“You have a lot of passions. Do you think you’ll ever focus on just one?”
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This is a quote from someone I had a first date with. We were 10 minutes into the date and discussing what I do for work. The tone implied that he believed in a single-focused kind of career and that you couldn’t be successful when you had multiple passions. I was honestly stunned. Because first, when was it bad to have interests in your career? And second, it’s not like I even listed that many. In fact, I only listed three — writing, photography, and marketing consulting — the three services that I offer.
I had to tell him that the beauty of designing my own job was that I could choose to do the services and passions I love. It’s not perfect by any means, but I’d choose this over an office job with corporate ladder climbing. That’s not for me.
So I turned the question around and asked him what he was into. “I don’t have any passions,” he replied. I gave a half laugh because that must’ve been a joke. Surely everyone has something they’re into, right? But no, he really said that because he wasn’t into anything.
“Not even your career?” I asked.
Negative. He chose data science over art because the former made more money. Confused, I asked him about the sketched portrait that he’d put into…
