Source:?signalvnoise.com/posts/2904-forget-passion-focus-on-process
The problem with the “follow your passion” chorus: We can’t?all?love the products we work with. Someone has to do the jobs and sell the things that don’t seem sexy but make the world go round.
"跟隨你的激情"的問題在于：我們不可能都喜歡伴隨我們工作的產品。必須有人工作并銷售那些看起來不性感但讓世界運轉起來的東西。
It’s something we’ve seen in our Bootstrapped, Profitable, and Proud series.Braintree processes credit cards.You won’t meet too many people who claim to “love” credit card processing. Even Braintree’s Bryan Johnson admits, “I’m not particularly passionate about payments, but I am passionate about trying to build a good company.” Johnson gets satisfaction from making customers happy, creating a workplace that employees enjoy, and improving “an unscrupulous and broken industry.”
InsuranceAgents.com sells insurance.Again, it’s tough to find anyone with a “passion” for insurance. Seth Kravitz of InsuranceAgents.com says, “Insurance is not an exciting industry, but that doesn’t mean the work can’t be meaningful. We had to find ways to make the work more fun, make the environment more family like, and show people the positive impact of what they do.”
Both these companies have succeeded by dropping the “follow your passion” idea and focusing instead on process.
The problems with passion 激情的問題
Part of this is recognizing that, despite its wonders, there are also problems with passion. For one thing, most people’s passions aren’t that unique. That’s why it’s so hard to succeed in the restaurant business or as a professional dancer; You’re competing against everyone else with that same dream.
對于激情要意識到，除了它的奇跡部分，也存在很多問題。其中一點就是，大部分人的激情并不獨特。這就是為什么在餐飲生意或作為專業舞者非常難成功的原因；你和其他具有同樣夢想的人競爭。
Also, turning a passion into a business is a good way to kill the passion. You might love music. But become a music critic and you’re going to have to listen to hundreds of albums every month. Including a lot of stuff you hate. By the end of it, you might just discover that you can’t stand the thing you used to love. Kravitz says, “I love reading books, but I would hate to be a book reviewer. What you love to do in your personal life, many times doesn’t translate well into a business.”
并且，將激情轉換成生意是殺死激情的好方法。你可能喜歡音樂。但是要成為音樂評論員，每個月都要聽上百首唱片，包括那些你討厭的音樂。最后，也許你發現根本承受不了你過去喜歡的事。Kravitz說，“我喜歡閱讀，但我討厭成為書評人員。你在日常生活里喜歡的事情，很多時候并不能很好地轉化為生意。”
How not what?
So does this mean we’re all doomed to a life of ditch digging drudgery? No. It’s about redefining passion. Instead of working with?a thing?you love, think about how to work in?a way?you love.
如此以來，是不是意味著我們注定一生無法擺脫繁重無聊的工作呢？不是。需要重新定義激情。不是做你喜歡做的事情，而是考慮如何以你喜歡的方式工作。
It’s something Amy Hoy talks about in?Don’t Follow Your Passion. Here’s her take on?The Cute Little Café Syndrome:
If you want to run a successful café — and enjoy it — you need to love a lot more than coffee. You’ve also gotta get some kind of pleasure, even grim satisfaction, out of the daily grind. (Ha ha.) Which means, of course, interacting with customers, hiring & managing wait staff, handling the day-to-day necessities like ordering supplies, cleaning, paying rent, marketing your butt off, and dealing with customers who want to squat on your valuable tables all day for just $2 of brew.
Amy hoy 在 Don't Follow Your Passion這篇文章講過類似的事情。以下是她的部分訪談：
如果你開了一家咖啡店，并且很享受，你要喜歡很多咖啡以外的事情。你可以從日常工作中得到某些快感，甚至是令人不快的滿意感覺。（哈哈）意思是，和顧客溝通，雇傭&管理員工，處理日常必須的工作如訂貨，打掃衛生，支付租金，營銷，和應付那些只喝$2的咖啡就想坐一天的顧客。
Take your cues from this “daily grind” example and how companies like Braintree and InsuranceAgents.com succeed. Find meaning in what you’re doing. Work to improve your industry. Get joy from making a customer’s day. Surround yourself with the kinds of people and environment that keep you engaged. Figure out the details and day-to-day process that keep you stimulated. Focus on how you execute and making continual improvements. Get off on how you sell, not what you sell.
從這些“例行苦事”的例子里，還有像Braintree 和Insurance Agnets.com這樣成功的公司里學到些東西。從你正在做的事情里尋找到意義。努力提高你的專業。從搞定客戶中得到樂趣。將自己放置于使自己保持專注的各種人和環境里。將重心放在如何執行以及持續進步上。從如何銷售上尋找樂趣，而不是從賣什么上尋找。
It might not be the romantic ideal of “passion.” But if it provides you with sustainable joy and profit that you can count on, you’ll still be way ahead of the curve (and have extra resources and free time to spend doing whatever you want).
它也許不是“激情”的浪漫含義。但如果他可以為你帶來持續的快樂以及你可以數的到的利潤，你仍處于領先地位（并且有額外的資源和可以花在任何你想做的事情上的自由時間）
第一階段：
忘掉激情，側重于過程。現實生活里，我們太高估“激情”的作用。以至于“沒有興趣”更多的是自己不想做事情的借口。
如果一件事情，你只當做業余愛好，就可以只做喜歡的部分。但是，如果想把這件事情當做生意來經營，那么只做喜歡的部分就遠遠不夠了。
第二階段：
讓自己不痛苦的方式是“苦中作樂”。
把目標集中在“如何做事情”上，而不是“事情”本身。在商業里，你的產品或服務本身也許沒那么大的吸引力，但是顧客需要。這并不妨礙你做出一家偉大的公司。
