The Perils of Following Your Career Passion | WorkLife with Adam Grant

Summary

在这段引人入胜的演讲稿中，我们被鼓励去重新思考“追随你的激情”这一普遍的职业建议。演讲者Adam Grant，一位组织心理学家，通过分享包括Maria Konokova在内的个人故事，揭示了激情往往是努力的结果而非起点。Maria的故事特别引人注目，她从对写作的早期热情转向心理学，最终在扑克牌游戏中找到了意想不到的成功。演讲强调，职业规划应该是一个测试和学习的过程，而不是一成不变的计划实施。此外，演讲还讨论了对工作的不切实际期望可能导致的失望，并提供了关于如何更有效地选择和发展职业生涯的见解。

Takeaways

• 🤔 追随激情可能不是最佳的职业建议，因为它可能导致痛苦和迷茫。
• 🎓 许多毕业生不知道他们真正热爱做什么，而且大多数激情并不直接转化为职业。
• 💼 激情工作对许多人来说是一种奢侈，而收入是必需的。
• 🧐 激情往往在我们年轻时形成，但早期的激情并不总是未来职业的最佳指南。
• 📈 玛丽亚·科诺科娃的故事表明，激情是努力的结果，而不仅仅是原因。
• 🔍 追随好奇心而非仅仅是激情，可能会引领你发现新的技能和兴趣。
• 🚀 成功的企业家即使在对初创企业不感兴趣时，通过投入时间和努力，激情也会随之增长。
• 🧠 心理学家安吉拉·达克沃斯认为，激情需要与毅力结合，形成长期目标的驱动力。
• 🛠️ 追求激情时，人们可能会忽视其他可能发展成激情的领域，并且在遇到困难时更容易放弃。
• 📉 对工作的期望越高，不喜欢的工作方面带来的失望就越大，这可能导致不满足和后悔。
• 🌟 与其寻找理想的工作，不如专注于变得非常擅长你的工作，这样你的才能就不容忽视。

Q & A

为什么说追随激情（follow your passion）可能不是一个好的职业建议？

追随激情可能会导致人们忽视其他潜在的兴趣领域，当遇到困难时更容易失去兴趣并放弃。此外，激情往往是通过努力和时间逐渐培养出来的，而不是一开始就有的。

心理学家Chris Rock在Netflix特别节目中提到了什么观点？

Chris Rock提到，并不是每个人都可以成为任何他们想成为的人。他建议告诉孩子们真相，即他们可以成为他们擅长的事情，只要有人在招聘。

Maria Konokova是如何将她早期对语言的迷恋转化为职业抱负的？

Maria Konokova在莫斯科的童年时期因为语言障碍而培养了对语言的迷恋，这种迷恋很快转化为她成为一名作家的清晰职业愿景。

为什么说激情是努力的结果，而不仅仅是原因？

研究表明，当企业家即使在对他们的初创企业不感兴趣时仍然投入时间，他们的热情随着进步而增长。这表明激情可以通过努力和进步来培养，而不仅仅是一开始就有的。

Angela Duckworth是如何定义'grit'的？

Angela Duckworth将'grit'定义为对长期目标的热情和毅力。她认为，仅有职业道德是不够的，没有引导性的热情是可怕的。

为什么说'追随你的激情'反映了一种固定心态？

这种建议假设你的兴趣是稳定的，如果你不立即喜欢一个领域或任务，就会认为这不是你的激情。但这是一个错误，因为激情可以随着时间的推移而增长。

为什么说职业满足感并不总是来自于工作本身？

因为期望工作完全满足个人的所有需求是一个很高的标准。工作中总会有一些不那么令人愉快的事情，如果期望过高，就会对工作中不喜欢的部分感到更加失望。

Emma Locke在她的职业生涯中经历了哪些转变？

Emma Locke最初梦想成为一名动物园管理员，但后来发现实际工作并不符合她的期望。她最终成为了一名在线动物教育者，通过YouTube发布教育视频，找到了一个既能涉及她对动物的热爱，又能适应她个性和才能的工作。

为什么说在考虑职业道路时，不应该仅仅追随你的激情？

因为人们对于自己激情的理解可能会随时间而变化，而且仅仅追随旧有的激情可能会导致忽视其他可以学习和掌握有用技能的工作机会。

在职业规划中，'test and learn'策略相比'plan and implement'有什么优势？

在快速变化的世界中，'test and learn'策略允许个人通过尝试不同的工作机会来学习，而不是事先制定一个固定的计划。这种方法更加灵活，可以帮助个人发现意想不到的兴趣和机会。

