I find it interesting to talk to people and hear many stories about them not meeting their potential. They say they can do x y and z, but only are doing letter ‘m’ or even ‘b’ in the alphabet of knowledge and skills.
I usually counter with well then ‘just do it’. Yet the market does not accept what they think they are capable of achieving. Maybe people do have the potential but employers often have to take a leap of faith to accept this person who thinks they have the capability but quite possibly does not.
I started to become interested in this in 2006 when I applied to do research on the “Underemployment of China” through a Fulbright grant which was accepted on the US side, but the Chinese did not take kindly to this proposal.
Often I refer back to a triangle that a career expert once said that there are three facets of a career we choose: a) You’re good at it b) You make money c) You’re passionate about it People often only get two, but some achieve all three (I think someone like Warren Buffett). For people only getting two, I think of M&A IB analysts. They pretty much hate the hours and lifestyle but most are good at it and they make money (2 out of 3). Are you meeting your potential? Are you on the path to meeting your potential in the future? I understand that some people have families and you have to do what you can to provide.
fear of failure and attachment to a certain lifestyle/consumption level often prevent people from doing what they really want to do. both of these are self imposed limitations.\
i’m on the path. my revenue is zero right now but i’m very close to finally cashing my first check. it’s very liberating to let go of attachment to my previous lifestyle. once you do that you realize that it was all unnecessary and didn’t add to any real happiness to begin with. but thats hard to internalize before you make the leap. you have to actually make the leap first.
bchad would disagree, but in reality there is no such thing as failure until you fail to continue pursuing your goal.
that’s cute. i don’t expect everyone to get it. and frankly i’m glad there’s a large portion of the population that doesn’t…more opportunities for me. while they’re slaving away in their cubicles scraping by so they can afford that entry level luxury car, one vacation a year and premium cable, i’m out doing the things they secretly wish they had the balls to do.
I think the true failure is when you never put an effort to discover your goals/passion or whatever, but rather took the cookie cutter ones the society pushes on you
I quit my buyside job to start my own company investing in a certain alternative asset class. started with zero clients and zero investment opportunities. finally have one on the hook and some investor commitments after a year of swinging and missing.
I think it’s not the passion that’s overused but that idea that you have to make money doing it. I believe that as long as you have the passion and able to allocate the reasonable amount of time/energy to it to produce the wanted results, it is good enough. Make money elsewhere…
I’ll take this as sarcasm. From the posts you write here, I’m going to assume that your work is okay and you do it for the money. Your real passion lies in race cars.
People have hobbies they are passionate about but it’s hard to turn that into a source of income.