Although it has been more than 10 years since Steve Jobs delivered the commencement speech at Stanford University, the “passion theory” has never stopped making an impact on people’s career choices. Jobs mentions to “follow your heart” and that the only way to do great work is to “love what you do” (Jobs 15-17). He encouraged college graduates to pursue their passion and not to settle until they found their destiny. As the CEO of Apple, he could not have been more persuasive on his stance.
But is that really the case?

Cal Newport, an associate professor in Georgetown University and the author of five career/academic related books, has made his case against passion. He believes that passion should not be the most important factor when choosing jobs. In his lately published book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, Newport suggested that most people gain job satisfaction after they master their work, and that trying to find a job with “preexisting passion” would most likely lead to anxiety and job hopping rather than success. Instead of putting more emphasis on passion, he values craftsmanship and deliberate practice.

“Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before.(Newport, 2012)”

As both parties have different standpoints regarding motivation, it reminds me of the McClelland’s Theory of Needs: Need for achievement, power, and affiliation. While Jobs believes that the drive to excel, the need for achievement comes from something deeper, Newport insists that achievement is what caused motivation.

I used to be a pious believer of the “true-calling” theory. Nevertheless, in Grade 12, I am interested in too many fields of knowledge to make a decision on college application. Eventually, I began another approach: Try to find what is missing in the world and choose something that could fill in the gaps. This method has surprisingly worked out: I noticed that there is a gap between arts and business, and as I have been an “art” person, I want to be familiar with various business models to sustain great organizations which support humanities and social innovations. Sometimes I still question myself whether I have made a good decision. Yet if I did not change the “passion approach”, I will never be in any of the post-secondary institutions and continue to sharpen my skills.

Work Cited:

University, S. (2016, September 16). Text of Steve Jobs’ Commencement address (2005). Retrieved February 05, 2017, from http://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/

C., Newport. (2012). So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love. New York City, United States: Grand Central Publishing.

Langton, Organizational Behaviour, 4th edition, p. 123.