为什么说在职业选择上，有时需要保持开放的心态而不是过于专注于某一种想法？

过于专注于某一种想法可能会限制个人探索其他潜在的兴趣和机会。保持开放的心态可以让人更灵活地适应变化，发现新的激情和职业道路。

Outlines

00:00

🤔 关于激情与职业选择的反思

本段落讨论了激情对于职业选择的重要性及其局限性。提到了史蒂夫·乔布斯和朱迪·福斯特等名人关于激情的演讲，同时指出单纯追随激情可能带来的风险，如迷茫和挫败感。作者亚当·格兰特通过自己的播客探讨了如何在不牺牲激情的前提下，采用策略性的方法来选择职业道路。

05:04

🎓 激情与职业发展的真实情况

这一段通过讲述玛丽亚·科诺科娃的故事，展示了激情是如何随着时间和经验而发展的。玛丽亚早期对语言和写作的热爱并未直接转化为职业，而是在经历了多种工作后，通过不断探索和学习，最终在心理学和写作之间找到了交集。她的故事强调了激情是努力的结果，而不是起点。

10:05

🃏 激情与努力：扑克玩家的启示

在这一段中，玛丽亚·科诺科娃的扑克经历揭示了激情是如何通过学习和技能掌握而培养出来的。她对扑克的激情并非一开始就有，而是在她学习游戏并逐渐变得擅长之后逐渐产生的。这一段落还介绍了安吉拉·达克沃斯对激情的看法，她认为激情是通过坚持和长期目标的执着而逐渐发展起来的。

15:07

💼 职业规划：从计划实施到测试学习

这一段讨论了传统的职业规划方法可能不再适用于快速变化的现代职场。提出了“测试和学习”的策略，即像科学家一样对自己的职业生涯进行实验，不断尝试和学习。通过蒂姆·厄本的例子，说明了职业选择的复杂性，并鼓励学生们放弃过于具体的长期职业规划，转而探索和体验不同的工作机会。

20:09

🦒 职业期望与现实的差距

艾玛的故事展示了对工作的过高期望可能导致失望和不满足。她从小就对动物有着浓厚的兴趣，并最终在伦敦的一家动物园找到了工作。然而，她发现实际工作与她想象中的浪漫场景相去甚远，包括处理恶劣天气、孤独感以及与公众的互动等问题。这一段强调了对工作的现实预期的重要性，并指出了追求完美工作可能导致的不幸。

25:09

🌱 寻找个人职业的天堂

艾玛在离开动物园工作后，找到了一种新的方式将她对动物的热爱转化为职业，成为了一名在线动物教育者。她通过YouTube发布教育视频，获得了超过3000万的观看量。这一段强调了将个人激情转化为职业满足感的重要性，并提出了将激情作为业余爱好或在工作中寻找创造性方法来结合激情的建议。

Keywords

💡激情

激情在视频中被描述为对工作或事业的强烈热爱和投入。它是推动人们追求卓越和成功的关键因素。然而，视频也指出，单纯追随激情可能并不是最好的职业建议，因为激情可以通过努力和成长而逐渐培养，而不仅仅是先天的或一成不变的。例如，Maria Konokova最初对写作有激情，但后来通过学习和掌握技能，对扑克产生了激情。

💡职业规划

职业规划在视频中被讨论为一个传统的职业发展方法，它涉及设定长期目标并规划实现这些目标的步骤。然而，在快速变化的世界中，视频提倡采取更为灵活的“测试和学习”的方法，类似于科学家进行实验，通过尝试不同的工作机会来探索和学习，而不是严格遵循一个固定的计划。

💡测试和学习

这是一种非传统的职业发展策略，鼓励个人像科学家一样对待自己的职业生涯，通过尝试和评估不同的工作机会来学习和成长。这种方法强调灵活性和适应性，而不是事先制定详细的计划。视频中通过多个例子说明了这种方法的有效性，如通过尝试不同的工作角色和任务来发现个人的兴趣和强项。

💡才能

才能在视频中被提及为实现职业成功的一个重要因素。它涉及到个人在特定领域的技能和能力。视频指出，不是每个人都能在任何领域都能成功，而是应该找到自己真正擅长和有潜力的领域。例如，Chris Rock在视频中提到，不是所有的孩子都能成为他们想成为的任何东西，但可以成为他们擅长的东西。

💡激情与努力

视频强调激情是努力的结果，而不仅仅是原因。这意味着，通过投入时间和精力来发展技能和专业知识，个人可以培养对某个领域或活动的激情。这与普遍的观念相反，即激情是一种先天的、不变的特质。视频中通过Maria Konokova学习扑克并最终成为扑克冠军的故事来说明这一点。

💡职业期望

职业期望是指个人对工作的预先设定的希望和愿景。视频警告说，对工作的过高期望可能导致失望和不满意。当人们对工作有不切实际的幻想时，他们可能会对工作中不那么愉快的方面感到更加不满。Emma的故事说明了她对动物园管理员工作的期望与实际工作之间的差距，以及这种差距如何影响她的工作满意度。

