Cal Newport is one of my favorite bloggers. A mathematics professor by trade, Newport is better known for his tips on studying, productivity, and careers.
After regularly reading his blog for a year, I decided to buy his book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You.” I was intrigued by the premise: if you want a great career, don’t worry about following your passion.
Newport’s book was an excellent companion piece to Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art.” Pressfield focused primarily on overcoming self-sabotage and focusing on your work. Newport describes how to turn your work and skills into a great career.
The most provocative rule in Newport’s book is “Don’t Follow Your Passion.” Newport systematically debunks the underlying premise of most career advice books – something he calls the passion hypothesis:
“The passion hypothesis claims that the key to occupational happiness is to first figure out what you’re passionate about and then find a job that matches this passion.”
Newport argues that approaching your work from a “passion mindset” is wrongheaded because your focus is primarily on the value your job is offering you. A focus on pursuing your passion “ultimately leads to chronic dissatisfaction and daydreaming about the better jobs you imagine existing out there waiting to be discovered.”
The key to a great career is adopting the craftsman mindset: approach your work with a focus on the value of what you are offering to the world.
Compelling careers often have complex origins that don’t support the simple idea that “following your passion” is the way to build a career that you love. Research into the biographies of successful people reveals that passion is a side effect of mastering rare and valuable skills which are traded in for the traits that make a great career. In short, you have to get good before you get the perks.
“Put aside the question of whether your job is your true passion, and instead turn your focus toward becoming so good they can’t ignore you. That is, regardless of what you do for a living, approach your work like a true performer.
What makes a great career?
- Autonomy – the feeling of control over your work and daily schedule, plus the feeling that your actions matter.
- Competence – knowing that you are good at what you do.
- Relatedness – feeling connected to others.
How great work builds a great career.
- The traits that define great work are rare and valuable. (e.g., not everyone is in a CEO position.)
- If you want your career to have “great” traits, you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return. (career capital.)
- By adopting the “craftsman mindset” you systematically pursue the rare and valuable skills, which you can trade in for the traits of a great career.
The craftsman mindset involves using deliberate practice to stretch your skills beyond that of your peers. This is what separates excellent performers from those who are “just good enough.”
Newport’s book offers tons of practical tips on how to embark on the pursuit of career capital and stay focused along the way. For more, read Cal Newport’s blog and find his book on Amazon.
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