Stop searching for your passion | Terri Trespicio | TEDxKC

What are you passionate about? You’re told these five words hold the key to a successful career and life purpose. What if it’s the wrong question altogether? This talk turns the ubiquitous “find your passion” message on its ear.

Terri Trespicio is a branding strategist who helps visionaries, experts, entrepreneurs and businesses communicate with power and precision across media platforms. She consults with a wide range of experts, everyone from surgeons and social media celebs to startups and brand managers.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

The day I got laid off

from my job at Martha Stewart,

I was relieved.

(Laughter)

I loved the job, I really did.

But the relationship was over

and I didn't know how to end it

and then it broke up with me.

Don’t you love it when that happens?

At the time I’ve been also
hosting a radio show

for the Martha Stewart brand on Sirius XM.

And then not long after
that got cancelled, too.

On the day of my last show

I got onto the elevator at the 36th floor

and as it started to drop,

I started to cry.

Every floor took me further
and further from what I had been:

a magazine editor, a radio host,

the person with the cool job
to talk about at parties.

You know.

And honestly I had no idea
what I was going to do.

And quite frankly
no one was looking for me.

So, I did what anyone would do
in that situation.

I was making some phone calls:

“Hey, what are you up to?

Did I mention I’m available?”

I needed to get paid
to do something, right.

I mean I live in New York City.

If you’re not paid to do something,

you’re not going to be there very long.

But this idea that I had to know
what I suppose to do now, right.

I’m supposed to pursue this passion.

It’s just bugged me.

It always had.

And that’s because
it’s a dangerously limiting idea

at the heart of everything we believe

about success and life in general.

And it’s that you have one
singular passion

and your job is to find it

and to pursue it
to the exclusion of all else.

And if you do that

everything will fall into place

and if you don’t you failed.

The pressure starts really young

and it goes your whole life,

but it’s perhaps most pronounced
when you’re graduating from school, right.

After this, “Wow, the world's at your feet!
What are you going to do now?”

And it’s so intimidating,

it's like picking a major for life.

You know, I had a hard enough time
picking a major for four years

and I changed that once, if not twice.

I mean it was like just intimidating,
right?

And this compelling

I mean this really, you know,

forceful cultural imperative
to choose your passion,

it’s stressful to me,

but it’s not just me,

it’s everyone I talk to agrees with me.

The woman who sold me this dress.

I told her what I needed the dress for,
what I was talking about

and she said, “Oh my gosh,

I really need to hear this talk,
because I just graduate from school.

My friends and I we don’t know
what we’re passionate about,

we don’t know what we supposed to do.”

I’m leery of passion for a few reasons.

But one of them is
that passion is not a plan,

it’s a feeling.

And feelings change.

They do.

You can be passionate about
a person one day, a job,

and then not passionate the next.

We know this
and yet we continue

to use passion as the yardstick

to judge everything by,

instead of seeing passion
for what it really is:

the fire that ignites
when you start rubbing sticks together.

Anyway, I was such a mess
when I was in my twenties,

such a mess.

I was anxious and depressed
and had no life to speak of,

I was temping to keep my options open,

and I was sitting around at night
in my underwear

watching Seinfeld reruns.

Actually I still do that, that’s not
the worst thing in the world to do.

It’s fine.

But I called my mother every night crying

and I was turning away
perfectly good full-time jobs.

Why? Because I was afraid.

I was sure that I would pick
the wrong one

and get on the wrong train
headed to the wrong future.

My mother begged me, she said,
“Please, take a job, any job.

You’re not going to be stuck,
you’re stuck now!

You don’t create your life first,
and then live it.

You create it by living it,
not agonizing about it.”

She’s right, she’s always right.

And so I took a full-time job
as an assistant

at a management consulting firm,
where I knew nothing about nothing.

Okay. Zero.

Except I knew I had a reason to get up
in the morning, get showered,

leave the house,

people who were waiting
for me when I got there

and I got a paycheck every two weeks.

And that is as good a reason
to take a job as any.

Did I know that I want to be
an office administrator

for the rest of my life?
No! I had no idea!

Truly!

But this idea that
everything you're supposed to do

should fit into this passion vertical
is unrealistic.

And I’ll say it - elitist.

You show me someone
who washes windows for a living

and I will bet you a million dollars

it’s not because
he has a passion for clean glass.

One of my favourite columns is a piece
by Dilbert creator Scott Adams.

He wrote a piece in The Wall Street Journal
a few years ago,

about how he failed his way to success.

And one of his jobs was
a commercial loan officer.

And he was taught specifically:

"Do not loan money
to someone following their passion."

(Laughter)

No, loan it to someone
who wants to start a business,

the more boring, the better.

