Career advice is ubiquitous. Ask anyone – a common man or a motivational speaker – and you will be left with tons of advice. More often than not, these pieces of career advice do not work out. Why? Because they are not realistic or practical. When something is neither realistic nor practical, it is obvious that it will not go a long way. One such misleading career advice is this: Follow your passion.
Arguably, every motivational speaker lauds this career advice and encourages us to do something we love. So much so that even the most successful people of our time endorse this idea. Larry Ellison once said: If there is one key to success, I know it is following your passion. Likewise, people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg also share the same belief.
Mark Cuban, the leading giant business entrepreneur of our time, does not think so. He does not believe that one should follow his passion for succeeding in life. In an interview with New York Times, Cuban was asked about the worst career advice he ever received in his life. “Yes,” Mark Cuban nods his head. “Follow your own passion is the worst piece of financial advice that I have ever received,” Cuban continues.
However, if you dive deep, Cuban’s point of view may seem absurd to you. After all, it is your career. It is definitely something that you should be passionate about. If you do not have a passion for something, you can not excel in that. That is true. But what Cuban means is that passion is not the only thing.
What is it then, you may ask? Well, it turns out that it is way bigger than a mere passion: Effort.
For Cuban, Efforts Come Before Passion
According to Mark Cuban, the top-rated American entrepreneur, if you want to succeed in your career, you should put your efforts into it. Once you give your hundred percent, passion will follow automatically. If you put your blood and sweat into something, you will definitely be passionate about it. The best part? You will never quit that.
Naturally, if you put your sincere efforts into something, you will be good at that. And no one quits something that they are good at. In turn, you will remain loyal and consistent with what you do.
Thus, if you continue doing what you love and are good at, you are bound to succeed. How about passion, you ask? Passion will follow automatically. It is in the process that you develop devotion and passion for your work. As you go on, you will continue to excel in your job. In the long run, you will wear many hats. And success will be one of them.