The Silicon Valley gospel of “follow your passion” has become our modern religion. “When Mark Cuban told a stadium of graduates to ‘follow your passion,’ 10,000 parents simultaneously calculated the ROI on four years of tuition while their children dreamed of becoming professional dog whisperers on Instagram. Meanwhile, the most successful graduate was the one who’d fallen asleep during the speech and missed the passion memo entirely.”
Perhaps it’s time we admit that ‘following your passion‘ is the professional equivalent of believing your horoscope—it sounds profound, gives you a temporary dopamine hit, and almost never leads to anything except purchasing crystals you don’t need. The real winners? They’re too busy counting actual results to worry about how passionate they felt while achieving them.
Passion is overrated? Oh, absolutely. Passion is the seductive lie we’ve all been sold. “Follow your passion,” they say, as if passion alone pays the bills, builds empires, or changes the world. In reality, the real movers and shakers? They aren’t wide-eyed romantics chasing passion—they’re cold-blooded executors, driven by discipline, detachment, and doing the damn work.
Passion is like alcohol—it feels great, but too much of it clouds your judgment, inflates your ego, and makes you think you’re invincible. Besides helping you speak fluent English ex-tempore. Meanwhile, reality is waiting around the corner with a sledgehammer.
So, passion or pragmatism? Passion is like a sugar rush—exciting but temporary. Pragmatism aka systems, strategy, and execution? That’s the boring, unsexy stuff that actually works.
Passion is overrated. So, get over yourself. Passion is that clingy ex who promises the world but leaves you broke, bitter, and questioning your life choices. “Follow your passion,” they said. Yeah? Tell that to your landlord when you can’t pay rent because your handmade vegan candles didn’t exactly disrupt the wellness industry.
Passion is a narcissist. Execution is a hitman. Passion convinces you that your brilliant idea is a gift to humanity. Execution reminds you that nobody gives a damn until you prove it works. Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple because he loved computers. He built it because he hated mediocrity and wanted control over everything, including your wallet. In the Indian context, Dhirubhai Ambani didn’t wake up passionate about oil refineries. He woke up thinking, How do I make this entire system my playground? Spoiler alert: He did.
Passion wants validation. Dispassion just wins. Passionate people want applause. Dispassionate winners don’t even hear the noise. The Wright Brothers didn’t invent airplanes because they were passionate about aerodynamics. They were glorified bicycle mechanics who refused to die ordinary and kept failing till they got it right. Ratan Tata didn’t launch the Nano because of a deep emotional connection with tiny cars. He saw a market opportunity, built it, and moved on while others were still debating passion projects.
If you want to see passion as psychological self-sabotage, look no further than Elizabeth Holmes’ , whose passionate belief in Theranos was so strong that she forgot one tiny detail: the laws of physics and biology. Oops. Think closer home in India, remember the passionate founders of Housing.com? Their dramatic boardroom theatrics made for great popcorn entertainment but terrible business. Think less ‘Shark Tank‘ and more ‘Bigg Boss: Startup Edition‘.
All the unbridled rallying cry around passion is thanks to what we can term the PIC(Passion Industrial Complex)– which made passion a highly marketable commodity while common sense( like the Rhinoceros) was being endangered. There is an entire masterclass | coaching economy built on the foundation of passion peddling. Mukesh Ambani didn’t launch Reliance because of his burning passion for petrochemicals. He wasn’t up at 3 AM journaling about his deep emotional connection to polyester. He saw opportunity, applied discipline, and built an empire while passion-seekers were still finding themselves at Goa retreats, passionately spending their parents’ money.
If you look at the dispassionate super achievers like Warren Buffet, who approaches investing with the emotional fervor of someone selecting bathroom tile and compare that to the ‘passionate‘ crypto bros who are tattooing defunct coins on their bodies before moving back into their childhood bedrooms. No different in the case of Azim Premji who was quietly building Wipro with calculated precision, while his contemporaries were experiencing passionate burnout faster than how Delhi street food works through a tourist’s digestive system.You get the drift.
Follow your passion is the unspoken code for ” if your father owns commercial property on 5th Avenue, Manhattan or BKC in Bombay “. Thousands of immigrants around the world build successful businesses because they’re passionately opposed to the idea of starving. Dharavi‘s entrepreneurs aren’t pursuing leather-working passions with artisanal enthusiasm—they’re too busy building actual businesses while passionate MBA graduates debate their ‘purpose‘ over ₹500 coffee(Cold Pressed).
There is a misunderstood middle path when it comes to passion. Effective achievers cultivate interested detachment, not blind passion. Ray Dalio made billions with all the emotional investment of someone choosing between identical paper clips.
Jeff Bezos wasn’t passionate about books. He was passionate about world domination, next-day delivery, and making sure you never leave your couch again. That’s why Amazon is where it is today. That is why they say Passion writes poetry. Dispassion writes paychecks.
The unsexy truth: discipline outperforms passion. The next time a LinkedIn influencer tells you to ‘hustle with passion,’ remember that the person making the real money is the dispassionate algorithm designer who created the platform where that passion-preacher is performing.
Now go cancel your “Find Your Passion” workshop and do something that actually pays.