💡现实工作预览

现实工作预览是指在招聘过程中向潜在员工提供一个真实和诚实的工作描述，包括工作中的挑战和不愉快的方面。视频建议，与其给应聘者一个过于乐观的工作描述，不如提供一个现实的预览，这样可以帮助他们建立正确的期望，并在长期内提高工作满意度和留存率。

💡未实现的召唤

未实现的召唤指的是个人对某些他们从未在职业生涯中追求的激情或兴趣。视频提到，有些人可能会选择将这些兴趣作为业余爱好，而其他人可能会找到将这些兴趣融入他们工作的小方法。这有助于增加工作的满足感，即使主要的工作职责可能与这些兴趣不直接相关。

💡职业适应性

职业适应性是指个人在职业生涯中根据经验和学习调整自己的目标和方向的能力。视频通过多个个体的故事强调了在不断变化的工作环境中保持灵活性的重要性。例如，通过尝试不同的工作角色，个体可以发现他们以前未曾意识到的激情和才能。

💡长期目标

长期目标是指个人为自己设定的远期职业或生活目标。视频讨论了长期目标的重要性，但同时也指出，在追求这些目标的过程中，需要保持灵活性和开放性，以适应不断变化的情况和机会。例如，Angela Duckworth提出的“毅力”概念，即对长期目标的热情和坚持，是成功的关键因素。

💡职业发展

职业发展涉及个人在其职业生涯中的成长和进步。视频通过多个案例说明了职业发展不总是一条直线，而是可以通过探索不同的路径和学习新技能来实现的。职业发展也可以是通过测试和学习、不断尝试和评估新的角色和机会来实现的。

Highlights

激情对于改变世界和追求个人梦想的重要性，如制造钢铁侠战衣或绘制西斯廷教堂的天花板。

史蒂夫·乔布斯在2005年强调了对工作充满激情的重要性，认为热爱你所做的事情是做出伟大工作的唯一途径。

朱迪·福斯特在2006年的演讲中提到，能够用激情填满生活是多么幸运。

约翰·传奇在2014年鼓励人们以激情追求充满爱的生活。

林-曼努尔·米兰达在2016年谈论了寻找职业激情的过程。

毕业演讲中常提到“追随你的激情”，但这可能并不是对每个人都适用的好建议。

激情并不总是能够直接转化为职业，许多人并不确切知道自己热爱做什么。

克里斯·洛克在Netflix特别节目中提到，并非每个人都能成为任何他们想成为的人，而应该学会他们擅长的技能。

玛利亚·科诺科娃从小就对语言和文字充满好奇，这最终成为了她职业生涯的种子。

玛利亚在大学毕业后尝试了多种工作，包括文案写作和调酒师，但她意识到这些工作并不符合她的长期职业目标。

追求激情可能会导致情绪上的起伏，许多人在寻找职业匹配时会感到迷茫和痛苦。

心理学家安吉拉·达克沃斯定义了“坚毅”为对长期目标的热情和毅力。

达克沃斯认为“追随你的激情”可能是错误的职业建议，因为它反映了一种固定心态。

激情是通过努力工作而产生的结果，而不仅仅是原因。

艾玛·洛克从小就对动物充满热情，但她发现动物园管理员的工作并不适合她的个性和才能。

艾玛最终成为了一名在线动物教育者，通过YouTube发布教育视频，找到了将她的激情与日常工作相结合的方式。

工作并不总是能够满足个人的所有需求，重要的是要变得如此出色以至于你的才能不容忽视。

Transcripts

if you want to change the world

you can do that if you want to build the

iron man suit

you can do that we can do that

you know an inspiring commencement

speech when you hear one

it's electrifying you feel so pumped up

that you're ready to paint the ceiling

of the sistine chapel

climb el capitan without any ropes or

build that

iron man suit as a professor i've heard

quite a few

graduation speeches and i've noticed

that speakers don't just show passion

they talk about it a lot here's steve

jobs from 2005

on the importance of having passion in

your career and the only way to do great

work

is to love what you do and jodie foster

in 2006

and how lucky to find yourself with the

option of filling your life with

passions

john legend in 2014 pursue this life of

love with passion

and lin-manuel miranda in 2016

talking about what it's like to search

for your career passion

the stories you are about to live are

the ones you will be telling your

children

and grandchildren and therapists

[Music]

they are the temp gigs and internships

before you find your passion

[Music]

but when a graduation speaker says

follow your passion

i find myself wondering is it actually

good advice

and is everyone using the same

speechwriter

i can't answer that question but i'm

convinced that the answer to the first

one

is no when it comes to your career

follow your passion

can be a recipe for misery i want you to

have passion

you have to have a strategy

[Music]

