Today, the popular "follow your passion" phrase has become overused and generic advice with little meaning.
Betty Liu, editor-at-large for Inc.com's "In the Loop" column, says there is a different method that may just do the trick in helping people start careers.
There are plenty of people who are extremely successful doing things they're not exactly passionate about. They just happen to be very good at what they do. And there are people who are totally passionate about something they'll never make a good career of. They'll remain poor, but at least they love what they do and are OK with that.
Liu says she has made the mistake of telling people to "do what they love and the money will follow," because she didn't know any better. It seemed to be what had worked for her, until she dug deeper and realized she had done something others hadn't done early on.
Plenty of us aren't as lucky as she was. Some may have mastered the work but after a while, realized they were just working for a paycheck. Others found they couldn't make any decent money at it. Still others finally realized they just didn't have that particular talent.
Career experts like to turn to the Venn diagram method and ask you to draw three big circles on a piece of paper. In each circle, write a list of things that corresponds to What are the things you like to do? What are you good at? What can you do that the market will pay for?
The idea is that at the end of this exercise, where the three circles overlap is exactly what you should be doing.
You have to be completely honest and write these lists with the freedom of knowing that nobody will be reading them. You can burn the lists afterward or shred them.
She promises that if you write the lists thinking your parents, spouse, or children will see them and laugh, you'll have done yourself an immense disservice.
So if you're one of those people still struggling to figure out what to do, try the Venn method and tell Liu about it by clicking onto her website, www.betty-liu.com. She wants to hear from you.
