passionate about painting! Sell my art!

Being passionate about freedom and independence is different than being passionate about a specific activity or industry.

By contrast, I was an excellent History student and graduated with top grades... and useless degrees that didn't help me at all find a job. Once I graduated, it was very hard to find ANY job, even the most meagerly paid one. So I had to work as a telemarketer, a door-to-door salesman (and later as a store employee) for telecomm providers, and concurrently as a waiter.

LOL.

Guess the idealistic wonderland of "follow your passion" wasn't strong enough to keep ya following your passion eh?

Or strong enough to create a market need?

Or strong enough to create a job out of thin air?

But here's the thing -- had you won a Nobel Peace Prize in some type of historical endeavor because you felt a meaning and purpose behind your work, I'm sure that passion would suddenly appear as soon as your work became recognized. Such is the story for every billionaire on the planet who now stands at a podium and cherry picks the fart "follow your passion."

You're not even 20.

But if you think you've found the secret to world domination in a classroom and on a blog (despite your real world experience written above) have at it. Follow your passion while studying in France, especially if someone is subsidizing that fantasy.

The thing about the real world not lived in a classroom, it makes our life lessons awfully expensive.

follow-your-passion-is-bs.jpg
 
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Nily

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Wow. If you want to talk about logic, you've provided a wall of text that includes multiple survivor biases (survivor spotlighting) the narrative fallacy (podium popping) and string of non-sequiturs.



So starting a business and fighting for your life on a battlefield is a logical equivalency? Ha Ha. You're reaching my friend.



Ya mean, her feedback loop was kicked on and she was told she was good? Probably also done by her parents as well because they spotted a talent?



But passion was no where to be found. It was purpose.

MEANING AND PURPOSE motivated me.
MEANING AND PURPOSE got me to grind.
MEANING AND PURPOSE helped me overcome failure.

The passion ONLY came later when I started to succeed and see the positive results of my effort.

Winning inspires passion.
Success inspires passion.
Improvement inspires passion.
Overcoming a problem inspires passion.
Learning something new inspires passion.
Achieving a goal inspires passion.
Conquering a fear inspires passion.

You don't follow passion, passion follows you.



Sounds simple, even logical, but it is wrong.

It's the person with the strongest MEANING and PURPOSE who will win.

MEANING AND PURPOSE are things that are more intangible -- like freedom. Like walking into a car dealer and paying cash for whatever I want. Like freeing my family from poverty. Like wanting to live debt free. Like waking up at any time. Like going anywhere, anytime, and at any cost. Like never having to work another day in my life. That motivated me -- not passion.

As for your idealistic fairy tale, you're talking about following passion on a microeconomic level -- oh, I love cars! Start a car dealer! I'm passionate about painting! Sell my art!

Being passionate about freedom and independence is different than being passionate about a specific activity or industry.



LOL.

Guess the idealistic wonderland of "follow your passion" wasn't strong enough to keep ya following your passion eh?

Or strong enough to create a market need?

Or strong enough to create a job out of thin air?

But here's the thing -- had you won a Nobel Peace Prize in some type of historical endeavor because you felt a meaning and purpose behind your work, I'm sure that passion would suddenly appear as soon as your work became recognized. Such is the story for every billionaire on the planet who now stands at a podium and cherry picks the fart "follow your passion."

You're not even 20.

But if you think you've found the secret to world domination in a classroom and on a blog (despite your real world experience written above) have at it. Follow your passion while studying in France, especially if someone is subsidizing that fantasy.

The thing about the real world not lived in a classroom, it makes our life lessons awfully expensive.

View attachment 15707
The house is on fire. And no amount of passion water can douse it out.
 

Joe Cassandra

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May I add my humble two cents?

The above is absolutely true, except that it's hard doing something just for the money when you're not passionate about it and don't really like what you're doing. Eventually, even the promise of millions of $ won't be enough to keep you going and you'll burn out. In other words, if you're only doing it for the money, you'll fail. OTOH, if you're passionate about it, if you truly care about it, you will have an edge over the competition - they're only doing it for the money and you're doing it because you love it. And if you really love it, you'll likely to be pretty good at it.

