How Your Skills Trump Passion

Cal Newport delivers an honest speech on life decisions and the contemplation that ought to go into the our future employment opportunities.

Newport believes that skills trump passion; far too often we've been told that we should find what we're passionate about and pursue a job that matches that. Although this advice is appealing, according to Newport, it isn't sound. It begs the question why some people have found a job that they are passionate in yet don't love what they do; it leads to a tragic and avoidable mistake. We have no reason to believe that following one's passion is good advice, and often what he finds in studies point to the opposite conclusion.

Newport believes that there are other factors that lead you to a life that you can love just as much. He suggests that we should be passionate about what we do, but that doesn't have to correlate to what your passion is. Instead he suggests, finding a job that you do find interesting that you can get good at it and apply the courage to gain the traits that matter to you.