While speaking at a San Diego university recently, I was
fortunate that I was not asked to leave the stage. You see, I
chose to share with the students in my audience some frightening
statistics. I announced that, while many would receive their
degrees, few – very few – would end up pursuing careers in their
chosen field. At this point, the faculty began giving me dirty
looks.

I went on to say that, while most students were there to pursue a
dream, the dream they were chasing was not their own. Many
students enter college to live up to the expectations of family,
friends, and society. They’ve been told they should become an
accountant, lawyer, doctor or teacher because of the great future
and financial gain. In trying to do what others think they should
do rather than following their individual passions, they rarely
continue along the same path once they leave campus.

Instead, I painted a different sort of picture. Using an
off-the-wall example to illustrate my point, I asked each of them
to imagine that he or she really wanted to become a banjo player.
I said, "What if you took the same period of time and energy
pursuing that dream, your dream, your passion? What if you began
as an apprentice at a banjo shop, and then worked hard to learn
everything about banjos? After four to six years, the same time
you would have spent earning a degree that you would not use
anyway, you would instead have become an authority on banjos. A
real banjo aficionado. Know why?"

"Because you’d be following your passion," I continued. "You
would become captivated by the topic, and the pursuit of this
goal would no longer feel like work, as much as it would be a
part of who you are. Staying up late reading and learning
everything there is to know about banjos, listening to old songs
and then creating new ones would not be a chore; it would become
your joy, because you’d be doing what you love."

Now here’s the best part. There will always be a call for
authorities in any area. So no matter if your pursuit is toward
playing the banjo, inventing new ice cream flavors, or
discovering the latest medical breakthroughs, there will always
be a demand for your services, thus creating success in your
chosen field of endeavor.

This is where true happiness and fulfillment comes in: getting
paid to do what you enjoy most while living the life you love.
Because . . .

When you do what you love, and love what you do, you’ll have
success your whole life through!