There are certain accepted truths…that just aren’t.

Do what you love, the money will follow…that’s great as long as you love doctoring or lawyering. If you love watching football, you’re going to have some challenges making ends meet. That is not to say that you shouldn’t follow your passion. But if you’ve looked around, and you have interests (like friends and football or read…) but not passions (like being a professional athlete or musician or artist), then take heed before following the ‘money will follow axiom’.

The truth is, sometimes, you have to make the money follow you. You find something that is interesting (even if it isn’t a life-long passion) and you build it and shape it and make it work. You get invested in the process and the outcomes. You care about the people involved. You want it to do well. You learn to love it, because you built it, you made it.

Business coaches, college counselors, success consultants take note; not everybody has a true passion. Telling everybody to follow ‘passion’ is like telling me to speak Farsi; you can tell me to do it but that doesn’t mean I can.

Maybe better said, ‘Do what you like, do it with gusto, give it everything, and have fun along the way. Keep a great attitude, and most days will be good. And the money will follow’. When we counsel job candidates at RepRight, we often help them find something that they can get into, learn from, grow with…and something that will support them well. All in all, we think that’s a pretty good goal.

Alice Errett is the Owner of RepRight, an independent sales job/candidate matching service.