(Laughter)

Adam says that in his life
success fueled passion

more than passion fueled success.

When I got my first job
as a magazine editor, in publishing,

I was thrilled.

But I had to take pretty big pay cut,

because at the time I’d been
a catalogue copywriter at a wig company.

(Laughter)

Laugh if you will, clearly you are
and many, many people did.

But wigs paid.

So I had to figure out a way
to make some money.

A friend of mine invited me
to a jewelry party

I said, "What is a jewelry party?"

She said, “It’s like Tupperware
but with bracelets.”

I said, “Okay, got it, got it.”

I went and I had the best time.

I was there hanging out,
trying on jewelry,

the salespersons having a great time

and I was like, "That’s a job.

I could...

I could do that."

I mean, really, she seems
to be having a great time.

Now, I had no background in sales,

unless you count Girl Scouts,
and I was terrible.

And I had no passion for jewelry.

I mean, honestly, my earrings
cost 20 $. Combined, all of them.

And yet I was like, "I think I can sling
silver jewelry to suburban moms

drinking daiquiris.

Yes, I could do that."

And so I did it, I signed up,
I became a Silpada Designs rep.

And I…

Listen to me, I was not
setting a world on fire right away.

Really.
I was so awkward and afraid of selling.

And then I got better,

I got better,

I started making some money,

I started getting
really passionate about it.

Not just because of the money,
but because

what I realized was
people wanted the stuff.

They were happy to pay for it.

I sold so much jewelry that year
I won a free trip to Saint Thomas.

(Laughter)

It’s true.

I eventually let my jewelry business go,
because my career path shifted.

But I was so glad that I did that.

Because it planted an entrepreneurial
seed I didn’t know was there.

And that bears fruit to this day.

Now as you know an entire
cottage industry has sprung up

around helping people
find their passions, right.

Books, coaching, webinars, whatever.

And their hearts in the right place,
it’s great, I’m all about self-discovery.

Okay.

But when you ask someone,
or you’re asked like,

"What’s your passion?"

It’s triggering.

It’s like, "Oh my god, I have to
came out with a good answer for this."

One of my friends in her mid-forties
and she’s looking

what’s her life going to be now.

And she’s like,
“I don’t know what I’m passionate about.”

And she’s legitimately
concerned about this.

She’s ready to hire a team of people.

It’s like,
why are we worrying about this?

You know why, because she thinks
something wrong with her.

I thought something was wrong with me
when I was in the seventh grade

and everyone was really into like

the rock-bands and their actors

and they would carve the names
of those bands in a tables in a library.

And I never carved anything, because
I couldn’t think of anything to carve.

I mean I liked Bon Jovi
as much as the next girl,

but not enough to deface
school propriety, you know.

(Laughter)

It’s probably why
I don’t have any tattoos either.

I’m assuming that’s why.

I was really boring,
I thought something was wrong with me.

But that’s the fear, isn’t it?

That when someone asks you
at a party, on a date, at a job interview,

"What are you passionate about?"

That you're not going to have
this wow compelling answer.

And that means that you’re
not interesting, or ambitious,

or that you don’t have
a singular obsession

or scary talent that you hiding.

And that your life isn’t worth living.

And it’s not true.

Passion is not a job, a sport, or a hobby.

It is the full force of your attention

and energy that you give to
whatever is right in front of you.

And if you’re so busy looking for this
passion,

you could miss opportunities
that change your life.

You could also miss out on a great love.

Because that’s what happens
when you have tunnel vision,

trying to find the One.

We all think we know
the kind of person we are

and the kind of person we could love.

But sometimes we’re wrong.

Blissfully wrong.

And sometimes you don’t know
what you're going to do next, right?

I mean, I don’t.

I love not knowing what I’m going
to be doing five years from now

or I will be into.

And that’s okay, it’s okay not to know.

You know why?

Because the most fulfilling
relationships,

the most fulfilling careers

are those that still have the power
to surprise you.

And as for the things you know
you want to do.

You want to write a book,
you want to start a business,

you want to change careers.

Great!

But if you’re sitting around waiting
for passion to show up and take it,

you’re going to be waiting a long time.

So don’t wait.

Instead, spend your time and attention

solving your favourite problems.

Look for problems that need solving.

Be useful,

generous.

People will thank you, and hug you
and pay you for it

and that’s where passion is.

Where your energy and effort
meets someone else’s need.

That’s when you realize:

passion lives,

and realizing what you have to contribute.

Why do you think when we’re asking people
what they’re passionate about,

they say, "Helping other people."?

So don’t wait.

Listen to my mother.

Just start doing.

Because to live a life
full of meaning and value

you don’t follow you passion,
your passion follows you.

Thank you.

(Applause)