Let Your Passion Find You

By Engr. Carlos Cornejo

There is this common mantra that says, “follow your passion” which basically means whatever talent or skill God has given you, you should develop it, make it grow and turn it into a profession.  But oftentimes the talent and skill we think we have is not good enough to be of world class standard.  Let’s say you love playing basketball.  You think you have the passion for the sport.  But your skill level is not good enough to become a PBA player.  You would not think of making money out this sport because there’s just too many basketball players better than you. Another example comes from someone I happen to know who passionately loves guitar.  He collects different kinds of guitars, thought of making a business out of it and so he puts up a store selling guitars.  He even had a beautiful showroom for customers to enjoy the ambiance of the place while selecting guitars to buy.  Unfortunately, here in Cebu there are many guitar makers who offer guitars at much more affordable price, his business eventually closed.

The reality is, not all our business interests or job skills would fill in the market needs.  But the good news is: we don’t normally have only one skill.  We have many skills that could fit the job market although not to the extent that it is totally our ultimate passion.  But it is a job that still fits to our liking, and this is good enough to buy us some time. It means we need not give up our passionate interest but just put it aside for a while and make it a hobby.   In this way we still could make that passionate skill grow until we are really good at it and who knows we could make it hit big in the market someday.

It’s much like what the entrepreneurial South Koreans do.  The business minded among them would work for a company earning enough money to start their own business.  If the business fails, they would just go back to working again for an employer. They would then try saving money again until they would hit on a business that prospers.  In other words, it is the “giving in without giving up” mantra.  The same can be applied to our passionate interest.

We can follow the advice of Mark Cuban, the businessman billionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team.  He says, “Follow your effort not your passion.  We can have a passion for something.  But that passion is not going to be making much money because we don’t have a world class skill for it.  Let’s say you are in a bread business.  It starts to become successful.  You put more effort on it.  Suddenly you become great with it.  Being great with something will not make you quit.  In this case you get surprised to find passion at something you never expected you would have.  Follow your efforts because it is not in the dreaming but is in the doing.”  I agree with him.  After graduating from college, you might not love the first job assigned to you by the company but if you put in the effort and persist on it, the passion for that job could be there.  It’s pretty much like an unexpected love story, getting to love someone whom you thought you would never love in the first place.  Good luck to all dream job seekers and may your passion find you.