i'm adam grant and this is work life my

podcast with ted

i'm an organizational psychologist i

study how to make work

not suck in this show i'm inviting

myself inside the minds of some truly

unusual people

because they've mastered something i

wish everyone knew about work

today career callings and why following

your passion could be some of the worst

advice you ever get

thanks to jpmorgan chase for sponsoring

this episode

all right i understand why follow your

passion is such popular career advice

chances are you spend the majority of

your waking hours at work

it would be a tragedy to devote so much

time to something you hate

but the reality is that many people

don't know what they love to do

and even if you do most passions don't

translate neatly into careers

when i got to college my two strongest

passions were diving and magic

not clear that those jobs would pay the

bills

for many people around the world

passionate work is a luxury

while income is a necessity and there's

also the question of talent

not everyone can be anything

don't just take it from me take it from

the great psychologist

chris rock in his hilarious netflix

special tambourine

this lady comes up and goes i want your

children to know

you can be anything you want to be like

letting why

and lying to these children

maybe four of them could be anything

they wanna do

but the other two thousand better learn

how to weld

tell the kids the truth you could be

anything you're good at

as long as they're hiring

the thing about passions is that we

often settle on them when we're young

the danger is getting locked in most of

the time our early passions are not the

best guide to our later careers

there are so many things about the

future and about yourself that you don't

understand

you don't know what future you is going

to be like maria konokova knows this

well the seeds for her career were

planted pretty early

tracing back to when she was a toddler

in moscow god i hate saying it but

behind the iron curtain this was before

the berlin

wall fell and my parents were able to

leave the soviet union because we were

jewish so we did what a lot of people

did

and apply for political asylum to the

united states and

this is probably the only time in the

history of the world where people would

forge their passports sometimes to say

that they were jewish because that was

the only way you could leave russia

they moved to boston shortly before

maria turned five she had a lot to learn

and

had to find a way to learn fast i didn't

speak english

at all just zero and i vividly remember

asking you know how do i write my name

what do i say

when i go to school i was really nervous

because i knew i wouldn't be able to

communicate

since she couldn't communicate verbally

maria started paying attention to other

clues

i just i observed i remember trying to

follow the girls who looked nice and

happy and

popular you know even in kindergarten

you can tell who the popular kids are

it sounds like you were a detective as a

kindergartner

i think i had to be i think that's a

very good way of putting it i have

thought in the past that my fascination

with language

and with words comes from that early

age that fascination quickly turned into

a vivid career aspiration

apparently i announced at dinner when i

was five or six years old that i was

going to be a writer when i grew up

so i knew very early on that that's what

i wanted to do

but you don't know who future you is

going to be

and as any writer knows turning that

passion into a career isn't always a

straight path

after maria finished college she tried

to figure out the next steps

she worked a number of jobs that had

something to do with writing

like copywriting i had writer in the

title bartending

i did get a lot of good stories but i

would sleep through the day rather than

writing

a newsletter for men yeah i did not want

to

be writing about the hottest new bar for

guys to bring their bros

it took me many many years before i

started being able to

make my living as a writer what was the

emotional rollercoaster of that journey

like

in the moment it was miserable i

definitely remember just having these

moments of complete desperation where i

where i thought i can't

i can't go back to this job i i felt

like i was wasting time like i was

wasting my life

i'm all for working in a career that's a

perfect fit for your passion

but hunting for that perfect fit can be

a real source of agony

there's evidence that searching for a

calling leaves college students feeling

indecisive

uncomfortable and confused you might be

one of the fortunate few to quickly find

a career outlet for your passion

everyone else just flounders around

feeling lost

maria finally ended up working as a tv

producer for two years

although she was toying with the idea of

becoming a journalist she started

opening her mind to other interests

and she kept coming back to psychology

which was her college major

i've always thought that psychology and

writing just go hand in hand that the

best psychologists in the world are

writers and vice versa

so she quit her job to pursue a phd in

psychology i really wanted to

learn more about how the mind works and

how people think

when you set your sights on a passion

you sometimes get tunnel vision

you focus on that single direction

forgetting that you have multiple

interests

now maria wasn't blindly following her

passion for writing

she was pursuing a different interest

which would give her a new skill set and

some content expertise

for her writing just following your

passion i think is

pretty bad advice and if it was just

follow my passion i never would have

gone to

grad school because it would have just

been you know let's

let's just try this writing thing

in 2013 as she was finishing her

doctorate maria published her first new

yorker article on psychology

then she landed a role there as a

contributing writer

over the next few years she kept

expanding her peripheral vision

and in 2017 her career took a turn

that she never would have anticipated

while researching a book on the

psychology of chance

maria stumbled onto the topic of poker

she decided to learn about the game as a

metaphor for chance and control

i said i'm going to learn how to play

poker going in maria knew

basically nothing about poker i i

thought it was just a game

and i couldn't really understand why

anyone who was

talented or smart would ever want to

dedicate their life to it

do you remember the first hand of poker

you played

um yes it was at a poker tournament

i really had no idea what i was doing

the first

playable cards i had were king jack off

suit

and i was so excited to see two face

cards that i just butchered the hand

completely

maria made an investment in honing her

skills she started working with a coach

studying and playing poker up to 11

