Machines | Don't Follow Your Passion
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Should you follow your passion, wherever it may take you? Should you do only what you love...or learn to love what you do? How can you identify which path to take? How about which paths to avoid? TV personality Mike Rowe, star of "Dirty Jobs" and "Somebody's Gotta Do It," shares the dirty truth in PragerU's 2016 commencement address. Donate today to PragerU: http://l.prageru.com/2eB2p0h Check out Mike Rowe's latest projects! http://www.mikerowe.com Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. VISIT PragerU! http://www.prageru.com You can support PragerU by clicking here: https://www.classy.org/checkout/donation?eid=60079. Free videos are great, but to continue producing high-quality content, contributions--even small ones--are a must! FOLLOW us! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/ JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: https://www.prageru.com/student-ambassador-program For Educators: https://www.prageru.com/educators Sponsor a Student: https://www.prageru.com/become-pragerforce-sponsor Script: There are only two things I can tell you today that come with absolutely no agenda. The first is “Congratulations.” The second is “Good luck.” Everything else is what I like to call, “The Dirty Truth,” which is just another way of saying, “It’s my opinion.” And in my opinion, you have all been given some terrible advice, and that advice, is this: Follow your passion. Every time I watch the Oscars, I cringe when some famous movie star—trophy in hand—starts to deconstruct the secret of their success. It’s always the same thing: “Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t have what it takes, kid!”; and the ever popular, “Never give up on your dreams!” Look, I understand the importance of persistence, and the value of encouragement, but who tells a stranger to never give up on their dreams, without even knowing what it is they’re dreaming? How can Lady Gaga possibly know where your passion will lead you? Have these people never seen American Idol? Year after year, thousands of aspiring American Idols show up with great expectations, only to learn that they don’t possess the skills they thought they did. What’s really amazing though, is not their lack of talent—the world is full of people who can’t sing. It’s their genuine shock at being rejected—the incredible realization that their passion and their ability had nothing to do with each other. Look, if we’re talking about your hobby, by all means let your passion lead you. But when it comes to making a living, it’s easy to forget the dirty truth: just because you’re passionate about something doesn’t mean you won’t suck at it. And just because you’ve earned a degree in your chosen field, doesn't mean you’re gonna find your “dream job.” Dream Jobs are usually just that—dreams. But their imaginary existence just might keep you from exploring careers that offer a legitimate chance to perform meaningful work and develop a genuine passion for the job you already have. Because here’s another Dirty Truth: your happiness on the job has very little to do with the work itself. On Dirty Jobs, I remember a very successful septic tank cleaner, a multi-millionaire, who told me the secret to his success: “I looked around to see where everyone else was headed,” he said, “And then I went the opposite way. Then I got good at my work. Then I began to prosper. And then one day, I realized I was passionate about other people’s crap.” I’ve heard that same basic story from welders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, HVAC professionals, hundreds of other skilled tradesmen who followed opportunity—not passion—and prospered as a result. Consider the reality of the current job market. Right now, millions of people with degrees and diplomas are out there competing for a relatively narrow set of opportunities that polite society calls “good careers.” Meanwhile, employers are struggling to fill nearly 5.8 million jobs that nobody’s trained to do. This is the skills gap, it’s real, and its cause is actually very simple: when people follow their passion, they miss out on all kinds of opportunities they didn’t even know existed. When I was 16, I wanted to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps. He was a skilled tradesman who could build a house without a blueprint. That was my passion, and I followed it for years. I took all the shop classes at school, I did all I could to absorb the knowledge and skill that came so easily to my granddad. For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/courses/life-studies/dont-follow-your-passion
Comments
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when I saw the title I was confused and angry about the statement, but as he showed his reasoning I saw that this is a legitimate theory that I can use to prosper in my next few years of high school.
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fun does not buy money
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3:03 They're rotating their arms
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this is a horrible video to watch if you're musician hahahaha
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Also why passion has to be some kind of job. Passion can be almost anything you can have passion for playing video games so you say be slave to goverment and giant corporations.
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So this video says don't find your passion and do what's your passion is even if you are good at it because never follow your passion. I understand that you shouldn't try to sing or act if you suck at it but that never ever ever follow your passion even if your passion is playing video games or do youtube videos or write fanfiction those which almost anybody could do.
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i will always follow my passion even how many times i will fail because every time ill fail , i will learn a lesson from it, even there are many struggles and obstacles, i will run after my dreams. people will say my dreams are too big but i will tell to them that they have small minds. there are lot of people who are successful because they follow their dreams and guess what? they fail many times before they succeed. the thing is dont give up on your dreams even if u fail million times
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I mostly agree with him!
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floor between about stick gun generally.
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I disagree with this. Every career has a competition and requires skills. Nobody is born with those skills. The passion is what drives us to learn the required skills and to want to become better in them. Otherwise, what use of countless opportunities, if you haven't got the right skills?
