Passion has been excessively romanticized. The book begins by using Steve Jobs' speech as an introduction, directly pointing out the inconsistency between what Jobs did and what he said. I believe that passion should not be something you are required to conjure up, but rather something that naturally arises while you are doing something. I have passion for XXX, but the world usually demands not your passion, but your output.
The book spends quite a bit of time telling stories, but I skipped through the latter part of the stories.
Craftsman mindset v.s Passion mindset
The book mentions two mindsets: the craftsman mindset and the passion mindset. The passion mindset pursues what the world can offer you, while the craftsman mindset focuses on what you can offer to the world. The craftsman mindset is what we should strive for.
Accumulating Career Capital
To succeed in your career or life, the advice given in the book is just like its title, "So Good They Can't Ignore You." So how do you achieve this? The answer is "rare and valuable skills."
I believe everyone has their own definition of rare and valuable skills, but the book provides the following conditions that rare and valuable skills usually possess:
- Creativity
- Impact
- Autonomy
One additional point I would like to add here is, if possible, try to make your skills have a synergistic effect. Your skills can be applied to many different fields. For example, linear algebra, video editing, programming, music, writing, etc. These are all skills with a high degree of synergy and also meet the criteria mentioned in the book.
Autonomy
Autonomy is one of the requirements for accumulating career capital, but the author mentions two autonomy traps that need special attention:
- Autonomy without economic independence. Even if you do what you love for the sake of autonomy, if it doesn't bring you economic advantages, it cannot be sustained in the long term. (First Control Trap)
- When you accumulate enough career capital, your boss will try to keep you and prevent you from making changes. (Second Control Trap)
Deliberate Practice
Similar to the 10,000-hour rule, this book also mentions the importance of deliberate practice for mastering skills. It is the key to helping you master skills. The book describes deliberate practice as:
Activity designed, by a teacher for the sole purpose of effectively improving specific aspects of an individual’s performance.
The main principle is Stretch and Destroy, which means improving a little each time you practice.
Deliberate practice is always the opposite of enjoyable.
Finding a Mission
Finding a mission in life is an ongoing and ever-changing process, but the prerequisite is that you must develop enough career capital, which is skills, and continuously improve your knowledge in order to have the opportunity to find your own direction.
Summary
- Pursuing passion has been excessively romanticized, and this advice can even be dangerous.
- Mastering skills is the key (most people develop passion after becoming skilled), or in other words, having passion without output makes it difficult for others to notice you.
- If you want to accumulate career capital, it is best if your skills are rare and valuable.
- Usually, they possess three key elements: creativity, impact, and autonomy.
- Pursue the craftsman mindset: What can you contribute to the world?
Finally, I would like to add one more point. Although pursuing passion can be dangerous, I believe that if you elevate passion to become desire, the results will be completely different. Desire is when you are completely fascinated by something, have a strong desire to understand how it works, or simply want to do something well (such as sports, playing an instrument, a certain activity), and you are willing to invest your life in it. Just like what 3B1B mentioned in his Ted Talk, if you have a soul, you will seek out the answers.