Why You Gotta Follow Passion In A Flat World

In The World Is Flat, best-selling author Thomas Friedman explains that the world is flattening because globalization and lightning swift advances in technology and communications connect people from all across the globe as never before – creating a global market place for labor, services, products and employees. In this flat world people from all socio-economic backgrounds are competing for jobs with other people from all over the globe. For example even professions such as accountants, attorneys and radiologists are now losing their jobs because people from other countries can do those same jobs more efficiently and at a lower cost. In order to be successful and thrive in this new flat world, a person has gotta follow their passion!

The only people who are not in danger of losing their jobs in a flat world are the untouchables. Friedman defines the untouchables as employees who cannot be replaced because they bring an intangible quality to the market that cannot be replicated or outsourced by someone else who can do the same job better or for a lower wage. When we are following our passions we are doing what we love and expressing that intangible and untouchable part of ourselves. This unique expression of the sacred part of ourself can never be outsourced to someone else who can do the same job at a lower wage or automated by some machine or a computer.

This is why following your passion is absolutely essential and even a financial necessity at times in todays global market place. Freidman recognizes this when he writes, “When the world is flat, curiosity and passion for a job, for success, for a subject area or even a hobby are so much more important. . . . That innocent passion for a certain job, without knowing the salary or the working hours or the preparation required, is what you need to get back in touch with. It’s that childlike feeling of, ‘I want to do that because I want to do that-and I don’t have to explain why,’ that we all need to rediscover.”

We can learn how to turn ours passions into our career by cultivating and developing our right-brain capabilities. For example, Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, explains:

“The left hemisphere handles sequence, literalness, and analysis. The right hemisphere, meanwhile, takes care of context, emotional expression,
and synthesis. . . . Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPA’s. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they’re no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere-artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the Transcendent… ”

Pink concludes, “When you hear your parents or your college graduation speaker telling you to “do what you love,” they are not giving you some syrupy pabulum. They are giving you a survival strategy.”

Of course, Friedman and Pink’s contention that following your passion is a necessity in today’s new flat world may be incorrect. However, the
alternative is to not follow your passions and to live a life wondering how things might have been. It seems at the very least, the intrinsic motivation and joy of the journey that following your passion provides one with makes it well worth the risk.