A Conversation with Myself: The reality of Passion

It was a terrific week, not because of Diwali, but because I got to discover what my real passion is. But it was no piece of cake. One would think that finding one’s “passion” is easy because all you have to do is work on what you love, right?

No, my dear diary, you are naive, as I was when I first started looking for it. Even I thought that passion is all about what you love but, it wasn’t my fault and, who wouldn’t think so after listening to the infamous speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford.

( Well as you can see the images is not mine, I can’t crop the image and take credit)

It all started with that one speech and a few quotes. This combination can motivate a person for weeks, as it did to me.

‘Poor’ me fell into that trap.

I started looking for every work/thing I ever loved to do so that I can shortlist it later.

I ended up with ten things, out of which I shortlisted five.

I first doubted that five are too many, but then the internet, you know my savior, my knight in shining armor, assured me that it is okay to have so many passions.

So I started following them one by one, but after a certain period, they all felt surreal. All the activities felt like they had no meaning. I could not hold my interest in it for long, and also I got easily frustrated if things didn’t work my way.

It was like when a child loses interest in his/her toys after a certain period. I thought this was not something one experiences with his/her passion.

The whole process was exhausting and demotivating.

Either something was wrong with me or with the word passion.

(spoiler alert: it was a mix of both)

Again for finding answers, I turned to my knight in shining armor (books and the internet) to save this damsel in distress.

Now here’s the best part, I found out that the great, legendry Steve jobs were wrong. According to the book Content Inc., If Steve jobs would have followed his advice, he would be teaching calligraphy to a bunch of students. He was not passionate about any skill related to apple. He was passionate about the value of simplicity, which drove apple to its highest peak.

You now diary when I observed I found that it is true.

According to the movie, Steve jobs loved calligraphy because of its simplicity. The biography also points out that every product at the apple is inspired by the value of “simplicity.” Especially the iPhone. Not only at work but also home, Jobs had minimal furniture, even after becoming a millionaire. Jobs was committed to his chosen uniform of a black mock turtleneck, blue jeans and, New Balance sneakers.

I mean, that is a lot of simplicity.

Anyway, Here’s what I deduced (although it was like, just putting two plus two but still).

Steve Jobs was indeed correct (I mean, who can prove him wrong); we do have gotta find something we love. But there’s a little correction; the sentence should be “we have gotta observe the value we love.” The words ‘find’ and ‘something’ is replaced by ‘observe’ and ‘value,’ respectively.

My dear diary, for so long (Like the Great wall of china long), we have been interpreting the meaning of passion so wrong (I know that rhymes). The real definition of the word passion is; “something we can suffer for.” Like seriously, how could one suffer for a thing until there’s a feeling or value attached.

Here the value of which I am talking about is related to our upbringing. The kind of upbringing we get defines what value we prioritize most. And that single value determines our 90% of life because we will always be seeking it in our work, family, goals, etc.

Like for the person whose childhood involved fights between his/her parents might prioritize the value of ‘understanding.’

Do you remember diary, how much I used to follow Einstein, yet I failed to see the real meaning of his most famous quote (the feeling you get when your friend gets more marks in your favorite subject, yeah that is how I am feeling now).

So the quote is,

I would like to end it with these last words (this is for my imaginary audience)

No matter how many things we love, there’s always a value behind, which binds them together. We just need to work on that value rather than things, and success will follow us.

(P.s. For Steve Jobs, Apple was the means to execute the his passion for simplicity.)