Finding Your Passion

Several times over the past year, whenever I’ve discussed my dissatisfaction in my current job and my desire to do something else but not sure what, I’ve been asked what I’m really passionate about. And I’ve always been honest and straightforward and said “I’m not sure.” Or “I’m trying to figure that out.” I’m still in this stage.

I think the most basic and common career advice I often hear is to follow your passion. But this isn't helpful when I don’t even know what my passion is. I’m not sure if this is a personal problem, a life stage problem, a generational problem, or some mix of all these and others. I recently mentioned to someone here, half-jokingly, that I was going through my quarter-life crisis. That made me think of the book by Alexandra Robbins, Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. I quickly skimmed through a free chapter from Amazon and realized this book wasn’t going to be helpful for me, because it just discusses what it is, not exactly what to do about it. But then, I saw that she wrote a second book a few years later called Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis. Unfortunately, the tagline is: Advice from Twentysomethings Who Have Been There and Survived. I quickly skimmed through the free chapter and put this book down as well. Why am I going to read a book written by a bunch of 20-somethings trying to justify their own decisions made a couple years ago? I want to read a book written by 60-somethings looking back with ample perspective on the decisions they made when they were in their 20’s and 30’s.

So, how do I find out what I’m passionate about? I remembered the power of the internet, so I literally googled “finding your passion” to see what this would yield. There’s a lot of self-help gurus each with their own advice. Similar to my earlier approach, it’s probably not wise to just follow the advice of one and run with it. But I thought I’d read over several of them to see if there are some common themes and frameworks.

One video I found helpful was by a Stanford professor named Randy Komisar, who’s also had a crazy successful career (CEO of LucasArts, Senior Counsel to Apple Computer, founding director of TiVO, etc.). In this short clip, he talks about not getting paralyzed looking for one singular passion, but instead thinking about a portfolio of passions and constantly moving in the right direction.
http://academicearth.org/lectures/how-do-you-find-your-passion-and-pursue-it
(BTW, Academic Earth is like a YouTube for free online lectures of a certain quality)

While reading a bunch of other stuff on the web, I think some of the common themes were:
1. Brainstorm what I like to do for fun and consider if there’s a way to make money off of it. Cast a wide net of anything and everything. Childhood dreams, hobbies, interests, etc.
2. Solicit feedback from others for ideas or what I seem to be passionate about. Friends / career counseling / mentors, etc.
3. Don’t be afraid to try something out / don’t be afraid of failure / don’t be afraid of going in the wrong direction. Try an internship, try a PT job, etc.
4. Constantly talk to others about what they do to help brainstorm ideas for yourself.

I also found this list a couple of times. Don’t know who to attribute it to, but found these questions helpful as well.
What puts a smile on your face?
What do you find easy?
What sparks your creativity?
What would you do for free?
What do you like to talk about?
What makes you unafraid of failure?
What would you regret not having tried?

So, a few days ago, I started an exercise in jotting down anything and everything I like. This is a work in progress and in no particular order. Some of these are topics, some of these are processes. I think I’ll continue to look through this list to see if there are some themes and ideas that emerge:

Things I am passionate about (no particular order):
1. Soccer – the game itself
2. Learning about obscure sports (cycling, cricket, curling, etc.) – I like learning about why something is so popular with a certain segment of society. I like learning about the intricacies and strategies of something that initially looks so simple.
3. Information proliferation – I like sharing info with others whether it be good advice, a good deal, interesting news, a good idea, etc.
4. Reforming the church – I think it really bothers me when the Church is doing something poorly. (Bashing gays, prosperity gospel, hoarding resources, insulated culture, etc.)
5. Making an idea into reality – I’m not a creative guy, but I’m an implementer. I need to partner with someone who has a good idea and I can make it happen. It bothers me when good ideas go to waste.
6. Process improvement – I like making things more efficient, simpler. It bothers me when time or resources is unnecessarily wasted.
7. Summarizing the point – I like getting to the main point quickly. (I used to summarize news for my job. I like facilitating disagreements and getting to a point of consensus.)
8. Behavioral finance – I like learning about how we make bad, irrational decisions and want to help others make better decisions, combating over-confidence, relying on statistical evidence over emotions.
9. Puzzles – I like completing a defined task. I like finding patterns. I can do puzzles pretty quickly. (This is similar to my previous comment of “any monkey can do it”. It’s true that any monkey can finish a puzzle. But I have the ability to just sit there and continually find patterns and not get bored or tired.)
10. Building things (legos, Ikea furniture) – I like following directions and building what it’s intended to be.
11. Blogging / web site management (I created a personal web site in high school, in college, had an active xanga site post-college, and now have LINcredibles) – In all these instances, it wasn’t a self-focused web site. It was focused on other topics. I think I like sharing information / ideas and being helpful.
12. Some kind of resolution to the problem of North Korea – I generally read up on major news regarding North Korea.
13. Jeremy Lin – I think he’s the first real Asian-American, Christian celebrity and the celebrity that is most similar to me and my values. I think he has a great opportunity to spread the gospel and be an example, particularly in Asia.
14. Lady Gaga – I’m actually not passionate about her. But I like her “apparent” authenticity and anti-bullying message. I think she’s smart and talented. When I start learning about someone, I get obsessed and read Wikipedia and watch youtube videos. I’ve seen Lady Gaga’s GoogleTalk, her 60 Minutes interview w/ Anderson Cooper, and watched her HBO special, etc.
14a. When I get obsessed over a topic, I google it to the ground. I love researching topics on the internet.
15. Kim Yuna – Koreans excelling in the world makes me happy.
16. LPGA – Koreans excelling in the world makes me happy.
17. Korean national soccer team – B/c I’m ethnically Korean and I love soccer.
18. Social justice as an idea, not as a ministry opportunity – I say this honestly. I did inner-city tutoring / mentoring for 3 years and through the experience, I realized that’s not where my gifts are. However, I remain passionate about the goals and mission.
19. Education reform – I’m no expert, but I like reading about these issues because of my passion for: education, social justice, and b/c I’m a problem solver and hate seeing a problem persist.
20. Helping the common man – as a theme.
21. Want to be around people like me: faith, personality, character, etc. – I’m not happy about this, but I think I find it much more difficult than others in reaching out and connecting with people that are different from me in a social setting.
22. Moneyball – I like nerds infiltrating all areas of life and making things better. (similar to behavioral finance)
23. Anti-lotteries – I hate lotteries. It is a tax on the poor and stupid. The very opposite of what a progressive society aims to do. Anti-Robin Hood. It steals from the poor and gives all the money to one suddenly very rich person. (I even wrote a final paper in business school on this topic).
24. Personal philanthropy – wanting to see a just society, but I have unresolved issues with the non-profit sector as a whole because I don’t know what does more harm than good.
25. China – It’s the rising superpower and I think it’s really interesting to see how a centralized government handles a rising middle class and a growing Christian population.
26. Arab Spring – freedom from oppression. I love reading about what’s happened this past year. I think it’s short-term instability for potential long-term benefit.
27. Don’t want to “play defense” in my job – by this, I mean a job that is essentially waiting for something bad to happen (counterterrorism analyst, but also fireman, policeman, etc.) I felt it was depressing and most of the time, you’re sitting there doing nothing. I think I’d be happier actively doing something positive, rather than trying to prevent something negative.
28. Redeemer – I love Tim Keller. I love what Redeemer does.
29. Satisfier, not maximizer – I like making quick decisions and moving on. I like relying on experts who know more than me.
30. Index funds – they outperform mutual funds and cost less. The mutual fund industry as a whole takes money away from average people – that’s wrong.
31. Asian-Americans issues – I read Angry Asian Man blog regularly.
32. Posting cool articles to Facebook – like sharing information
33. Advances in technology – I’m not a techie, but I’m fascinated by how our world is changing so rapidly and I embrace it. I love the fact that I can FaceTime with my parents and in-laws across the world for free.
34. Reading news – I read NYTimes, WashPost, Huffington Post, Gothamist, Atlantic, NewYorker, ESPN, Soccernet, and a few others daily – I like being aware of what’s going on.

Anyway, this is the list I have going so far. I’m going to continue adding to this and trying to develop ideas and themes. Please feel free to:
1. Share with me any good advice you’ve received on identifying your passions.
2. Share with me any themes or ideas you’ve noticed or think I should consider more deeply.