My friend Jacob currently sells ads for a web 2.0 company. He’s a beast on the phone, relentless with customers, and has the highest client conversion rate out of anyone at his office. He’s darn good at selling, but you know what? He hates it. He walks into work every morning with his head down, takes a deep breath, and starts selling. Each and everyday is the same.
Jacob has one true passion in his life – films. Not necessarily watching films, but rather, he loves to create short films on his digital camcorder. Every month, he’ll create a short film, maybe 5-7 minutes in length, and privately watch it on his computer. The thing is that he’s really shy about his films. He doesn’t show it to anyone because he feels they’re not good.
After months of bugging him about it, he finally let me watch one of his short films. And believe it or not… it stunk. I mean, it was really not good at all. I felt so bad to crush his dreams, so I just said, “Hey that was pretty neat Jacob. Keep working on it and I know that you’ll get better.”
He smiled, but I think he knew the truth…
Discovering your authentic brand
Since that day, I’ve been constantly thinking about doing what we’re passionate about. I mean everyone talks about it, but how many people are actually able to do it? Jacob loves films, but it seems he lacks the creativity and skills to be able to make a career out of it.
So what should Jacob do: Should he learn to love his sales job? or should he devote more time and effort into short films?
Learn to love what you do
Is it a sin to learn to love your job? The Gen Y community sure makes it seem like it is. I hardly find a single Gen Y blogger who writes about how much she loves her corporate job. Most of the content I find online reads about escaping the cubicle, automating life, and living location independent. I think that’s great, but it makes it that much harder for people to learn to love their job, stuck in a cubicle.
Analyzing Jacob’s situation, I feel that he would lead a much happier life if he would just swallow his pride and accept that he’s good at selling online advertisements. If he accepted his gift, then he would walk into work happy, he would probably make more sales because he would be in a better mood, and he could potentially get promoted faster because people would like to work with him much more.
If Jacob learned to love his job, then he would lead a happier and more fulfilling life.
But Jacob is holding on to something more. His pride won’t let him give up on the quest to become a filmmaker. Everyone online tells him to make money doing what he loves to do, so he continues to pursue this hopeless goal.
But is it really hopeless…
Do what you love
This is the holy grail for social media. To be able to do what you love is the greatest feeling anyone can have, right? But, how can you make a career doing what you love when you’re not good at it?
The simple answer would be: Start a blog! Jacob can start a blog about Short-Films. He can write reviews, post pictures of screenings, post posters, and even interview the actors and actresses. That sounds like so much fun!
But to who? I actually pitched this to Jacob, but he replied saying he doesn’t necessarily want to write a blog, he doesn’t know if he likes to interview people, and he feel maintaining a blog would be too much work for him.
I could have easily responded by telling him that he could learn to love blogging; but then that’s just circular isn’t it? He should just learn to love his sales job since he’s good at it anyways.
There is a way to do both
It’s all about accepting who you are. Jacob is unhappy because he doesn’t accept the fact that he’s good at selling; he’s unhappy because he’s very self-conscious about the short-films that he produces. But if he just accepts who he is, he can live the same life and be happy doing it.
Jacob can be happy that he’s a stellar employee and making good money. He can be happy that he has the time and drive to pursue something that he loves to do. And so what if he can’t make a career out of film. What ever happened to hobbies just for fun?
We can get so consumed with what we’re not good at; It’s time to appreciate what we are good at.
Author:
Jun is the Director of Social Media for SEOP, a search engine optimization company. He is also the Founder and CMO of Viralogy, the social media rank. His personal blog, How to Succeed as a Young Entrepreneur, gives a real, unfiltered view of the Startup Life so that current and aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from his successes and mistakes.
Related posts:
- Oh no!… Not another “How to be a great blogger” blog post :) The internet has provided a platform that allows anyone...
- Twitter Personal Branding Q + A #2 Answers to recent questions people are asking on Twitter...
- My Personal Branding Journey Part 10 – Reflecting Back and Moving Forward This is the last post in our series where...
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading ...
Awesome post Jun! You really nailed it on the head. Social Media sends out the message that you should pursue your dream, “hobby”, as your career regardless if you’re good at it or not. If you love it, pursue it mentatility. Sometimes when you take your precious hobbies and transition them into your career and your means of living and surving, it can cause frustration leading you to rethink your decision. Winding you right back where you started. “What every happened to hobbies just for fun?”… your last statement sums it all up.
