I’ve written before that I am wary of the advice, “Just pursue your passion.” Passions not only change and evolve, but also often fail to align with what many people have to do to support themselves and a family. On June 3, 2016, Janelle Quibuyen submitted a fantastic article to Quartz, which I thought perfectly critiqued the “Pursue Your Passion” sentiment that has become so prevalent in our culture. Quibuyen explains:

Nowadays we are bombarded with messages that life could only be meaningful if we do what we love (which is subjective anyway). Quitting full-time jobs to travel the world. Giving up everything to be your own boss. Leaving routine to build something from scratch. We are offered online classes, webinars, books, and podcasts of advice from professionals. We are marketed to with apps that promise the ease of starting your own business. We are told that the sacrifice will be hard but it will all be worth it—”You just have to quit your job, give it your all, buy my e-book of advice for $20, and have the passion to persevere.”

We praise people that are “courageous” enough to quit their 9-to-5 and dive into the deep end of the exciting unknown. We idealize and romanticize the idea of being our own boss and being in charge of our own schedule. To take a risk and reap the bountiful benefits.

Being your own boss is very difficult. As Quibuyen discusses in the article, there is a lot of uncertainty and had she not been with a partner with whom she could live, it might not have been the right decision. She also points out that the very idea of being able to pursue your passion “reeks of privilege.” Quibuyen furthers:

It confirms you had a full-time job to begin with. It confirms you had time to develop a passion (that you can capitalize off of, enough to meet your cost of living). It confirms you had the option to pursue something different because you feel like it. There are more challenges to being self-employed than just mental perseverance and grit. We are predatorily luring working class people into an entrepreneur lifestyle as the answer to living a meaningful life and making loads of money. It’s the new American Dream.

The message at the end of the article is what particularly resonated with me: – that no one should feel inferior because they work a 9-to-5 job or that they can’t enjoy working. Not everyone can afford to quit a well-paying job and nor should everyone. The only thing the article misses is the distinction between pursuing a passion and doing everything in your life with passion. Passion shouldn’t be the end goal, but rather the means. I think that instead of glorifying the pursuit of passion we should extol and reward hard work and shift our paradigm to elevate the people who do it passionately.