Your passion in business comes from meeting a need. I enjoy writing sales copy...but, the real joy comes from my clients telling me I did a bang up job.

Subtract out the bad folk, I believe you eventually find happiness when you help others. Doesn't mean you have to start a non-profit. But, getting a client calling me up to say "Wow, you did great" can turn a gloomy mood into the most beautiful day of the week. Much more than a 5-figure check in the mail.

What YOU DO is just the vehicle to HOW you effect change...even if all your business does is clean the crap out of my bathroom pipes. You keep going because of HOW you touch lives.

Your HOW may not be altruistic, but could be how you touch you and your family's life not being in the office 60 hours a week.
 

TheFrancophile

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LOL.

Guess the idealistic wonderland of "follow your passion" wasn't strong enough to keep ya following your passion eh?

Or strong enough to create a market need?

Or strong enough to create a job out of thin air?
Yes, very funny. It feels so great to have lived a failure-free life yourself, eh ? :)

But here's the thing -- had you won a Nobel Peace Prize in some type of historical endeavor because you felt a meaning and purpose behind your work, I'm sure that passion would suddenly appear as soon as your work became recognized. Such is the story for every billionaire on the planet who now stands at a podium and cherry picks the fart "follow your passion."
No, MJ, passion does not come from winning. Satisfaction does. Passion is what motivates you and propels you to win in the first place.

It's going to be a long time, many tries, and a hell of a lot of difficulty before one wins (succeeds). Passion (or obsession) about what one is doing will propel one to victory. It keeps one continuing even when times are hard (as they inevitably will be at times). As Steve Jobs and countless other billionnaires have already said, based on their personal experience, which included tribulations that you couldn't even dream up in your worst nightmare. People whom you now denounce as "billionnaire gurus" misleading people (to what end?). People whose passions created the world as we know it today - Starbucks, Amazon (where I bought your book, among others), Apple Iphones and Ipads, electric cars, reusable space vehicles, and this very computer from which I'm typing right now.

Now, I'm not saying - and never did - that passion by itself is enough. There has to be a market need, too. I can be very passionate e.g. about making widgets and make the best widgets in the world, but if there's no market demand for them, I won't sell any and will not make a cent. I understand that perfectly.


What I've been saying throughout this thread is that the either/or choice we are being given here (either follow your passions or market needs) is a false one. One must, I believe, find out where those two intersect. And that's what I intend to do for myself. In other words, which of my passions and skills can I turn into a money printer ? For which ones is there strong demand ?

You, and everyone else, may Isagree totally with me, and that's perfectly fine with me. :)

You're not even 20.
Actually, I'm 28 (will be 29 later this year). :)
But if you think you've found the secret to world domination in a classroom and on a blog (despite your real world experience written above) have at it. Follow your passion while studying in France, especially if someone is subsidizing that fantasy.
I don't think I've "found the secret to world domination in a classroom and on a blog" and never claimed that I did. I'm just saying what I believe to be true based on my own life experience (up to this point) and those of many others - those I know personally and successful people whom I know either personally or (in those billionnaires' case) only from the Net.
And no, no one is subsidizing my "fantasy" of studying in France. I'm paying everything out of my own pocket (and will be working part-time to earn more dough). Everything I have, or am enjoying, I've earned through my own hard work in a country where life is much tougher than in the US.

Speaking of fantasies, that fantasy will become true at the beginning of September...

... just like commerciable electric cars used to be nothing but a fantasy.
... just like going to the Moon used to be a mere fantasy.
... just like reusable space vehicles used to be nothing but a fantasy.
 
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sotomo

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Regarding passion, I agree that "meaning and purpose" is better. I have a decent 9 to 5 job. I'm doing work that I've always claimed to be passionate about, and that helps, but I'm living a life of indentured servitude. I need to break free. I don't think it matters what emotion I have in the process. If someone needs to escape from a prison, there is no prerequisite that they need to be of some emotional category. They need to dig a tunnel and get to the other side. For someone to say "oh you need to be passionate about freedom otherwise your escape plan won't work" doesn't make sense. If digging a tunnel is the way to freedom, dig the tunnel. But even if a prisoner is passionate about butterflies, he's going to fail if the plan is therefore to have butterflies lift him over the wall.
 

