Dear Learner,
We live in a post-qualification world.
When you clear your school and choose a professional course, you would normally be lured by pedigree of the institution, track records of past students, carefully crafted advertisements with salary packages of the past students. These external factors are important to consider, no doubt.
But..
None of these will help you, even when you get in the professional course, if you do not have one thing – PASSION. That is what you have inside you.
Don’t undertake career based on what the career can offer to you. Flip the script and think about what areas of work are you truly passionate about. Where you can contribute meaningfully to solve problems that you truly care about. Love for the subject precedes everything else.
That love will propel you forward. It will differentiate you. It will keep you going even when the going will get tough (and it will). It will reflect in what and how you do. It will show up in the work and speak for itself.
Anita Roddick famously said, “To succeed you have to believe in something with such passion that it becomes a reality.”
I have seen a lot of people build their careers in areas that they are not passionate about. They work, often feeling stuck, and keep rolling because work pays the bills (or keeps them busy). World of work is full of such people.
But people who have been truly remarkable have all been passionate about whatever they did. Passion was the source of their energy.
Think Sachin Tendulkar. When once asked what kept him going in the world of competitive cricket, he expressed that he was in love with the sound that his bat created when the ball came perfectly on the center of the bat. That is passion which differentiated him from so many others who played national competitive cricket.
Your goals will change. Purpose will shift. Nature of work will change. But passion will keep you going.
As you stand at the crossroads with multiple opportunities, choose that which brings you the most alive.
Choose passion, and you will do great, I promise.
Best,
T.
P.S: This is not a “follow your passion” advice because finding what we are passionate about can take a lot of trial and error along with a fair bit of failure. This is about bringing your innate passion in whatever you choose to do.