“Don’t follow your passion. Follow your contribution.”

Ben Horowitz, 2017

 

This quote has been my north star in guiding all my career and life decisions. I am happy to say that it hasn’t failed me once.

 

Passion can be deceiving. You cannot know whether what you are feeling is real. You do not know whether it will last. That is the nature of passion. It is fickle and most often short-lived.

 

Contribution, however, is certain. It is grounded. It is tangible. You can see the impact your contribution has on the lives of other people.

 

Therefore, contribution is a better compass to guide your decisions and lead a more fulfilling life rather than pursuing an abstract passion.

 

In this article. I will cover why passion is a myth and why it is important to follow your contribution. I give specific examples of what I mean by contribution and how it can help discover your true passion. Lastly, I will share general guidelines on who to help and how to contribute to benefit the most.

 

Let’s jump right in.

 

 

Passion Is A Myth

 

The age-old quote “follow your passion” is a lie. And a dangerous one.

 

This is because passion is fickle—it can fade or grow over time—and you have no control over which direction it will go.

 

For some, following their passion might have been the best choice they made. But for others, it could have been the worst decision they ever made.

 

For example, you might enjoy playing the guitar. Maybe you could go so far as to say that guitar is your passion.

 

But how do you know that this passion is real? How do you know whether you will still feel passionate about shredding your guitar after quitting your job 6 months from now?

 

Truth is, you don’t know. You can’t know.

 

This isn’t your fault. It is passion’s inevitable limitation. It is capricious and most often short-lived. Therefore, betting your life on passion is a high-risk game. Very good or very bad.

 

Isn’t there a safer way to live that can guarantee a more fulfilling and happier life?

 

Thankfully, there is.

 

And it can be explained by the second half of our blog title: “Follow Your Contribution”

 

 

Contribution Above Passion

 

I first heard “Follow Your Contribution” in a speech made by Ben Horowitz, founder of a16z, one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world.

 

You can check out the video here.

 

Often we hear about how Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs succeeded because they blindly followed their passion. As the story goes, it is this passion that led Mark to drop out of Harvard and go 100% into making Facebook.

 

According to Ben, however, this is a terrible misrepresentation of the truth.

 

Elon, Mark, and Steve were passionate BECAUSE they were successful. Not the other way around.

 

Their success fueled their passion. This means that passion was the byproduct of their success.

 

Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, explores this concept deeper in his book Originals.

 

Adam studied the success trajectory of hundreds of successful tech moguls. He discovered that most successful people were actually very risk-averse. They did not blindly follow their passion.

 

They worked hard on their idea but always had a safety net just in case they would fail. Failure was always in their mind and the fear of failure was real.

 

It was only when they saw tangible progress—that what they made didn’t completely suck and had potential—when they finally decided to break out of their comfort zone.

 

Therefore, rather than leaving your life behind to pursue a passion that might fade away in a year’s time, you should build an approach that will guarantee that your passion is real.

 

Based on Ben’s experience, this can be achieved when you prioritize contribution over passion.

 

A good indicator that you are going down the right path is when you realize that what you do brings positive value to the people around you and they begin recognizing you for it.

 

 

What is Contribution?

 

Ok. So contribution means adding value to other people’s life. But what does that mean exactly?

 

I see it as you doing or saying something to another person and that transforming their state of emotion from one that is negative to one that is positive.

 

For example, why do people pay money for life insurance?

 

Most people will say that it is to protect their loved ones once they are gone. They say it is for other people.

 

This sounds right. But I believe that the true reason why people buy insurance is a bit more selfish.

 

The surface reason is to protect their loved ones.

 

But the underlying reason is that the individual does not want to think or worry about the situation in which their death may cause misfortune to people they care for.

 

Let me repeat this.

 

People buy insurance because they don’t want to worry or be annoyed by this feeling. This feeling is MY feeling and the act of buying insurance helps me get rid of this MY negative feeling.

 

That is the true reason why we buy insurance.

 

At the center of every decision, no matter how benevolent and caring we may be, is me and how I feel.

 

Altering this ‘feeling’ is critical when you want to contribute and add positive value to the life of others.

 

 

Examples of Contribution

 

Contribution can come in many shapes and forms. Below I have listed a few examples.

 

Make a beautiful hand-made embroidery and selling it online and brighten the day of that one person who really wanted what you made.

 

Teach English to children of low-income families and giving these children the joy of learning and advancement.

