1. The Problem with “Follow Your Passion” Stories

I’ve been reading and watching a lot of TED talks lately—successful people telling the story of how they followed their passion and ended up fulfilled, happy, and successful. There’s a recurring theme:

“Follow your passion. Look at me—I did, and it worked.”

These talks highlight the outcome. What they rarely give enough credence to is why most people don’t follow their so-called passion.

One TED speaker said it plainly: people are afraid.

Really?

If a fear is grounded in reality, it isn’t paranoia. A large majority of passionate founders fail. That is not opinion—it’s fact. The same is true for artists, athletes, musicians, and entrepreneurs. So before we indulge in more rah-rah speeches, maybe we should pause and ask whether fear is the villain it’s made out to be.

2. Our Cultural Bias for Winners

Our culture has a deep bias toward winners. We want to know what Tom Brady thinks. What Bruce Springsteen did. How they made it.

What we don’t talk about are:

• The many quarterbacks who worked just as hard as Brady
• The musicians who practiced obsessively and labored in obscurity
• The founders who poured everything into an idea that didn’t survive

Passion lived in all of them too.

But those stories aren’t told, because they don’t validate the narrative we want: that passion, if followed faithfully, leads to success. That framing misses the wider and more important lesson.

3. Passion in the Real World

Passion isn’t limited to extraordinary outcomes or public recognition.

It lives in the real world:

• The janitor who takes pride in spotless bathrooms
• The teacher who celebrates an engaged autistic student
• The accountant who builds a budget spreadsheet to model a new business venture—in accordance with U.S. GAAP, of course

Passion lives there too. In fact, it lives there far more often than it lives on a TED stage.

4. Do We Mislead Young People?

So let’s ask the uncomfortable question: Do we mislead young people when we tell them to “follow their passion”?

Do you really know what your passion is at 15? At 20? Even at 30?

It’s like food you’ve never tried. How do you know you’ll love it—or hate it—if you’ve never tasted it?

When I was in college, I had no idea what passion even meant. Ask me to follow my passion and I’d have said:

• Playing professional ice hockey
• Basketball
• Sports of all kinds
• And food—pizza, hot dogs, chips (all very healthy, of course)

Those were my passions. Or maybe they were just things I enjoyed. Ask me more seriously, and you’d probably have gotten a blank stare.

5. Fear, Practicality, and Choosing Accounting

In my junior year of college, we were forced to pick a major. I panicked.

Someone said, “You can get a good paying job out of school with an accounting degree.”

Fear of no income drove my decision. I took all the required accounting credits in my last three semesters and graduated with an accounting degree.

The TED crowd might say I ignored my passion in favor of practicality.

Yes.

And as a brilliant mentor once asked me: So what?

6. Aptitude Testing and an Uncomfortable Truth

A year into my career as an internal auditor, I paid for a session at the Johnson O’Connor Foundation in New York. They specialize in aptitude testing—identifying the kinds of work people are naturally wired for.

You should look them up. It’s serious, thoughtful work by smart researchers.

My results?

• Spatial ability: terrible. Those squiggly blocks completely flummoxed me.
• Musical aptitude: very high.

A musician?

I had never picked up an instrument in my life. My singing was limited to the shower.

Accounting? They said it wasn’t a great fit. I could do it, yes—but accountants with a natural aptitude for accounting would outperform me with less effort.

Their warning was blunt: people who work outside their core aptitudes often leave those professions or stay frustrated.

Great.

I had already passed the CPA exam. I had a job. There was no turning back.

7. Another Aptitude—and a Clue I Ignored

There was one other strong aptitude they identified: ideaphoria.

They gave me a simple prompt and asked me to write—anything I wanted. They timed me. They adjusted the score for speed and length. No keyboard. Pencil and blue book.

I filled the blue book in three minutes.

The score was very high.

Interesting information. Completely useless, I thought. I was already an auditor with a decent paycheck. No turning back.

8. Passion Evolves (Whether You Plan It or Not)

Then something happened.

This fledgling accountant traveled outside the tri-state area for the first time. Growing up in Newark under the flight path of Newark Airport, the underside of landing planes was the closest thing I knew to travel.

And suddenly—bam—a spark.

Traveling was fun. Learning internal controls, inventory accounting, financial statement analysis from smart managers, peers, and auditees was engaging. The work mattered. Our findings actually helped businesses.

There were lessons too—like learning how to order something other than a hamburger at dinner. True story. Hillbilly Elegy wasn’t the only one unsure which fork was mine.

9. Passion Isn’t a Straight Line

It wasn’t all success.

Once, I did a benefit audit, issued a clean report, and found out days later that the administrator was committing fraud. I missed it completely.

So much for the neat narrative.

Following your passion—if that’s even what this was—is not a straight line. It includes disappointment, failure, embarrassment, and self-doubt.

And yet, look at top athletes. Even those who never podium work brutally hard in their so-called passion. Disappointment is constant. So maybe passion isn’t about happiness in the simplistic sense we sell it as.

10. What Actually Creates Fulfillment?

So what is really driving fulfillment?

Is it passion?
Natural aptitude?
Hard work?
Economic necessity?

Maybe it’s something more grounded:

• Competence built over time
• Contribution that matters
• Growth through challenge
• And yes—being able to pay the bills

That combination is what a career in accounting gave me.

11. The Quiet Passion of Accounting

When we discourage young people from accounting because it involves memorizing FASB standards—who could enjoy that like a night out—we may be doing them a disservice.

Yes, AI is changing the profession. So did:

• The internet
• Software
• Sarbanes-Oxley
• Ever-changing tax codes

And yet the core remains:
A passion for financial order.
For process.
For trust.
For structure amid chaos.

That is a passion worth pursuing—even if it doesn’t make for a viral TED talk.