
Ask HN: Have you found your passion yet? - FindingPassion
Hello Everyone,
I have been a follower for this community for more than a year now and I probably have learned a lot just by following community. Being a big fan of Steve Jobs, I often find myself listening to his videos and they always force me to THINK :). When I graduated back in 2010, I didn&#x27;t think about my passion, all I needed was a resource to pay my bills.<p>Now that I am a little settled, when I came across his famous speech (Stanford Univ.) again, I realized that I am 28 and I don&#x27;t know my passion yet. I am not ashamed of it but I does makes me worry some times. I have worked in different industries…and I mean totally different. My profile goes with Mechanical Engg. background (field experience of 2-3 years), an year stint handling Accounts payables @ Bio Fuel trading startup (crazy times ;) but I loved it) and (currently) working as a Integration Consultant for a fortune 500. (mostly developing data integration solutions within enterprise (A2A)), I don&#x27;t know where exactly my passion lies. I can get very very good (if not exceptional) references from every place I worked. So that also doesn&#x27;t help me figuring out what am I good at.<p>Can this community share their experience on finding their passion?<p>Apologies for the long post. Your feedback will be much appreciated.<p>PS The only thing that currently excites me is analytics&#x2F;data science &amp; that&#x27;s purely because of my inquisitive nature, I feel that I would enjoy in that field.
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debt
Finding your passion takes time. However, being broke really sucks. It really,
really, really sucks. It's super stressful and distracting and many times if
you're trying to figure out what your passion is, it's helpful to also not be
simultaneously broke at the same time.

To put it another way, if you don't know what you really want to do with your
life, it's generally a good idea to have as high-paying a job as possible.
This way, you can get paid to figure out your life. Also it helps to have some
money in the bank when and if you do figure out what you want to do.

Wanna be an actor? Well, now you can afford an agent. Wanna be a writer? Well
now you can afford to go to conferences and fly around the country. Wanna be a
musician? Well know you have some cushion to tour the country.

Basically, if you don't know what your passion is, then just keep working at
your high-paying job until you figure it out. It's not worth just sitting
around doing basically nothing.

The things you take for granted like being able to pay for shit, may not be
the case once you figure out and pursue your passion. You may want to purchase
a membership to some exclusive writers club(if you want to become a writer)
but find that you no longer have the funds because you quite your high-paying
job. I would say figure out a way to pursue your passion smartly so that
you're not left completely broke.

Also, if you're not already doing it on the side in some capacity, then I
would definitely recommend NOT quitting your day job. It's a passion. If
you're truly passionate about it, then it should be something you're already
doing.

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pilom
Yes, but it doesn't pay well enough until I can get rid of my student loans. I
worked as a whitewater rafting guide for summers while in college and have
never felt so alive and happy in my life. Unfortunately, I had 60k in student
loans (and my wife had more). My current plan is to work a job which pays way
more than I deserve in tech while keeping my living expenses as low as
possible.

About 4 years from now my wife an I are leaving the corporate world forever
with all of the loans paid off and enough in the 401k's to never worry about
retirement again. We will work at what we love (outdoor guiding and
photography) and will be significantly happier for it.

Engineering and tech are great for some people. I'm glad I looked elsewhere to
find a passion though.

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FindingPassion
Ha! that's nice. Never looked at my career that way. I guess having a set goal
in terms of career makes it rather easy to stay with current job even if its
not your first choice because you know where you are heading. I wish you good
luck.

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visakanv
My end goal is the expansion of human consciousness; I think there are many
paths to that route. Mindfulness. Writing novels. Making art. Music. Advancing
communications technology. Space Travel. I'd like to see the world become
kinder and happier in my lifetime, and to explore its curiosity.

So as long as I'm doing anything in the service of that, I feel good.

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tpae
I think being good at something does not mean that's your passion. I think
it's more about finding a passion, and working towards to be good at it would
make more sense. That's the case for me.

I was exposed to web programming early age, built my first Geocities website
that served pirated movies, at the age of 11. After finishing the website, I
noticed a lot of people actually came to my site, wrote thank you notes in my
shitty, Geocities guestbook.

Being 11 years old, seeing those thank you notes really encouraged me to move
forward, and bought my first PHP book.

Ever since, I started building websites and products to reach out to the
users. There were lots of failures, actually, most were failures, but that
didn't stop me from moving forward.

Passion is something that you find value in doing. For me, it's not about the
money, but it's about seeing those thank you notes for providing value to my
customers.

~~~
FindingPassion
Thanks for your comment. When I graduated, yes it was about $$$ but now it's
not about the money anymore. I feel that if I start finding value in
something, start enjoying something on a daily basis. @ this point If I
request you to give me one suggestion what would it be?

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bluejellybean
Computers and more recently programming.

In 2001 I got my first taste of the internet when my mom brought home a crappy
laptop and connected it via dial up. I was 6 or 7 and got hooked playing chess
on yahoo games.

Ever sense I've been a power user spending at least 8+ hours online a day and
loving it!

Started teaching myself to code in high-school.(4-5 hours a day easy throwaway
online classes == great way to spend senior year) After I graduated last year
my average time spent in front of a computer climbed to summer vacation levels
of around 16+ hours a day.

Little bit of addiction, whole lot of passion.

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chany2
I think passion is when you try something (theme A) for a good long period of
time, and failed. Tried something else (theme B). Then when someone talked to
you about Theme A randomly - and it struck you with a feeling on getting back
into that field. <== then you found your passion.

In your situation, you have no crunch time, no deadline. You sit safely in
your good job (understood through the situation). But there is no urgency.

Create self-motivation to try new things. Help people for free. If you enjoy
the process even when its free - good opportunity to continue.

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talmir
If I had a billion dollars to my name tomorrow I would probably not change a
thing. My passion is coding. I would still find a job where I would feel like
a valuable member of the team. I would still try my best to be better tomorrow
than I am today. I would still live in my apartment, drive my old, beat up,
car.

My computer would probably get an upgrade or two tho.

All I need from life from here on out is to be able to code, and enough income
to sustain me. I have no dreams of owning my own company or getting rich. So I
am pretty close to my ideal existence :)

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sdegutis
My passion changes from week to week it seems.

But the common thread between all the passions I've had is that they involve
solving problems creatively and aiming for beauty in the end result.

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gesman
In my view the passion could be something that you like today, but it could be
something totally different tomorrow.

The secret of success in an ability to recognize and follow the passion moment
to moment.

That is the big part of the secret of "living in the now".

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_random_
What would you do if you were moderately rich (apart from partying, traveling
etc.)? I would still code, maybe hire a team to help me.

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wglb
Yes, when I was about 8.