Lex DeVille

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Did anyone on the passion side get closer to your dream while debating in this thread??

Figure out what you want from life. Do something that gets you there. Or don't.

Now if you'll excuse me ..

I'll be in my private studio banging on my expensive midi keyboard (I suck at), bought with my love of music boring copywriting money because ..

IMG_0346.JPG

I can.

:cool:

Also .. no ramen allowed. That shit stinks!

P.S.

Copywriting isn't my passion in case anyone didn't catch that.

#toosmoothe
 
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MJ DeMarco

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... just like commerciable electric cars used to be nothing but a fantasy.
... just like going to the Moon used to be a mere fantasy.
... just like reusable space vehicles used to be nothing but a fantasy.

Ah yes, another isolated conclusion that looks at the end, but not at the beginning.

And why do we have these wonderful fantasies now?

Let me guess: Because Elon Musk was PASSIONATE about credit cards, payment processing and drawing up city guides?

Ha Ha, but no.

Elon Musk made his fortune in things that had zero passion ascribed to it.

However, now, billionaires can follow passion and inventive craziness when money is not an issue and they have unlimited resources. Who wouldn't!?

Heck, even I follow passion now (writing) because I can afford to -- and because now I can give ZERO f*cks. I have that in common now with billionaires.

But they/we never start that way.

Had they started with passion, they would not be billionaires and you certainly wouldn't be hero-worshiping their soundbites which I'm sure they took all but 2.5 seconds to think of. In other words, Elon Musk can do the electric car/space thing NOW because it's entangled in his meaning and purpose, and yea, he probably has passion about it.

It's easy to pursue passionate endeavors when money, paying bills, and putting dinner on the table is removed from the equation.

But like all billionaires, passion is not what launched him there. Mark Cuban was NOT passionate about reselling software and integrating systems-- but that launched him onto a path where he could pursue a passion, an NBA franchise .

Pursuit of passions, and global transformative visions come later -- and that's when they unknowingly corrupt the minds of young men with this turd pile known as "follow your passion."

MEANING AND PURPOSE (buttressed by passion via the feedback loop) is the only real driver of transformative change.

I can guarantee you, I'm more interested in your success than any billionaire. But nonetheless, I wish you luck on the passion thing -- as of now you're 28 which the last I checked, is no longer a child or a student. It is full adulthood. And yet, here you are still waiting tables and going to school most likely taught by a professor who probably hasn't started a damn thing in their life. As the old saying goes, if you want to keep on getting what you're getting, keep on doing what you're doing.

Good luck, I've tried to help and said my peace.

As I said, the real world is a far better teacher than I can ever claim to be.

I'm out.
 
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GatsbyMag

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What I've been saying throughout this thread is that the either/or choice we are being given here (either follow your passions or market needs) is a false one. One must, I believe, find out where those two intersect. And that's what I intend to do for myself. In other words, which of my passions and skills can I turn into a money printer ? For which ones is there strong demand ?

You, and everyone else, may Isagree totally with me, and that's perfectly fine with me. :)


Actually, I'm 28 (will be 29 later this year). :)

I used to have the same thought pattern as you when it came to passion + market needs. The truth is that it's not common for most people to have a passion in an industry with unmet needs. MJ has provided such people with an alternative that's much more feasible. It seems as if you're one of the many who is unable to find an intersection between their passion + market needs so you're bitter about it and you come here to take out your frustrations on MJ who was only providing an alternative route to people like you.

Best of luck with your journey, whether you succeed or fail, please come back and share your lessons with us, it was an insightful discussion.
 

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Ah yes, another isolated conclusion that looks at the end, but not at the beginning.

And why do we have these wonderful fantasies now?

