In this 3 part series, we look at 3 types of career paths and the lessons we can learn from them. The first article in this series is Lessons from the Accidental Career.
There’s a great ad campaign by a company in the UK called Purdey’s where they teamed up with actor Idris Elba and asked people one question; ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ It’s funny to watch him ask old people this question because come on, they’re all grown up right? Well, the point of the campaign is that we should never give up on our dreams and it’s never too late to be who you want to be.
We know that Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook when he was 19. However, we also know that J.K Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel came out when she was 32. That KFC chicken that you love so much? Colonel Sanders only came up with that gloriousness when he was 60. Oh, and the superheroes like The Fantastic Four and the X-Men that make us ask what power we would most like to have? Stan Lee created those in his 40s. See the trend here?
Passion. Wikipedia defines it as “a feeling of intense enthusiasm towards or compelling desire for something”. Even though it’s become a worn out buzzword when it comes to thinking about career, there’s still something to it. Passion is what drives us to be better at the things we are...well, passionate about.
If you’re thinking of following your passion project, here are a couple of lessons to remember.
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You’re never too old or too young to pursue it. All successful people, whether young or old have one thing in common - they believed in what they wanted to do and there were no two ways about it. Whatever that career is for you, you have to want it enough to keep going after it.
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It doesn’t mean it’s not going to be hard. There’s a quote that I think is rather false because it says as long as you are passionate about what you do that you’ll never work a day in your life. Here’s the truth of it though. There will be good days and there will be hard days. The only difference with passion is that it will be worth it in the end. Remember that.
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Your passion can be ignited accidentally. In part one of this series, we talked about the accidental career. You don’t have to have planned for it but your next job or task could be the thing that makes you realise things you’re passionate about. For instance, you could plan the office party that leads you to realise you love nothing more than putting things together and working with people. You just never know where the passion will strike.
What are you passionate about? We want to hear from you in the comments below!
Read Part 3: Lost In Your Career? How To Make It Work For You