hours a day

she went out to vegas where her coach

lived and began playing in regular

tournaments

i remember before every single

tournament even

tiny tournaments i was so nervous

you know my stomach was doing all sorts

of strange things

and i i was acting a little bit like a

fish out of water i was

wriggling and gasping for breath but

then something strange happened

you know my hands stopped shaking

whenever i would get

a certain type of hand and

i started being able to stack my chips

properly

maria was actually becoming really good

she started winning

and winning big one day

she won a major international tournament

beating more than 200 pros and earning

thousands of

you start dollars from scratch a year

ago i did

and i'm really excited because i just

won almost 85 000

i've been studying my ass off i still

remember the moment that i won that was

just a completely surreal thing and that

was a year after

i started playing seriously now it's

become

one of my main passions and it goes even

beyond that

i'm one of poker's most passionate

advocates i mean i think everyone should

learn to play poker i think kids should

be learning how to play poker

because i think it can teach them so

much about

decision-making about themselves about

self-control

maria's experience highlights something

about passion that most people get wrong

passion is a consequence of effort not

just a cause

take a recent study of entrepreneurs

when they weren't excited about their

startups but put time in anyway

they actually became more enthusiastic

over the next week

their passion grew as they made progress

follow your bliss i think it's half

right and half wrong

that's angela duckworth a fellow

psychologist at penn

she's best known for her research that

put the concept of grit on the map

angela defines grit as passion and

perseverance toward a long-term goal

it's one thing to have a work ethic but

to have all of that

without the guiding passion is it's

really awful

but she doesn't think follow your

passion is good career advice

i like the passion part there's no other

way to describe

the voluntary obsession the full

commitment

that people have in their careers other

than

passion loving what you do but i don't

love the

follow part sounds like it's out there

and you just have to

discover it and if you don't feel like

you have passion for your work

you missed it somehow or you have to

keep looking for it

as if it were a whole thing and not

something that gradually develops over

time and i think that's actually

the better verb that you should develop

your passion not

follow it some of angela's colleagues

have recently gathered evidence for that

when people tried to follow their

passion they were less likely to

consider other areas of interest where

passion could develop

and less likely to anticipate

difficulties and when they did run into

obstacles

they were more likely to lose interest

and give up when

young adults have the idea the mindset

that

passions are discovered whole they're

like in you you just have to poke around

for a while

and get to it they are much more likely

for example to get

easily discouraged when they try

something like uh reading a difficult

passage on

a topic that was initially interesting

you know very quickly

that interest falls off if you have that

mindset so the problem is the advice to

follow your passion reflects a fixed

mindset

it assumes your interests are stable so

if you don't immediately enjoy a field

or a task

the writing is on the wall this must not

be your passion

but that's a mistake you don't want to

quit the moment you don't like a job

because passion can grow over time for

so many people

you know the first year on the job is

not a great year

and it would be very easy to get

discouraged and think oh i

thought medicine was for me or you know

law or marketing or whatever

but i guess not so angela has a rule you

don't quit

on a bad day you should not quit things

when you're in that

acute period of pain and disappointment

and self-doubt

i always recommend quitting things on

good days you know if you come in and

it's a nice thursday morning and

you know everything's gone reasonably

well and you still want to quit well

there's maybe

something going on so it's interesting

that we use the term

passion at work it makes it sound

romantic

i think the reason why the romantic

metaphor

makes sense is that it's like marriage i

think you have to date a lot

for most of us you know we had to sample

widely

that's generally what's found when you

look at people who develop interests

over their life

but yeah i think there is eventually a

commitment that is like a marriage and

it's

as satisfying as a marriage and it grows

like a marriage

wait do you think then you should date

lots of jobs or careers before you pick

one

i do i do believe in dating different

careers but i do think that if you're 60

and you're still dating you know waiting

to get married you know then you

do want to question whether whatever

algorithm is in your head about whether

the dating is leading to something or

not you know you might have

miscalibrated

career passion is rarely love at first

sight

it's hard to enjoy something when you're

not good at it

for maria konokova her passion for poker

was the product of learning

and eventually mastering a skill i

enjoyed it because i felt like i was

improving at it and i could see

tangible signs of progress so it sounds

like

in the at least in the case of poker you

didn't follow your passion you followed

your curiosity absolutely that's exactly

right

you sometimes don't know what your

passion is i had no idea i'd be playing

poker right now

which means that when you're considering

career paths you shouldn't cling to your

old ideas of what your passion is

don't pursue the job that your past self

thought would make you happiest

follow your curiosity into the job where

you think you'll learn the most

where you can gain mastery over useful

skills and build your passion over time

i think my best advice is to just be a

little be open-minded

rather than narrowly focused and

thinking this is the way my life has

to go this is what i have to do maria is

still a psychology writer

she's currently taking a break from

poker to write the book about chants

that started her on this path in the

first place

developing her passion for the game of

poker paid off

in more ways than one i'm still doing

something poker related

about an hour to two hours a day just so

that i stay fresh

is it your main source of income now as

of now my

main source of income is poker yes

in her first 14 months of playing maria

won

over 200 000

if you foreclose on one passion too

early you can miss out on a lot

but you have to start somewhere what are

the best strategies for planning your

career

more on that after the break

[Music]

