Ben Mikola


Passion is Created

You won’t be passionate about anything the first time you do it and it’s not supposed to feel good all the time either.

Passion is only found through suffering. In fact, the etymology of the word literally means “to endure” or “to suffer.

When John Mayer picked up a guitar for the first time, he was not passionate about it. It took time. I’m sure he took an immediate interest in it, but only after spending countless hours practicing and putting up with all the pain of finding gigs, practicing, and traveling did it become a passion.

It’s hard to find right away. To find it, you have to try a lot of different things. If something piques your interest, even just a little bit, then keep at it. Learn and study it. Keep going. Uncover the intricacies most don’t know or care about. Suddenly you’re good at something that most aren’t. It will be a piece of you. Something nobody can steal.

Now, you’re passionate about it. But only because you did the work.

Maybe you’re already passionate about something, but you just don’t know it. What do you do for fun? How do you spend most of your time? What do you scour the Internet for? What do you think about? What do you do that most people don’t? What do you care about that most people don’t?

I appreciate guys like Gary Vaynerchuck, but sometimes I think they send the wrong message. His “rah-rah” motivation is great, people can always strive for something better. But I think it causes people to think that every moment is supposed to be a grind. Every moment must be serving a deeper purpose.

It’s overwhelming to think of everything in terms of passion. It might make you ignore the little things that you like that you can cultivate into a passion.

Just try things. Don’t worry too much.