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Like George Carlin used to say "Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist."
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I hate this video. There is so much wrong with it I don't know where to begin. First, opportunity. So I should start a job that pays better and I will hate going to work every day like 99% of all working Americans do? And should fool myself that I should take it, like a man because it pays the bills? Why become a plumber or electrician when I could be a prostitute or a scum artist, perhaps a drug dealer - they all follow the opportunity and certainly make more without going to college? You didn't become a house builder, not because you luck talent. Skill and knowledge is not passed on with the genes. You had bad teachers.
Those people on American Idol, never bother to learn from someone else, because they are way too self important, they believe in their talent and actively decline to learn from someone else. In America persistence is more valued than skill and this is why they are hoping to succeed.
"Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life" or maybe the ancient philosopher was less wise than you.
I hate to say it but America never parted with slavery. It just brainwashed the slaves to be happy with their live. You didn't say it, but what you are teaching is: "follow the money and be happy when you can get it" . What is your solution? Take what you can and be happy with it to satisfy the poor employers, who can't fill their job positions with low paid, yet highly skilled workers they are looking for.
No! You had bad teachers, who never taught you how to be good at what you dreamed to be. Teachers shape the future generation and you are a teacher. Teach the students the skill you are good at and don't give them life lessons - this is not your strength. -
This is why I'm going to med school. I love studying and teaching to others, so I thought about pursuing a math degree. But my family told me something great from their experience: You'll be far unhappier doing something that you love and being poor than doing something you're fine with and having a confortable financial situation. So I am now trying to get into med school, where I'll get to study a lot about a subject I like, and when I graduate I'll get one of the best pays available! I must say, though, that I'm pursuing a hard degree because I'm very good at studying and learning.
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I'm so happy I heard this, I just finished uni, and I've been trying to follow my passion for half a year now only got a job I'm terrible at and completely unsuited too. Now I'm gonna follow my head and pick a sensible career!
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Love Mike Rowe and agree with him most of the time, but not on this one. I have a very successful career that I don't enjoy, and I've encouraged my kids to find a different path: find something you love doing and can do well, and figure out how to make a living at it. Within reason, obviously; you may never be able to make a living doing lesbian dance therapy.
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where opportunity meets passion, you will find success. If you happen to have talent as well, you will be the best.
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i bet you're an atheist, u don't even believe in yourself, or you just couldn't find out what your real passion is/was, jamie oliver is a passionate chef, cooking was his passion, he never consider being a chef as a job, u'll might never find somebody whom at his caliber of doing something just because there is an opportunity to make a living, if you're not passionate about something then you'll never gonna be that good at it,of course you'll need skills and talent, surely you know your own capacity and ability on certain things and if all of them click with what your passion is, then BINGO! if you failed at something maybe you're just gonna have to try even harder, or it might not be your real or true passion, your video i think can only be suited for some people who have no idea what their real passion is, just because your dad doing certain type of things doesn't mean you have to follow his step, seriously that is childish, even when i was a child i knew that i didn't just wanna follow my parent's steps, i'm not saying that you should only follow your passion that makes you blind to other possibility, for example my mom wanted to be a doctor, but because of her parents didn't have much money to put her through medical school, she ended up to be a teacher, she's been a headmaster for ten years now, believe in yourself, if you failed at chasing your dreams who knows, u might end up doing something else that you didn't know u might be good at or you might like, God knows more than us, God will lead us to the right path. there's always an uncertainty in life and that's the beauty of it, coz everything is being controlled by God, half of the time we don't really know what we're doing, coz we have limitations we're only human, just do what you have to do or what you wanted to do, even if you make mistake God will help you to go back to the right direction, if you believe and follow God's rules. and the right direction according to you might not be good enough for God, God knows better, just be patient God will show us the way, coz God create us in the first place, God knows everything about us, if you're an atheist well you can just follow this guy..."never follow your passion", if you're not pasionate about cooking i wouldn't consider going at your money maker food stall, if your aim is only money u might put nasty stuff in your food to make it last longer, then you can sell it anytime u want without having any loss...don't just put stuff like this on the internet u might mislead someone
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I can listen to this guy all day because he has such soothing voice
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If you're not prepared to die, bleed, sweat, starve, cry, for your passion its not your true passion, its just something you made up to be excited about. You don't abandon your passions, they constantly follow you around, nagging, promising you fulfillment and completion. What we are passionate about is like NAVY SEALS training, the toughest people on earth, the only thing that seperates those who become navy seals and those who fail, is the passion they have, you never know how much you want something, until you are on a beach, 3 am in the morning, taking below freezing waves after you have not slept in 3 days. The only thing that keep you their is passion, just because you chose to abandon your passion, does not give you the right to tell other people to do the same.