Public school programs have long advised students to pursue their passion. Mike Rowe – and others before him – have noted this is probably not good advice. Instead, pursue success. People tend to become passionate about what they are able to do successfully.
The key is to identify and opportunity and solve a problem that people need solving:
And finding opportunity in the job market is key, according to Rowe. He says many people he featured on “Dirty Jobs” were actually multimillionaires who achieved success by fulfilling a gap in the market rather doing what they were personally interested in.“
The truth is, [for] most passionate people on [‘Dirty Jobs’] anyway, [they] weren’t passionate about what they were doing when they started doing it,” Rowe says.“They simply…learned a skill that was in demand. Then they got hired applying that skill. Then they figured out how to get really, really good at it. And then they figured out how to love it.”
Source: Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe’s career advice: Follow opportunity, not passion
