
Why 'Be Passionate' Is Awful Advice - frankdenbow
http://www.inc.com/millennial-entrepreneurs/why-be-passionate-is-awful-advice.html
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wccrawford
Since he starts with a bad premise, the whole thing is flawed.

"This sort of advice would have you believe that if you simply put your all
into something you will be successful."

... that's not what it says at all. In fact, it says the opposite: If you
don't put your all into something, you're much more likely to fail.

'Be Passionate' is great advice.

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bobbin_cygna
> 'Be Passionate' is great advice.

I've never understood that. It seams to me that you either feel passion or you
don't. If you are already passionate you don't need the advice, but if you
don't, what are you supposed to do? say "OK, I'll be passionate from now on"?

Same with "be confident".

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daleharvey
you can learn to be confident

and as for "be passionate", I dont see if as something you learn, but if you
arent passionate and realise that is an important fact, you can redirect your
efforts to something you are passionate about.

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netcan
What you say makes sense, but I'm not sure it applies to people. People can
decide to believe things, why can't they decide to be passionate?

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cubix
Passion isn't a belief, it's an emotion -- just like you can't simply decide
to be happy, sad, or afraid.

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sudont
I think the author's definition of "passion" is "blind love" whereas the HN
definition of "passion" is "drive to do." Sure, if you're terrible and
tasteless at something, be passionate about it on the weekends. If you're in
the top 50th percentile in terms of ability--and passionate about it--it will
work as a job.

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fragmede
"Be passionate", when the _statement_ is unqualified, is bad advice simply
because our HN definition of passion as a synonym for having motivation is not
the only definition, and it requires more than a bullet point, 2-word aphorism
to qualify.

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guynamedloren
On the contrary, being passionate can _make you qualified._ (if you put in
enough effort and stick with it long enough, which is all kind of bundled into
the concept of passion)

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fragmede
I hadn't considered that reading; clarified what I meant.

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ynniv
This is a really awful article (pun not intended, but enjoyed anyway). It is
full of straw men, hand waving, and unsubstantiated claims. It is additionally
poorly edited to the point of starting a list with "0" and continuing with
"2". I suspect that the motivation for writing it was to plug his book, which
hopefully was written by someone else. I move for immediate dismissal with
prejudice, and I would like my two minutes back, please.

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bluesnowmonkey
Second the motion.

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Jabbles
If he writes C like he numbers his bullet points he'll get a whole lot of seg
faults...

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gry
Don't confuse passion for focus. Passion pulls you. Focus pushes you. You need
both.

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i2pi
I agree with the author to the extent that being passionate about an idea is
not enough if your goal is to be rich. However, if your goal is happiness,
then I can't see a way to devote your life to a job without passion and be a
happy person.

My startup is extraordinarily stressful. But I'm not in it just for the money.
I was sick of working in a highly paid position in a field that I couldn't
muster any passion towards. From the authors perspective, I imagine that my
decision to walk away from that salary, and the bonus (oh, the bonus...), was
a mistake. But, for all the hard work that I am committing to what we are
doing and for all the stress it entails, I'm a happier person.

That's not a bad place to be.

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yoak
Though I find little of value in the article, I like the title taken in
isolation. Being passionate is key to success in my opinion. Advice to 'Be
Passionate' implies that you aren't and can turn it on in some sense. This
tends to cause people to act like they're passionate, and when it is
pretentious, it is really obnoxious.

It's like working with people who carp about having "a sense of urgency." I
always want to set them on fire. We'd then see a genuine sense of urgency.
Most of what they actually do is just pestering people.

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danilocampos
Be passionate is advice along the lines of "be a sea turtle" or "be a tea
kettle."

Passion is something you discover, sometimes by accident. Discover passion is
better advice — the verb is much more likely to get you moving in the right
direction. Once you have a clear understanding of your passion, it's pretty
hard not to be influenced by it — the "be" part takes care of itself.

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bradhe
I have been having a discussion with some friends of mine about this topic and
I was actually going to write a blog post about it, but now I would just look
like a tool if I did so. I'll just summarize what I was going to say here.

I think passion is generally stupid for a couple reasons. First off, we use it
as a defense mechanism. "If I am passionate, I won't care about failure
because I'll be doing what I love!" Not only will you have a hard time
pivoting or calling it quites all together but this mentality already sets you
up for failure on a bunch of other levels.

Secondly, how many people have been passionate about their projects that ended
up failing? We tell ourselves to be passionate because Zuck was passionate
about Facebook or the Groupon guys were passionate about their project, if
we're passionate about ours WE CAN'T FAIL!

We don't need passion to succeed, we need brains to succeed. Think critically
about what you're doing and you'll be way better off then loving your dumb
idea into the ground.

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andjones
I think the author is attacking the wrong viewpoint. Being passionate about
some idea I scrawled on a napkin at a bar is a great way to start a business.

The phrase "Be passionate" says nothing about discipline or determination.
Most of his points seem to focus on these qualities. Sure, I've been part of
many passionate conversations that started "Wouldn't it be cool if...?". Many
of these ideas never made it past the beers they were shared over. But for the
ones that did, passion is a good start.

If you are passionate over a long period of time, you will be good at what you
do. This is not the same as making money, but you will be good at whatever it
is you do. You can fake passion for a job, but those who matter will notice.

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joystickers
I wish he would have gone after the real culprit: hand wavy advice. Telling
someone to be passionate about one's work is about as helpful as telling
someone not to set himself on fire.

He should have singled out Gary V to make his point. The guy didn't start with
only his passion and a video camera. He started with employees and a multi-
million dollar business. Responding to comments is not hustling.

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aswanson
I don't think Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Netscape or any company I can
think of off the top of my head could answer more than 50 percent of his
questions with a high degree of confidence at their outset. That's not to say
they aren't important questions, though.

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onethumb
Wrong.

Proof: [http://don.blogs.smugmug.com/2010/11/10/why-be-passionate-
is...](http://don.blogs.smugmug.com/2010/11/10/why-be-passionate-is-awesome-
advice/)

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leppie
Not valid for programming/developing.

