Ein Kommentator hat einen Buchausschnitt auf Englisch gepostet und möchte, dass ich daraus einen Gastbeitrag mache. Aber gerne, immer doch *g*
Der Text ist relativ polemisch, aber durchaus ganz interessant. Was ist davon halten soll, ist mir noch nicht so ganz klar, also fühl dich frei, deine eigenen Schlussfolgerungen daraus zu ziehen. Mir fällt dazu eine kleine Beobachtung ein: Vielen Leuten, die jeden Tag brav bei Penny oder Edeka arbeiten gehen, scheint es doch relativ gutzugehen. Besser als den ganzen Sinnsuchenden wie mir jedenfalls.
Viel Spaß beim Lesen, Grübeln und Fühlen!
“FOOL’S GOLD: “DO WHAT YOU LOVE” AND “FOLLOW YOUR PASSION”
In 2005, Steve Jobs gave a legendary commencement speech at Stanford University. He echoed over and over, “Love what you do.” The now-famous statement has morphed into its syrupy cousin, “Do what you love.” And every time I hear it, I lose another millimeter off my molars.
Jobs’s universally accepted maxim exemplifies just how impervious a misinterpreted sound bite can become when eulogized literally—unite podium popping and survival spotlighting and, wham, you get horrific life advice incontrovertibly ordained. And suddenly, hordes of people are jumping off buildings.
But wait, there’s more.
“Do what you love” also has a twin: the pithy proverb “Follow your passion.”
Again, another perilous dose of direction, usually dispensed by unknown bloggers with unknown track records who unknowingly don’t know the theology is hogwash.
Put ’em together and what you get is The Wonder Twins of Epically Bad Life Advice.
This cattle call of the self-development world has spawned a worshiping army of “passionites,” where “do what you love” and “follow your passion” supplant demand, business models, and economics. Both need to be stricken from your vocabulary, and the sooner done, the sooner you can UNSCRIPT. Here’s why:
Again, both phrases bastardize survival spotlighting and podium popping. Think about it.
Everyone is passionate about one thing or another. The problem is no one interviews passionate failures. Failed passionites have no stage, no audience, no one salivating at their greatness. The bankrupt passionite who’s followed his passion for twenty years and didn’t get featured in Inc. Magazine isn’t dispensing advice.
Think of it this way.
Are American Idol winners passionate about singing? Of course they are. Does it make sense to sing auditions when you’re dispassionate about it? Therefore, the 190,000 people who also auditioned and went home crying failures were also passionate. Will you ever hear from them? Nope.
Second, consider the cancer corollary as it pertains to Steve Jobs’s “love what you do.” Do you remember why you bought an Apple product? Did you consider Steve Jobs’s personal motives or internal narratives when you forked over cash? Was Steve Jobs’s “love what you do” a factor in your decision process? Is anyone waiting in line for eighteen hours at the Apple store thinking about Steve Jobs? Or Tim Cook?
Of course not. You spend money on these great products because, well, they’re great products. Within your purchasing decision, you identified perceived value, and after purchasing, perceived value transformed into actual value. Bam. Satisfied customer. The founder’s selfish sentiments had no place in your decision tree.
Let me put it another way. You’re at a fancy restaurant and order steak, medium rare. The steak hits your table and it tastes like grilled leather and isn’t fit for a vulture. You complain to the server and refuse to pay. The server retrieves the owner, who’s also the chef. When the owner/chef arrives at your table, you explain that your meal tastes like baked cardboard and refuse
payment. He replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but I love to cook. And since I love cooking, you must also love what I do.”
You see, at the end of the day, no one cares about the motives driving you. No one gives a shit that you love what you do! No one cares that you want to “be your own boss,” “get rich,” or any other selfishly conceived motive.
Remember the cancer corollary, where value trumps all: If you have something that hasn’t been commodified and you effectively communicate its value to me, you get my money. If you hated formulating a cancer cure— doesn’t matter—you still get my money. Passion, love, and everything else are irrelevant.
Third, the moment you straddle the wonder twins as your life compass, the fiduciary principle is violated and selfishness becomes your navigator. This disposition aligns with SCRIPTED thinking, the same herd mentality that causes consumers to trample into a Walmart at 2:00 a.m. on Black Friday. Whenever you’re partnered with selfishness, it makes you blind to opportunity because you’re too focused on what you want (and don’t want) versus what other people want.
For instance, I had an acquaintance some years ago who was hooked by the wonder twins. I cautioned him, but the promise of glory was too alluring. At the age of thirty-six, without an income, he quit his job as a sales representative. And with help from The Bank of Enabling Parents, he took a stab at “doing what he loved.”
His idea? Let’s start a blog, as if the other eleven million blogs weren’t enough. Worse, his business model was apparently writing about himself incessantly: me, me, and more me. You see—I’m special, I’m unique, and I’m following my passion! I should be raking in the Google AdSense revenue in a few months! For over a year, I watched this poor guy write about shit no one cared about. I cleaned out my garage; don’t the shelves look bad-ass? I just read this book that says, “do what you love,” you gotta read it! Here’s a funny story when I was nine years old! In the end, his only fans (customers?) cheering from the gallery were his enabling family. For me, the train wreck got old and I stopped paying attention. And his thirty-one Twitter followers probably did too.
Once again, the point needs to be driven home: no one fucking cares.”
Quelle: Laut dem Kommentator aus dem Buch “Unscripted” von MJ DeMarco