Should You Chose Passion or Money?

There comes a point in our lives when we are encountered with the dreaded question, “What do you want to do with your life?”. A similar kind of situation comes trailing behind when we are in a phase of transition, at the helm of the finishing line. This question has the capability of pushing people down in the valley of unforeseen dilemma, for it carries the vision of our whole lives ahead of us. Money vs Passion is an extension of the same conundrum.

All of the successful people out there usually quote that they ‘love what they do’. It instinctually leads us to the logic of ‘do what you love’, but as in the words of Gordon Marino, there is a life beyond ‘do what you love’. If we apply reverse engineering here, we would find that loving your work is miles away from professionalizing what you love. According to Carl Newport, when one develops a rare and valuable skill we move onto the path of career satisfaction. Anyway, following our passion is analogous with our quest towards fulfilment. 

Self - fulfilment doesn’t necessarily come from following one’s passion. For a father, it is fulfilling his children’s needs after doing a job that he detests. For a wife, it might come from the sacrifices that she has made for her family. As Ben Horowitz suggests that at times following one’s passion can manifest itself as an inordinately “me” act, which finds its fillip in extremely selfish motives of a being. It can actually threaten the whole metaphysics of morals. It seems to be taking an easy escape route from one’s duties and responsibilities towards pleasure and delectation.

Moreover, there is this fundamental of passion and interests being fluid and inconsistent with various stages in one’s lives along with a bearing of contextual adversities or prosperities. Thus, in the language of economics, following them is not what a rational being would do according to the law of diminishing marginal utility, considering the critical difference between passion and hobbies as hobbies happen to an exception to the law.

One of my seniors completed her MBA when she was 23. After working for a while, she soon realized that it was not her cup of tea and it was then when her passion for dance and fitness held her hand. She learned professional yoga and took kathak lessons for a year and a half after which she took up a job at a yoga training center in her home town. By that time, she was 25 years of age. The essence of the story lies in the fact that she could give herself that much time so as to evolve herself by the medium of such transition. Had it been a boy that too in an Indian society, he would have definitely succumbed to the pressure of being the bread earner for the family. The point of contention here is that no matter how bad do we want to, things fall in place when they have to, when the time is right. It is better that we move in the reverse order, create a vision as to what we want our lives to be like, make ourselves capable of living the vision and move towards it, for it is never too late to start. Gladys Burrill ran her first marathon when she was 82 and Raj Kumar Vaishya gave his entrance exam for Master in Economics at the age of 97.

Mark Twain very rightly said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and day you find out why”. Rather than finding out one’s passion, one should set one’s cap at ‘Finding one’s Contribution’. Pursuing the same, we discover our own inner selves and move towards a sense of achievement through adding utility and offering the world through our strengths. Most of the pioneers who devoted their whole lives to serving humanity, did not necessarily do it to find a sense of meaning but because of they had to. Happy harmony actually exists in utilising one’s talents to fulfil one’s quest for meaning which actually kindles the fire of fulfilment and accomplishment. Maslow’s need hierarchy theory holds good and finds it relevance in answering our question of ‘Money or Passion?’.

Synthesising all of the above, it actually isn’t a choice, but a matter of prioritising. A step by step approach finally leads us towards actualisation, fulfilling the purpose of our lives.

Written by: Mehak Dhingra



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