The "just follow your passion" advice is ruining people's careers

I saw three posts this morning from people in their 20s quitting stable jobs to chase some hobby they just picked up, like woodworking or painting. Last month my buddy did the same thing with his coding side project and now he's living in his mom's basement because the freelance work dried up after 6 weeks. When did we stop telling people to build skills first before jumping off a cliff?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia_gonzalez11d ago

Honestly, I gotta push back a little on this one lol. I think the real problem isn't "follow your passion" but people treating it like a lottery ticket instead of a long game. My friend quit her data entry job to do pottery full time and she spent a whole year taking night classes and selling at local markets before she even thought about leaving her day job. Building skills first is smart, yeah, but sometimes you can't really figure out if your passion is viable until you actually try it for real. I've seen way too many people stay miserable in jobs they hate because they were scared to take any risk, and that's not exactly a great career either. It's all about having a plan and some savings, not just blindly jumping.

phoenix2469d ago

Yeah exactly, my cousin did the same thing with her baking side hustle for like two years before going full time...

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keith90011d ago

Does anyone ever talk about how FOLLOWING YOUR PASSION is actually a privilege in itself, like not everyone can afford to take that pottery classes or freelance gamble?