okay this is going gonna be a different

kind of ad i've played a personal role

in selecting the sponsors for this

podcast

because they all have interesting

cultures of their own today we're going

inside the workplace at jpmorgan chase

[Music]

malcolm johnson has a big job he's an

executive director in jpmorgan chase's

commercial real estate group

but his title isn't what he wants to be

remembered for

i can guarantee that at no point during

my eulogy

will a deal ever be mentioned but i'm

certainly hopeful

that someone whose life that i've

touched will stand and

say a few words and i'm even prouder

that some of those people will be

mentees

in addition to his regular work malcolm

plays a key leadership role in the

fellowship initiative

a jp morgan chase program that helps

young men of color thrive

into college and beyond young men like

shemar taylor

who was a high school freshman in the

south bronx when his mom set him down

for a

frank conversation my mom said to me

that

you need to go to college but i have no

way of paying for it so you need to kind

of find a way to

support yourself in getting through to

college

that's where the fellowship initiative

came in jamar found out about the

program as a freshman in high school

when academics weren't exactly his

number one priority

to be honest i was more focused on girls

and looking cool and cute

as and not really focused on my grades

no one in shemar's family had been to

college before

and he was the kind of student malcolm

was hoping to help we don't look for

straight a students

we don't look for top quartile

performers on standardized tests

we look for families who are committed

to academic success

and that can come in the form of b minus

c plus students

but the fellowship initiative is about

the whole person it's not just about

getting your grades up

it focuses on career and skill

development too the number one factor in

anyone's success so whether you're a

young person of color

an associate at a big bank like jp

morgan is whether or not you've got a

senior sponsor who's vested in your

success and can show you the ropes

because there's a wealth of evidence

that young people of color often lack

access to mentorship

us stepping in and providing this level

of access

really levels the playing field the

fellowship initiative doesn't end when

the students get into college either

chamara eventually landed at bard where

the support from jpmorgan chase

continued

research shows that first generation

college students tend to underperform

academically

but it's possible to change that in one

experiment first generation college

freshmen were randomly assigned to

attend a workshop

where seniors with similar backgrounds

talked about the unique challenges they

had faced

attending that workshop led the freshmen

to get eight percent higher grades

which completely erased the achievement

gap why

hearing the seniors open up showed

freshmen they weren't alone

and they didn't need to be embarrassed

about going to office hours

with the fellowship initiative if they

found out we weren't doing well in a

class

they would help us find the tutor

if we needed help finding internships or

updating our resume they were also there

to help with that and so

it was help from all sides is this the

best way i could describe it kind of

like a big hug

[Music]

and it's a hug that comes at a crucial

moment only a quarter of

first-generation college students

graduate in four years

but chamar was one of them

tell me about graduation day oh yeah so

the best day of my life

my mom was almost late because she was

crying so much

it was just the moment of all the hard

work that i

had put in and she had put into raising

me coming into fruition

now shemar works at jp morgan chase and

he's paying it forward as a mentor

malcolm johnson says those are the

moments you live for as a mentor

now you've watched someone become a

young man and so it really does span

hopefully a lifetime

jpmorgan chase is looking for people

from all backgrounds and academic majors

to help create the next wave of

products and solutions if you're

passionate curious and ready to make an

impact

explore career opportunities at

jpmorganchase.com

careers

[Music]

