Don’t Forget The Passion

You might not find yourself in a situation where the greatest passion in life is your career–you might not even want it to become your career. Sometimes a passion is meant to be an outlet from the career you enjoy, which provides for you and your family. And, it’s possible turning your passion into your career could lead to the passion fizzling because it is now “work” and with work comes new constraints, responsibilities, and pressures sucking all of the passion out of it.

If your career is not your passion that is ok (I hope you at least enjoy what you do…that may be another note in the future), but I hope you have time and space in your life for your passion–don’t forget the passion.

I have a couple of examples of how passion can be incorporated in a meaningful way to complement a career.

A few years ago I spoke with a senior in the business school at Indiana University. He was interning at a local financial planning firm and wanted to continue working with the firm after he graduated that year. He enjoyed finance, really enjoyed working alongside the financial advisors at the firm, and hoped to eventually grow into being a financial advisor working with his own clients. I had no doubt he was heading down the right professional path–I could hear the excitement and enjoyment he had for the profession in his voice.

But, I knew it was not his passion. During his junior year, he volunteered to help coach the boys' soccer team at a small high school nearby. Before that season started the head coach resigned and he found himself as the head coach of a high school soccer team as a junior in college—and he loved it. 

Coaching soccer was his passion.

As we discussed his post-graduation opportunity and plans, I challenged him and asked him why not pivot and go down the path of coaching soccer. It was clearly his passion and he already had experience–why not pursue that path? His answer was fair. Coaching soccer could not provide the income he desired to live the life he wanted, which I thought was a great answer and very mature for a college junior to recognize that the life he desired was more important to him than pursuing his passion full-time. 

My advice to him was to make sure whatever opportunity he took, his employer was supportive of his ongoing role as the head coach of the soccer team. Coaching soccer did not have to be his career but it had to be a part of his life and he would be able to build his career to allow him to be at practice and leave early for games during the short soccer season, as long as his employer would support him. 

I wasn’t thinking about the “authentic life” back then, but his authentic life was a career as a financial advisor with the flexibility to coach soccer.

Another example I love is my friend and fellow financial advisor, Odaro Aisueni, CFP®. Odaro is a financial advisor with a passion for music–he has a passion for being a financial advisor but his lifelong passion is music. 

Instead of outgrowing his love of music and passion for DJ’ing, Odaro continues to spin records (well, the equivalent of digitally spinning records) every Saturday in his living room for fun. One of the most thoughtful birthday gifts I’ve ever received is an hourlong mix that Odaro made–I just turned it on as I finish up this note. In addition to working on his craft and spending time on his passion on the weekends, Odaro also DJs parties and dances around town in the evenings.

Word got out about his talent and Odaro has become the go-to DJ for conferences in financial services. I documented his performance in Las Vegas last year and later in the year he DJ’d on stage before Big Boi of Outkast performed–these opportunities would have never been possible if Odaro didn’t continue his passion, even though he is a financial advisor. 

Having a career and living your passion are not mutually exclusive.

If you’re lucky enough for your career to be your passion, I hope you appreciate the rarity of your situation. If your career is not your passion, I hope you are making your passion a priority when you are not working. We all deserve to do the thing(s) we enjoy more than anything else, even if it’s just a couple of hours a week.

Don’t. Forget. The. Passion.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC