Ted Audio Collective

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 St. Jean 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.

Hesoo 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.

They are the temp gigs and internships before you find your passion.

But when a graduation speaker says, follow your passion, I find myself wondering, is it actually good advice?

And is everyone using the same speech writer? 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.

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 JP Morgan Chase for sponsoring this episode.

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