in the fall of 2017 a junior in my class

at wharton stop by office hours for

career advice

when i asked her what avenue she was

considering she pulled out a piece of

paper

it looked like a world map if the

different continents were connected in a

flowchart

it was her 20-year career plan i knew

what i had to do

i invited a speaker to class who

convinced her to throw away that career

plan

i'm a writer a blogger which is an awful

word but i write the blog wait but why

tim urban has over half a million

subscribers

he told my students he was in the middle

of writing a post about how to pick a

career

which grew out of his reflections on his

own winding career path

um i came out of college and i was like

i'm gonna go write movie scores in

l.a my grandmother vomited

she was like you'll get your law degree

when tim finished the post on careers i

shared it in my monthly newsletter

granted it was the most popular link of

the entire year

by a long shot the post captured my

career choice is so hard

with the help of some entertaining stick

figure drawings tim created a framework

that explains why our elders often

encourage us to make career plans that

aren't right for us timothy when are you

gonna go

apply to law school as wise as older

generations can be

tim realized that their career plans for

us are not

always on target so we're wired to

really

listen to elders and to listen to

conventional wisdom because conventional

wisdom used to be wise

um if you were told not to eat a certain

mushroom don't eat the mushroom like

people someone learned that the hard way

now today the world's changing so fast

that people become wise for a world

that's no longer there

in a stable world it made sense to

figure out your career goal

and then map the steps to achieve it

that's what my students often try to do

experts call it the plan and implement

strategy when my dad was a kid you know

you pick a career and

you go into basically a 40-year tunnel

and you come out for retirement

but today careers are rarely that linear

you're not picking a tunnel anymore

careers are really fluid and the world's

changing quickly so instead of plan and

implement

we might be better off with a different

approach it's called test and learn

think of yourself a little like a

scientist running experiments on your

career

you have a hypothesis that a job might

be a good learning opportunity

and you're going to try it out to find

out if you're right or wrong

one recent study looked at people who

had career catapults that launched them

onto the fast track to become ceos or

top executives in major companies

they didn't plan those moves in advance

they just kept their eyes open for

interesting challenges

for some it was taking a step sideways

or even backward to build something from

scratch

for others it was inheriting a big mess

and proving they could clean it up

for many it was taking a big leap

outside their comfort zones

it doesn't have to be perfect a lot of

times you get surprised by something you

learn when you're there and it leads to

something you never expected

once you develop a passion you still

need to be careful about expecting your

career to fulfill it

career expectations start forming when

we're kids

adults are always asking us what do you

want to be when you grow up

from an early age emma locke knew her

answer

you know you ask most kids what do you

want to be when you grow up and they say

you know

a pilot or a princess i wanted to be a

flamingo

we sent a producer to meet emma in her

natural habitat all day for this

zoo what do you like most about coming

to the zoo

i like seeing people's reactions to the

animals really just seeing people

and their delight so tell me where we

are again here what we're looking at

so we're looking at the sea lion exhibit

right now

it's blowing bubbles at me if you walk

around with her you can hear how

delighted she is to teach you about the

animals there

something that a lot of people don't

realize with goats is they are fantastic

climbers naturally they're called

madagascar hissing cockroaches in the

wild many sloths will turn

green when we start to look away he will

vocalize

there we go perfect right on cue that's

a gorgeous millipede

emma's career passion started taking

shape early

her first job with animals was when she

was 10. she volunteered in a pet shop in

exchange for supplies for her own

animals

she had a lot of responsibility there

the person who actually i worked for

they had a bit of a gambling problem and

they left

me at the age of 10 to run the whole

store for them

so i was basically being a pet shop

manager

shortly after that she volunteered with

a veterinarian but quickly realized

that wasn't the right career for her i

don't want to deal with tendons and

putting thermometers in animals rectums

that's just not really my thing

since she especially loved exotic

animals relatives and career counselors

encouraged her to be a zookeeper

every time i would be in a room with

adults it's always oh you'd absolutely

make a wonderful zookeeper

so i suppose from very young i was kind

of set up with this expectation that

that was my calling so when she was a

teenager

emma started implementing that plan she

applied to a job at a zoo in london

with some romantic ideas of what it

would be like as a child when you think

of the word

zookeeper you imagine someone with you

know a wonderful set of keys on their

belt feeding the lions and you know

playing with the elephants

two long years later she got the call

they wanted her to start as a temporary

zookeeper

on a track to becoming permanent so

naturally i jumped at it

the pay was low but she was excited to

work with the 50 or so animals there

finally she had a job where she could be

around animals all day

and she loved interacting with them

hands down my favorites were the donkeys

and one of the donkeys that i worked

with would love to steal my keys

whenever i was picking her hooves

and run off with my keys but jobs are

collections of different tasks

and emma discovered that her passions

didn't extend to many of the tasks

the reality was for me that england is

notoriously bleak and

when you have to work outdoors in all

weather sometimes it's just not the most

fun job

especially when you're covered in say

donkey manure and it's raining it can

really smell

there were other challenges some people

would take unwanted pets to the zoo

and just leave them there i've lost

count of how many times i

found dogs at the zoo someone had also

dumped guinea pigs as well

and rabbits plus the constant hassles of

dealing with the public there's always

going to be someone who finds a way to

stick their keys into the lemur

enclosure and emma was unprepared for

