Want great advice on how to great rich? One might advise you to find something you're passionate about. Unfortunately, that “one” would be giving you bad advice. I know I sound damn near blasphemous right now, and that's fine. Over time, I will explain what I'm talking about. For now, I will simply cut to the punch-line and tell you that passion is an outcome, not a starting-point. Meaning, “Follow your passion,” is terrible advice. (I realize this is a subtle and nuanced distinction, but it's very important.) You do, indeed, want to do things you're passionate about. But you need to understand that passion tends to come at the end and not the beginning. “Follow your passion,” suggests that the passion comes first. And the evidence clearly suggests, that's just not true.
Want better advice? “Forget glamorous.” At least that's the advice of Felix Dennis. Have you ever heard of Mr. Dennis? If your answer is “No” it's probably because you're reading this post from these United States. If you happen to be in Great Britain you undoubtedly know the name. Dennis is the man who brought Maxim magazine to America. And, Maxim is a name lots of people know. As it turns out, Felix has made much of his vast fortune in the publishing business.
Dennis is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. To reach that level of success is quite a work load. You might imagine you'd have to be extremely passionate about your work in order to reach such heights. So, is Dennis passionate about the publishing business? The answer is a categorical “No.” If a young person were to ask him if they should go into publishing today, he would definitely tell them not to. Doesn't sound like passion to me.
What had happened was that in the early 1970s Dennis published a magazine about Kung-Fu. Specifically, it was all about Bruce Lee. Then, in 1974, Lee died unexpectedly. All of a sudden, everything pertaining to Bruce Lee, turned into gold. And Dennis had his first financial home run. People generally like to repeat successes, so Felix stayed with publishing. But he wouldn't recommend it as good career advice today. Why? Well, to give another quote from Dennis, “Gold rushes don't happen in old mines.”
The fact is, Dennis was never passionate about publishing. He was passionate about one thing; getting rich. More specifically, he wanted the freedom that comes with being rich. It turns out, Felix's real passion is writing poetry. But, realistically, there isn't a lot of money in poetry. So, Dennis had to utilize the vehicle of publishing in order to create the lifestyle that he was truly passionate about. A lot of people get mixed up here. Passion isn't so much about the job that you do. Because the fact of the matter is, a great deal of the work, in most jobs, is routine and mundane. Passion is much more about the lifestyle you wish to live. Two examples of a desirable lifestyle would be: the opportunity for autonomy and the opportunity to realize your fullest potential.
You'd probably agree that being in the Army isn't easy. For sure, most of what an enlisted man needs to do is routine and mundane. Some might even say it's boring. But the Army serves a valuable purpose. And the slogan that the United States Army used, for the longest time, was very catchy and I'm sure you're familiar with it. They said, “Be all that you can be,” and this recruited LOTS of people. The opportunity to be all that you can be is very attractive to people. (Even if it means putting your life in harm's way.) In the last paragraph I called it the opportunity to, “Realize your fullest potential.” But it's the same as “Be all that you can be.” It's something that people yearn for regardless of the path they may take to get there.
Let me give you one last example of Felix Dennis's advice. The poster boy for the advice, “Forget glamorous,” might well be Wayne Huizenga. Mr. Huizenga is a billionaire who lives in Florida. Have you heard of him? Do you know how Wayne first made millions? He did it with a company called Waste Management, Inc. That's right, Huizenga is the trash man. He's worth billions and he's lovin' his life!
So many people want to go into a sexy career but they overlook one simple concept; the law of supply and demand. Careers like acting, singing, wine-making, and real estate are highly impacted. There's tons of competition. The supply of people willing to do those jobs far out-paces the demand. In turn, the odds of true success are very low.
The key to getting rich is to provide the marketplace with something it wants. Indeed, something it demands. Writing poetry might be fun and sexy, but Felix Dennis himself will tell you there isn't much of a demand. The exact place where you'll find opportunity is in an area of high demand and low supply. Which will generally be a place that ain't so glamorous. This is exactly why Dennis says to forget glamorous. Everyone is trying to do the glamorous work and VERY few really succeed.
Too many people allow their job title to become their identity. Taking out the trash isn't so sexy. So people don't want that job title. When what we should really be focused on is the outcome of the job. Is your job providing you with the life that you want? In his book Drive, Dan Pink does a good job of describing what motivates people. Of course passion motivates people, but what creates passion? Pink answered that question with an acronym called AMP. Dan said that three key ingredients of passion/motivation were: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. Does your job provide you with true freedom (autonomy)? Does it allow you to become all that you can be (mastery)? Does it have a mission that gets the juices flowing (purpose)? Just something to think about.
I would contend that passion is glamorous, indeed sexy, regardless of the job you happen to perform. And we're really starting to understand how to cultivate passion. More on that later. Have a great week!