 

Write a blog about how to advance in your career and helping somebody feel that they have a better hope for tomorrow.

 

Share your code solution on github to a problem somebody else is stuck with that might help that other person finally get some sleep.

 

Advise your friend on how to expand user growth and fire him up with excitement when he feels down.

 

 

How Does Contribution Connect To Passion?

 

Following your contribution should look something like this. (Sorry for the oversimplification…)

 

The more you contribute, the more people will look for your advice and support.

 

This will bring you more opportunities and will make it easier for you to come up with an idea to build a tool, a system, a product, or a service to help more people facing the same problem.

 

The better you become at building your solution, the more passionate you will become about your product or service.

 

With passion now propelling you forward, you can further improve your solution to have people pay money for your work.

 

Money will gain you recognition and as a result you will be prouder of your work and the more passion will flow through you.

 

As you can see, the trigger that sets in motion this amazing journey is not your passion.

 

It is your contribution.

 

So the key takeaway here is to help others when you can. Contribute to their growth.

 

Don’t think about immediate gains.

 

Build the habit of asking others “how can I help you?”

 

 

So Should I Help Everybody?

 

A tip here is to be selective.

 

You wouldn’t want to spend time on somebody who uses you for their own gain. You would want to help somebody who deeply appreciates your help.

 

My rule of thumb is to offer help to somebody who has high growth potential—when your help can be a catalyst to explosive growth for the other person.

 

For example, I would be more willing to help my friend who is struggling with user acquisition for his new App rather than helping another friend who needs me dictate a recording of a conference he took part 1 year ago.

 

If my advice can boost new user acquisition by 1,000%, that will dramatically change my friend’s life. With this hockey-stick growth, my friend could now present his start-up idea to venture capital firms to raise funding and secure a high valuation.

 

I promise you that it is more likely than not that this friend will always remember you. This relationship will pay dividends 1, 5, 10, 30 years down the road.

 

If you are interested in learning more about building an amazing network of talented people that will boost your career and life, click here.

 

Dictating a recording, however, will not transform my friend’s life. I will probably be doing something that he is too annoyed to do himself.

 

You don’t want to have these people as friends. Stay away from them. They can be toxic.

 

So focus on adding value to people with high growth potential. If you are genuine with your help without expecting anything in return, it is likely that they will truly appreciate your support and be loyal to you.

 

I can’t help but slip this example in here. One of my biggest idols is a guy called Sam Altman. He was the founder of Loopt which he exited for around 50mn USD in his early 20s and later became the president of Y-Combinator, an accelerator.

 

In his essay how to be successful, he writes about the importance of building a network. He also describes how his network helped him land incredible investment deals.

 

Basically, people who were grateful for Sam’s help 5 or 10 years back remembered Sam and gave him a heads up on the hottest investment deals before they became public. All Sam had to do then was meet the founders with the greatest potential at their earliest stage and invest. So simple.

 

Investing your time and effort in people with high potential will not only generate more leads, but throughout the process, you might discover what you are good at and what you enjoy doing.

 

Then, you can fine-tune your skills, positively impact the lives of many more people, and have this become your source of life meaning and livelihood!

 

 

TLDR Summary

 

In today’s article, we explored how this quote can transform your life:

“Don’t follow your passion. Follow your contribution.”

 

Following your contribution will not only guide you to more meaningful and gratifying work but also help you discover your true passion—one that lasts.

 

We discovered that you contribute when you add positive value to another person’s life. Going one layer deeper, we found that adding positive value is equivalent to shifting the mood or feeling of a person from negative to positive.

 

The focus of your contribution should not be on the superficial x% user growth, or revenue, or cost-saving, or whatever.

 

It should be the emotion of the person who you are helping; you want to help her feel hopeful, meaningful, happy, excited, at ease, and warm.

 

Lastly, we saw that it can be wise to narrow down the people you help—taking a sniper rather than a shotgun approach. Help people who have great growth potential. People who you know would benefit greatly and transform with your input. This is because people with high growth potential are more likely to remember you, send high-quality leads your way, and also contribute to YOUR growth. It is a win-win!

 

Writing this blog is my way of trying to contribute to my readers. I have benefited immensely with this shift in mindset—from passion to contribution—in both my personal and professional life.

 

I wish you could undergo the same transformation I did. I would be elated if you did.

 

Thank you for reading this long blog post. Please leave a comment if you have any questions. Also, please feel free to let me know if there is any particular topic you would like to read for my next blog post!