Passion Does Not Cause Success

Nearly everyone I went to law school with was there because they hadn’t figured out what they wanted to do with their lives. It wasn’t that they were passionate about law, or putting bad guys away, or freeing the innocently convicted, but that they hadn’t found anything else they liked doing yet, or couldn’t get paid to do it. In addition to an education, they were literally buying time. But, very few people who go into law school without a passion come out with one. They might get a diploma, and if they’re lucky, a job, but that feeling in the pit of their stomach that they don’t know what the hell they’re doing with their lives remains. Shit.

The problem is misunderstanding cause and effect.

Nobody is born passionate about anything. Nobody. There’s no 3-year-old boy who became passionate about golf before he ever picked up a putter. No 9-year-old boy ever became passionate about baking before he cracked an egg. No 10-year-old girl ever became passionate about racing before she ever got in a kart. Tiger woods became passionate about golf after the feeling he got slamming balls off a tee and draining putts. Thomas Keller became passionate about cuisine after he made a perfect hollandaise sauce. Danica Patrick became passionate about racing after tasting success on the karting circuit.

Passion does not cause success. Success causes passion.

Our brains are wired to crave success. They release the same endorphins when we taste success as they do when we eat chocolate cake, or have sex. It’s not surprising then that the things we find some success at, we become passionate about. Which breeds more success. Which makes us more passionate. Which breeds more success.

This should come as fantastic news. It means anyone can be passionate about anything. Hell, I’ve met wildly passionate janitors and postal workers. All it takes is trying new things to see if you have any aptitude, or can find even the slightest bit of success in doing those things. (For more on this, I’d recommend Cal Newport’s excellent How To Be A High School Superstar. Title aside, it’s an incredibly insightful and useful book for anyone who doesn’t know what they want out of life.)

Don’t skip step one. Nobody’s born passionate. Success comes first, usually in tiny quantities. Try things. Find something you might have the potential to be good at. Do a lot of that thing. Passion will come.