Passion And Career Design

Written by: Yemi Daramola, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

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A friend of mine called me from Nigeria and told me about this pastor by the name Sam Adeyemi who had posted a video on his Instagram page about passion and how world billionaires are products of problem-solving and not passion. The pastor concluded that though they say follow your passion, it only meant that while solving problems or filling a gap, you will need passion not to get discouraged. I do not want to watch it in the first place but because I was compelled to correct his confusion and what may become massive miseducation of the people, I decided to watch it and write about it.

Mr. Adeyemi has done very well for himself but like his scripture puts it, follow me like I follow Christ differs from follow me as I follow Christ would not operate in his wavelength on this topic. In too much wisdom sometimes a wise man says there may come vanity, and this is where we need our own mind more than we follow motivational speakers. The first error he made was putting passion and money conclusively together in such a generic manner. The second mistake was that wealthy entrepreneurs solved problems and did not necessarily follow their passion. The truth of the later claim was that, no one billionaire that has maintained wealth for over a decade discover an idea that was not borne by passion. The reason for this was that passion is the essence of life and it’s the reason why we wake up from a sleep and every purpose in life is borne by passion because we do not know what problem we would solve until passion reveals it but passion is the first priority. Bill Gates had an inclination for Technology since childhood and following his passion led to improving information technology. Greatness becomes a gift because it was borne out of a natural inclination called passion.

I think in Uncle Sam’s repertoire of knowledge, he had no complete definition of what passion is. Passion is life and in it is all things buried. The Cambridge online dictionary defines passion as an extreme interest in or wish for doing something, such as a hobby or activity. Such passion is hardly controllable and a vice when negative but life when positive, however; the negative can be controlled but the positive passion would always escape out like a smoke from a heating kettle even when not consciously utilised. I will focus on business or career for the sake of this essay. Your passion for career and whatever corresponding dignity that it confers comes from a natural inclination that becomes driving passion. Passion of that kind is so strong that if you follow it blindly with a positive mind for as long as you do not give up on it, it will correctly straighten out the path for you at some point in the journey. Passion of this sort in the business context is the type that you can’t control even if you do not use it maximumly because it comes out of you here and there. Passion is a force of nature that unveils what to creatively exploit in market. Men are not economic wanderers looking for a market gap but it’s their passion that reveals how to exploit the market legitimately.

The problem you solve as a businessman comes from the eye of your passion and not from your actual physical eyes to see needs and solve problems. Mr. Adeyemi’s opinion is limited on this score. There is a difference between the corresponding dignity your passion fetches you and how you maintain it through investment when you are in actual possession of it but your foundational compensation for labour is tied to your passion. I cannot be an engineer and say because I went to a country with communicative disease, I want to open a hospital and exploit the medical market as a physician, but I can invest my money in the hospital to solve that disease problem for the sick community either as charity or for economic gain. That view of Uncle Sam is misleading and one would wonder why Uncle Sam has to put such a position out publicly.

Passion differs in same person such that when you finally discover your CAREER passion, you will realise you have been enjoying it all along and that probably prior your marketing it, it has been referred to by people. Passion is a brand, and it has more to do with the man’s interior than the exterior. Take for instance if you have a father that has a large firm and one could say you have the privilege of working in the office, if it comes that cheap though you fly in a private jet and have billions in the bank, if you do not bring your own passion to add values to that office creatively; you remain poor because you lack self-discovery which informs your inclined brand which could equally be to become a singer like Davido than a comfortable merchant in your dad's office. This implies an effort not to live in the shadow of yourself.

Also, problems can help discover passion and its fruits as well as help inform you on what to avoid doing or not doing while you continue to try until you breath-out last. This is the beauty of struggle as Shakespeare puts it, there is a tide in the affairs of man, which taken at flood, leads on to fortune. Obafemi Awolowo positions it well when he said he would continue to improve on himself and correct the habits he discovered in prison because of his childhood traumas until he breaths out last knowing there would be rising and falling at the initial stage of his journey to victory. Passion is life’s priority and Uncle Sam should have known better but you better know that you have a better chance to the dignity of labour when you grab your passion. Your passion is your natural inborne brand which reflection impacts the world at large, so let no one exploit it and let the little star of yours shine. Don’t be confused by confusion and I hope Uncle Sam would be brave as well as humble enough to accept my correction in the spirit of education with which it was given and discard such ungodly oration and its commitment!

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Yemi Daramola, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

He is the Managing Director of Jason Folds Group Ltd and a multi-skilled business consultant with certifications in Business analysis and project management to the professional level. A published writer and a poet. He has been able to offer a complete package of business support to clients through his diverse expertise which saw him growing markets either through writing valuable copies or strategizing market growth as well as managing corporate change or crisis. He is enthused with the growth of his clients’ investments and managing accompanying risks. He also enjoys coaching corporate and individuals on the need for persistent innovation and improvement which is the motto of his company.