another disappointment

the job can be incredibly lonely there

were only two zookeepers

emma and her manager who wasn't exactly

a people person

sadly this other person was the kind of

animal person who is

only an animal person they did not want

to socialize with people

at all this person would often just hide

away in one of the aviaries for most of

the day

so most of the time i would end up

singing to myself or the animals and

finding a lot of comfort in them

but really it could be very lonely at

times

a pair of my colleagues actually did a

big study of zookeepers

the more passionate zookeepers were the

more willing they were to make

sacrifices in their jobs

like putting up with poor working

conditions and being underpaid with few

benefits

zookeepers who saw their work as their

calling were more inclined to give up

their free time

unpaid to care for a sick animal in

other words

they were more vulnerable to being

exploited by management

this was true for emma who even suffered

a physical ailment from the job i

actually developed a very severe hay

allergy

and every single day was a real struggle

to

to just breathe at work literally

breathe but because i love the animal so

much i stayed

expecting to love your work is a really

high bar take a study of college seniors

the ones who are looking for the ideal

job felt more negative emotions

throughout the job search

and ended up less happy with the job

they ultimately got

the higher your expectations the more

disappointed you are by everything you

don't enjoy about a job

when you're aiming for nirvana there's a

bigger gap between what you want

and what you get you're always

evaluating never experiencing

you're left wondering whether there's

something better so you end up comparing

the job you have

to what might have been which leaves you

with regret

chasing happiness can chase it away

because of her high hopes emma was hit

especially hard by the parts of the job

she didn't like

which were quite a few i suppose the

amount of time that i spent on the jobs

i actually

really liked it would be less than ten

percent

besides most entry-level jobs aren't

designed to be fun

so recruiters often try to paint a rosy

picture of the job to entice you

extensive research shows it works but

then it leaves you less productive and

more likely to quit you want to go in

with a realistic job preview

an honest portrait of the work warts and

all

yeah you might be a little less excited

to start but the data show you're more

likely to perform well

and stick around emma didn't

get that realistic preview and finally

she'd had enough

the weather grunt work and isolation got

to her

she decided to leave although zookeeping

at the time i

felt that it was my dream job it wasn't

the job that was best suited to me

given my personality and my talents

often we're so enamored with the ideal

of a job that we don't pay enough

attention to what it involves day to day

once emma took the time to understand

the realities of each role

she realized there was one aspect of

zookeeping that she could turn into a

job she would enjoy

i loved being able to interact with the

children

interact with the adults and teach them

something new and exciting and

unexpected about the animals that was a

wonderful part of the job

that was fantastic i loved that today

emma gives public talks online

i'm better known as m zotik and i am an

online animal educator

on youtube she posts educational videos

with pythons

lizards chinchillas hawks and more hey

guys it's em

today i'm going to be sharing with you

my snails and the story behind one snail

in particular

um called shrek her channel has more

than

30 million views she found a job that

involved

animals her passion but where the

day-to-day work on a computer

is about as far as you can get from

having to keep visitors out of the lemur

cage

i really feel like i've arrived at my

own personal paradise job

not everyone is going to find a personal

paradise at work

some colleagues and i have found that

many people have unanswered callings

passions they never got to pursue in

their careers

sometimes they're perfectly content to

do them as hobbies on the side

in other cases they find small ways to

incorporate those passions into their

jobs

like a flight attendant who turns boring

announcements into a comedy routine

a priest or rabbi who brings a guitar to

a sermon

the professor who uses magic tricks to

get a point across

in the classroom so when you're thinking

about your career

the best place to start is not to follow

your passion

as is so often the case a better place

to start

is to follow some advice from oprah your

job is not always going to fulfill you

and the number one lesson i could offer

you where your work is concerned is this

become so skilled so vigilant

so flat out fantastic

at what you do that your talent cannot

be dismissed

work life is hosted by me adam grant the

show is produced by ted with transmitter

media

our team includes colin helms greta cohn

dan o'donnell

grace rubenstein michelle quint angela

chang and janet

lee this episode was produced by jessica

glazer

we had production help from scott gurion

our show is mixed by rick quan

original music by hans sail sue and

alison leighton brown

ad story is produced by pineapple street

media

special thanks to our sponsors jpmorgan

chase

accenture bonobos and hilton

for their research appreciation to amy

rosneski and colleagues on the joy of

having a calling

ryan duffy and colleagues on the

confusion of searching for a calling

michael gilnick and colleagues on how

effort leads to passion

paul o'keefe carol dweck and greg walton

on how passions are developed

rather than discovered herminia ibarra

on planet implement versus test and

learn

elena botello and colleagues on career

catapults stuart bunderson and jeff

thompson on the double-edged sword of

having a calling for zookeeping

barry schwartz sheena iyengar and

colleagues on how looking for the best

can make us unhappy

iris mouse and colleagues on how chasing

happiness can chase it away

jean phillips on realistic job previews

justin berg and victoria johnson on

unanswered callings

and nicole stevens and colleagues on

closing the achievement gap

for first generation college students

thanks to poker stars for the audio of

maria konokova's winning poker game

and gratitude to road trip nation for

their input and nick selby for the

georgia tech convocation speech

about the iron man suit

[Music]

next time on work life building a

workplace without

any jerks and dealing with the ones who

sneak in

am i full by training yes yes i am

now we've got a beautiful rooster in

front of us over here

what's your name

[Music]

oh i must have insulted him in rooster