Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Chapter 6 Review)
People always tell you to follow your passion, but the author’s dad tells her to look for a high-paying job instead of doing something that might be fun but not make any money.
But according to research, people who have jobs that relate to their interests are more happy about it (obviously). They even perform better at them compared to what they don’t like, and are more helpful to the people around them.
Here there are a few stories of people and their career options, talking about how they liked it because they’re interested in it, not at first try, but after a long time of doing them.
A poll said that 2/3 people are not happy with their work in America (I think), and worldwide only 13% of people think their jobs are “engaging”, with the exception of Canada.
A person on Reddit said that they had an interest in everything, but he can’t do anything because he kept trying new stuff and the jobs need experience.
A guy named Barry said that young people always expect instant jobs with success, but in reality it requires you to stick with the job first.
Jeff Bezos said that a lot of people try to force an interest on themselves, which makes it hard for them to actually make a career out of them in the end. Sometimes people discover their interest without noticing.
The author also says that interests develop better when there are people supporting you.
A person named Amy Chua said that most people suck at what they love, but they suck even more at what they don’t love, so you’ll have to work for it first.
Benjamin Bloom interviewed more than 120 people who are successful in their careers, and he said there were usually 3 parts of developing an interest, the first part is about just playing around with it, until it gets to the second and third parts.
Parents who interfere too much also makes the interest go away. Parents who rush their kids to develop at an early stage will make the kids abandon the interest.
A guy named Will Shortz said that his mum would help little-by-little by buying him books
Jeff Bezos would make mechanical stuff and disassemble things, and his mum always supported him and brought him the things he needed. When Jeff explained to her what an Infinity Cube is, she didn’t understand all of it, but she said the important part is that she listened.
Here there are a bunch of people telling their experience with their interests.
The author says that you can help develop your passion by asking yourself what do you enjoy and what activities do you hate. When you get an idea of where you want to go, you have to do something related to it so you can figure out if you actually like it or not. If you like it, then you’ll progress.
The author also says that interests have to be triggered over and over again, and you need to have the patience because developing and interest takes time.
If you’ve already been doing stuff that you liked for a long while but you still don’t have the passion, try something new related to that to see if you can make yourself more interested in it.
The conclusion of the chapter is that following your passion is good, but learning how passion is made in the first place can be better.