Let me guess: Because Elon Musk was PASSIONATE about credit cards, payment processing and drawing up city guides?

Ha Ha, but no.

Elon Musk made his fortune in things that had zero passion ascribed to it.

However, now, billionaires can follow passion and inventive craziness when money is not an issue and they have unlimited resources. Who wouldn't!?

Heck, even I follow passion now (writing) because I can afford to -- and because now I can give ZERO f*cks. I have that in common now with billionaires.

But they/we never start that way.

Had they started with passion, they would not be billionaires and you certainly wouldn't be hero-worshiping their soundbites which I'm sure they took all but 2.5 seconds to think of. In other words, Elon Musk can do the electric car/space thing NOW because it's entangled in his meaning and purpose, and yea, he probably has passion about it.

It's easy to pursue passionate endeavors when money, paying bills, and putting dinner on the table is removed from the equation.

But like all billionaires, passion is not what launched him there. Mark Cuban was NOT passionate about reselling software and integrating systems-- but that launched him onto a path where he could pursue a passion, an NBA franchise .

Pursuit of passions, and global transformative visions come later -- and that's when they unknowingly corrupt the minds of young men with this turd pile known as "follow your passion."

MEANING AND PURPOSE (buttressed by passion via the feedback loop) is the only real driver of transformative change.

I can guarantee you, I'm more interested in your success than any billionaire. But nonetheless, I wish you luck on the passion thing -- as of now you're 28 which the last I checked, is no longer a child or a student. It is full adulthood. And yet, here you are still waiting tables and going to school most likely taught by a professor who probably hasn't started a damn thing in their life. As the old saying goes, if you want to keep on getting what you're getting, keep on doing what you're doing.

Good luck, I've tried to help and said my peace.

As I said, the real world is a far better teacher than I can ever claim to be.

I'm out.
Reminds me of Dan Pena who at one time brawled at his seminar: 'If love did the job, you all wouldn't be here!"

Same goes for the Forum I guess. If passion did the job, we all wouldn't be here!

@MJ DeMarco, even if you didn't help him, let me tell you this. What you said is brilliant. You can never get more detailed than that.
I realised the Elon Musk thing too when reading UNSCRIPTED !
Because he made a fortune from PayPal, he could do whatever he was passionate about....making electric cars and going to space.
I mean...we can do anything we want when we have a lot of money right? lol Plus, he liked his work at Tesla so much that he went down to do dirty work too! If he had no money issues, the world of tech becomes his playground.

@TheFrancophile, you need to read UNSCRIPTED . Seriously. OP too.

But MJ, I think the common error of mistaking the source of wealth as passion might be contributed to a fundamental attribution error, in which folks just look at the surface level of things to derive the cause behind others' actions. They just look at the interviews and the smiles on the faces of the successful...and voila, they become converts. It's eerily easier to just accept what it looks like rather than the real truth.

Although the world is a better teacher, I'd rather take the pre-emptive strike and learn the lesson before it gets harsher than a tornado.
 
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Ayanle Farah

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First of all I have read the Fastlane Millionaire every year for the past 3 years or so. I love the book. And yes I already order Unscripted I'm still waiting for it in the mail.

I respect MJ DeMarco and his work but since the the first time I read his book I can't get over the fact that he says that money is more important than your passion. That doing what you love will not make you rich.

Imagine you're on your deathbed sweaty, nervous, trying your best to stay awake because you know that as soon as you go to sleep that will be the last time you close your eyes. You're dying on a 24k gold bedframe. But you don't care nor notice all that, you keep going back to that one thing you always wanted to be. A guitarist.

That was your dream and what you enjoyed most. But it wasn't paying the bills or putting food on the table. Nobody was buying your music either because they were been torrented. Yet you still enjoyed yourself and could survive off ramen noodles as long as your guitar was properly tuned.

But the pressure from your family to provide food and shelter made you take a detour on your dream. That detour led to riches but it also robbed you of your time with your precious guitar. Yet everytime you saw your dusty guitar in the coner of your room you told yourself next week I'll have free time to play. But you never did.

