Passion and Progress

A few months ago I posted something that never really sat well with me. It was about passion and doing something you're not passionate about until you can afford to do what your passionate about. Well I agreed that it was OK to do something you don't have a passion for and, like I said, it never really felt right. Sometimes the world gives you what you need to hear when you're ready to hear it... so just this past week I listened to something that solidified which side of the fence I was really on.

Folks, you should NEVER do something you don't have a passion for. It is a miserable trail of pain, heartache, and utter frustration that will send you barreling down to the pits of an abysmal despair in short order. Ask me how I know... and you would have thought I had learned my lesson!

Luckily, my friend John Maxwell and the team at Success magazine set the record straight once and for all with some convincing data. In a recent Success CD John relates a story about researchers who studied a group of 1,500 people over 20 years. These folks were split into two categories:

Group A consisted of people embarking on a career path solely for the prospect of making money now so that they could do what they wanted to later in life. This group comprised 83% of the 1,500 people.

Group B consisted of people who chose a career path so that they could do what they wanted to do now and worry about making money later. This group comprised 17% of the 1,500 people.

The data that resulted says it all... at the end of the 20-year period, 101 of the 1,500 people had become millionaires. Of those 101 all but one--I repeat, all but one--were from Group B. The people that had decided to do what they loved all along were, hands down, the most successful.

Bottom Line: follow your passion, find your potential, and reap the rewards!

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