The obsessive passion is itself cultivated. Looking at pre-Apple Steve Jobs you would hardly guess he would obsess over building top of the rank devices. Spirituality, LSD, Hitchhiking around the country—you see traits of a freewheeling hippie than a visionary.
I don't deny the role of genetics, but the problem is that people have been inculcated with the idea that you're born with a very specific interest and that's what you should spend your life doing. When the steam runs off, people are stuck in careers with a bleak outlook.
I feel passion is more a combination of different skills—obsession, curiosity, persistence. You can use them to make inroads into any field—and be happy too.
> I don't deny the role of genetics, but the problem is that people have been inculcated with the idea that you're born with a very specific interest and that's what you should spend your life doing.
This. It also discourage people from trying out new things - the thing you enjoy becomes your identity and somehow becomes personally important truth about you. The initial like/dislike becomes something revealing and definitive instead of being seen as just a stage of learning.
I'd say the passionate people would be those working away for years on the hardware, the software, the UI that made the ipod and iPhone possible and successful rather than the guy who put on a turtleneck and sold it to the world.
I don't deny the role of genetics, but the problem is that people have been inculcated with the idea that you're born with a very specific interest and that's what you should spend your life doing. When the steam runs off, people are stuck in careers with a bleak outlook.
I feel passion is more a combination of different skills—obsession, curiosity, persistence. You can use them to make inroads into any field—and be happy too.