Guest Post- Start By Starting
May 29, 2007 | by brett | Permalink
Many students mistake passion for pleasure. A passion can be incredibly frustrating, overwhelming, sometimes even downright painful.
Most students mis-assume that passion must overtake you right away. A passion can be a small flicker – you can tell it’s a passion when its flames are ones you want to fan. It does not start out as a blaze of glory.
A number of students believe there is some great (high-paying) fun job out there somewhere if they can just find it, that does not come with a lot of stress, and that is as much fun as effort. I have not yet seen this job.
Finally, a substantial number of students mistake passion for profit. The belief is that if they do something they really love, they will make lots of money at it. To the contrary, my observation is that most passions insure, at least in the short term, poverty – not wealth.
So why don’t students “Pursue the Passion?”
Because they don’t understand what that means, nor do they embrace the sacrifices that such a pursuit mandates. When a highly successful executive stands in front of a class and says “Love what you do and you don’t work a day in your life,” he is suffering from severe amnesia. Statistically speaking, he worked many days, in awful situations, to pull to the height from which he speaks. Passion kept him going, but if he is like most passionate executives, there were long periods of time when the path was neither pleasurable, profitable, nor brightened by the light.
I am pretty sure nobody loves changing tires. The University of Arizona alumnus who founded Discount Tire spent many years changing tires –his passion was the tire business and changing tires was how he pursued it.
Nobody loves being out in the freezing cold working to process corn in a manner conducive to making ethanol. But the founder of one of Nebraska’s first ethanol plant worked outside in the cold for years before he could make raise the revenue to successfully operate a plant.
Les Moonves, head of CBS television and a one-time guest speaker at the University of Arizona’s Eller College, was asked during that guest talk how someone could get a start in television. He responded “You start by starting.” That may seem flip, but it is more accurate than it might first appear. Many, including Mr. Moonves, started by waiting on tables near a theatre hoping to get an acting job. Others tend bar in Los Angeles trying to snag a minimum-wage level job (usually part-time) that is connected with a show. There is no magic credential, resume caption, or educational ticket. This is not just about television - every passion has to start by starting.
It is fairly easy to know when you do NOT have a passion – when every day at work is an ordeal. That might well mean that you either have missed your calling or you are answering your calling in the wrong place. But when you love the people, the context, the surroundings of a job, chances are you do have a passion. It just takes time to develop the vision you need to build the flame from the flicker.
One of the five executive vice presidents at Phillip Morris USA started out taping posters to windows of grocery stores to promote Marlboro brand cigarettes. He did that for seven years. He did it well. Today, posters are illegal – they violate the tobacco settlement agreement among other things. The job he started in no longer exists, and is dramatically different from the one he has now. He pursued his passion in terms of the people he liked to work with, the culture of the company, and the realization of his own potential.
So everyone needs to start by starting. But in the process of starting, whether at a great job or not-so-great, you can experiment until you feel a flicker. And then patiently, doggedly, persistently fan that flame.
That, in my opinion, is really pursuing a passion.
Suzanne Cummins is a senior lecturer in the department of Management and Organizations at the University of Arizona. She is truly a faculty member who puts students and their learning experience first.
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Steve Farmiloe Says:
May 29th, 2007
Great article, and VERY true. There are no shortcuts. I read somewhere that the battle is won or lost before it has even begun. Preparation and hard work.
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