And yes I know money can buy you some good guitar lessons, your own record label, and even a recording studio. But unless you're Fastlane it won't give you time. So you either choose to strive to be rich or to follow your passion. Comfort in life or regret while dying.

Both passion and riches are essential for your life so is it possible to combine them both? Or are we forever force to decide for either or?
Your example ignores that you could've pursued your passion as a guitarist all you wanted afterwards.

Considering your bed costs $24k, it implies you have long since achieved financial freedom so there would be nothing stopping you from doing whatever you want afterwards, nothing but your excuses that is.
 
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Olimac21

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First of all I have read the Fastlane Millionaire every year for the past 3 years or so. I love the book. And yes I already order Unscripted I'm still waiting for it in the mail.

I respect MJ DeMarco and his work but since the the first time I read his book I can't get over the fact that he says that money is more important than your passion. That doing what you love will not make you rich.

Imagine you're on your deathbed sweaty, nervous, trying your best to stay awake because you know that as soon as you go to sleep that will be the last time you close your eyes. You're dying on a 24k gold bedframe. But you don't care nor notice all that, you keep going back to that one thing you always wanted to be. A guitarist.

That was your dream and what you enjoyed most. But it wasn't paying the bills or putting food on the table. Nobody was buying your music either because they were been torrented. Yet you still enjoyed yourself and could survive off ramen noodles as long as your guitar was properly tuned.

But the pressure from your family to provide food and shelter made you take a detour on your dream. That detour led to riches but it also robbed you of your time with your precious guitar. Yet everytime you saw your dusty guitar in the coner of your room you told yourself next week I'll have free time to play. But you never did.

And yes I know money can buy you some good guitar lessons, your own record label, and even a recording studio. But unless you're Fastlane it won't give you time. So you either choose to strive to be rich or to follow your passion. Comfort in life or regret while dying.

Both passion and riches are essential for your life so is it possible to combine them both? Or are we forever force to decide for either or?

I believe what MJ is not to forget your passions but rather not to have it as a starting point to develop a business, arguing "passion" does not always pays off and is more important to focus your business in providing value to others instead of making it fun for yourself. For instance if you passion is body bulding and say: I got it I will create my own gym and follow my passions if there are no customers or you do not have the skills to provide value is useless.

Of course if you can do both is amazing and is worth pursuing then for that you need 3 conditions to be profitable:

hedgehogconceptdiagram2.jpg
 

MJ DeMarco

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I will clearly have to take them into account.

Even if you don't fully believe it, just having the seed planted (and being open-minded to the seed) might be helpful.

You seem to be a pretty smart guy and I'm sure you will figure it out in a manner that illicits maximum happiness.

Enjoy the ride and good luck.

Of course if you can do both is amazing and is worth pursuing then for that you need 3 conditions to be profitable:

Those 3 things are completely ego-centric. The market doesn't give a shit about them.

The only way it works is if the YOU in the middle intersects with a big need. The problem is, it usually doesn't, or the need is saturated, or minimally viable. When people start to realize YOUR NEEDS cannot influence market needs, they will start seeing better opportunities.
 
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MEANING AND PURPOSE motivated me.
MEANING AND PURPOSE got me to grind.
MEANING AND PURPOSE helped me overcome failure.

The passion ONLY came later when I started to succeed and see the positive results of my effort.

Winning inspires passion.
Success inspires passion.
Improvement inspires passion.
Overcoming a problem inspires passion.
Learning something new inspires passion.
Achieving a goal inspires passion.
Conquering a fear inspires passion.

You don't follow passion, passion follows you.

Amen. This resonates with me, I'll read it every day.

Very instructional thread for me. I'm just figuring out how to provide really BIG value with my skills, and this thread have helped a lot.

The thing about Elon Musk and other billionaires is that probably they follow their passion for success, that passion that ignites you in the very first moment you realize that you have something really good to put out in the market. I don't think Elon was passionate about payment methods, but about success itself. But, who knows, just my guess. Probably the MEANING AND PURPOSE was there before.
 

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