Thanks.
Yea, I really want to see more people pursue something they love, without having to turn it into a main source of income. If I love photography, why not just do it for the love of it? Making money sometimes complicates things
Great post!!! I believe that we should be passionate about what we do every day. Life is too short to be miserable at a job where we spend 8 or so hours a day.
I was so miserable at one job that I had a panic attack (first time ever) trying to get ready for work on a Monday morning after a week’s vacation. Just wasn’t worth it.
Wow, what kind of job was that? Sounds uber scary…
Never a better time to discuss this topic. Accepting who you are is definitely an important aspect when it comes to career management and development. However there is a reason behind the fact that Jacob hates his job. Unless that is determined no matter how hard Jacob tries to enjoy his selling job the negativity will come back and more emphatically in the future.
Jacob needs to perhaps put a framework around what he gets from work, minimizing the feeling that the work he hates is such a large part of his life. He should also analyze just what makes him so good at this job and look to leverage that. I would suggest putting in place a plan to explore his interests around filming to see how he can in the future combine his passion with his skills.
I like your suggestions Daryl! I’ll let my friend know about your suggestions for sure. Btw, my friend’s name really isn’t Jacob. I just used that to maintain his privacy
Interesting post. I agree with Daryl. He needs help discovering what makes him good at the job, and what he hates. Then, maybe he can find a role elsewhere that eliminates the “hate” part. It may not revolve around film, but at least being happy at work will help him be happier all around.
I am a bad guitar player. I used to record songs to my computer and play them for myself. I have no desire to pursue a career there, because I know I am bad. It was fun, but I was never going to be good. If he knows the films are not good, he hopefully is aware that they won’t be a career option.
Next week, I am speaking to a group aged 35-65 about personal branding. It should be interesting, as they were raised in a world where people did not pursue careers based on what they loved. With branding ideally being the intersection of what you do well, and what you love, I wonder how they will react. I anticipate there will be people in the audience who neither love their career choice, nor are good at it!
Wow, I can’t imagine being in a job that I suck at and hate at the same time. I would definitely go into a depression.
Please do let me know how your speech goes. Hit me at me [at] junloayza.com
It is a great post and I see something similar when I coach and consult with small business owners (vs. employees) who are pursuing something they aren’t passionate about and who “buy themselves a job” vs. developing a plan and having the passion and the steam to set the right systems into place. They often miss out on the freedom they thought they were getting when they got off the corporate track. . Passion + knowledge + systems are all important.
An interesting, brave post! You certainly nailed a picture of reality as it is for so many people. I love Daryl’s response. I absolutely do not believe it’s right to continue in any situation that makes you continuously miserable, and I do believe it’s very right to explore your urges and affinities (like film making) relentlessly. I could be a great waitress or house cleaner, but do not accept those skills as my daily bread. We are required to be the best we can be. There’s a reason ‘Jacob’ loves films, and he should work hard to find out what it is, and then figure out how to capitalize on that.
Jun, solid post. Any chance Jacob could mix his passion with his skill set and help to create a short set of videos where he breaks down his sales tactics? Given the state of most corporate HR videos I know I would have loved some real down to earth advice even if the production quality was poor instead of the sterile flash animations I received at my previous employers.
That to me has been the bigger lesson in this entire social media era: you have to mix passion with actual talent. Without both you’re creating self-soothing content which will be interpreted as noise by everyone else.
Why many do not pursue what they love is because they need instant cash which may not come early but which is sure to come. Thanks for thisd great reminder.
Great post! I agree, if you aren’t lucky enough (or brave enough) to pursue your passion as your career, then you should most definitely make it a hobby or pursue it in another fashion. By starting a blog, joining a club or something, you can work on that passion. Who knows, one day it could grow into a career.
I agree some introspection and self-discovery would be really worthwhile. This is his life, and I think we’re all naturally inclined to do something that gives us purpose and then ideally helps us make a living. (And do a few mediocre films make a bad filmmaker? Perhaps he gets involved in the film industry, networks, sells films to production companies, people in the industry?)
All good discussion – I couldn’t agree more about the need for evaluating – what tasks he actually enjoys/dislikes, what type of work environment he enjoys/dislikes, what is values are so he knows what risks he’s willing to take, etc.