Why “Follow Your Passion” is BS (And What Actually Fuels Creative Careers and Businesses)

Follow what sustains you, not just what ignites you

Author’s illustration

How often have you heard or read: “Follow your Passion!”

That advice sounds great… until you’re burned out, broke, or in the emergency room.

In June 2021, I found myself lying flat on an ER bed, chest constricted tight, hooked up to an ECG machine. Blood getting drawn. Hospital staff sticking close.

Six days earlier, I had been in the same hospital saying goodbye to my mom. At the time:

• I was late 40s.
• Exhausted.
• Scared.

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Professionally, I was a senior administrator in healthcare. It was still a time of pandemic response (hence the mask in the image). A period in which I’d been buried in meetings for a year or more, engaged in emergency planning and response (at the same time)

I had also just recently finished a doctorate (January 2021). I taught a couple of nights per week at the local college. Often worked weekends. And my wife and I did our darndest to manage a blended family household with three teens. I was logging 60–70 hour weeks for months and months.

Many told me I was “successful” or assumed I was.

I had the title. The income. The LinkedIn headline. I was mentioned in succession planning conversations.

But my health (and spirit) said otherwise.

When the ER doctor shared I was not having a cardiac event and showed me with the ultrasound my heart beating away, and told me it looked strong and healthy… I felt some relief.

But something much stronger flooded me — recognition: things had to change.

That moment didn’t just start to pull me out of an overloaded and toxic system (eg., public sector work). It helped me begin exiting a whole way of thinking.

Passion Isn’t a Compass — It’s a Byproduct

Shortly after that ER visit in June, professional recruiters contacted me for a leadership role in higher education. I was successful in the competition and accepted a job with higher pay, and most likely, fewer hours.

As the globe moved into 2022 and the COVID pandemic started loosening its grip, I was very clear my future was not navigating silly institutional and office politics anymore.

As a family, we decided it was time for me to walk away from a decade-plus career. In April 2022, I left with a deep anti-vision and anti-goal:

• To never return to institutional employment on a full-time basis — especially in the public sector.

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After leaving my ‘public service’ career, I didn’t “follow my passion.” Instead, I followed a different trail: purpose, alignment, intention, energy, and clarity.

I didn’t have some 12-month Creator Economy funnel strategy. I didn’t have a series of scalable offers, sales pages or product “launches.” We also didn’t have some big financial runway or savings.

What did I do?

I started:

• Writing daily
• Walking daily
• Listening to what felt alive

I launched a creative business of one — quietly, sustainably, and within about 7 months, profitably. And here’s something rarely shared in “solopreneur success” social media posts: 👇

Passion is a weak foundation.

It fades under pressure. It buckles under rejection. It doesn’t show up every day.

What can show up every day persistently?

• Clarity
• Purpose
• Practice
• Systems
• Alignment
• Skill-building
• Levelling-up persistently

Passion follows progress. (People don’t magically find passion)

They develop it when they start getting good at something, when their work stops being chaotic and becomes more of a craft.

Take skiing, for example. 👇

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Our 3 kids weren’t born with an innate love for skiing. But when they were little, we skied — A Lot. It’s a physical activity we could all do together, and be outside👆

They got better. Braver. More confident. And coached. Now they flip and spin off jumps. 👇

Author’s image. Youngest backflipping off jump.

Progress created passion.

• Same with biking.
• Same with writing.
• Same with building a creative business.

You don’t discover passion like buried treasure or a lost $20 bill. You build it by getting good at something over time. You sharpen it through intentional work. You level up.

And, you sustain it by working in ways that preserve your energy, not deplete it.

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What Fuels You When Passion Doesn’t

There are days I don’t feel like writing. Or, ghostwriting a thought leadership piece. Or, revising another lesson plan and learning product for a client.

But I do it — because it supports the life I want to live.

• I want to mountain bike trails when they’re empty.
• I want the ability to ski with my kids midweek.
• I want freedom to work from my living room.
• I want to feel connected to the work I deliver.

That’s not passion. That’s intentional, and it’s strategic.

And the engine for all of it?

• Flow over frenzy
• Focus over flailing
• Rhythm over hustle
• Structure over chaos

Lasting Work Isn’t Rushed

Creative longevity isn’t built on adrenaline. It’s built on attention. Intention. Repetition. Some persistence and recovery.

I didn’t know if things would work when I quit my institutional role. But I knew I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing. I didn’t know if I would secure enough work and revenues, but I knew toxic office environments were not a place for my creative thinking.

Since then, I’ve helped clients raise over $1 million, built courses, shaped strategy, and grown change movements through social media strategies and focused communication campaigns.

Not with viral content. Not with funnels. Not with lead magnets. But with quiet, persistent, intentional systems.

This is the work that gets better with time. It’s not volume-based. It’s rhythm-based. It’s creative infrastructure which builds long-term leverage.

• You decide what matters.
• You pare down the noise.
• You slow down to deepen impacts.
• You dictate permissions in a no-permission-needed environment.

You don’t need to be everywhere. You just need quiet steadiness.

You don’t need to go viral. You just need to go again — and keep going.

You don’t need to build a big following. You simply need to keep steady momentum — levelling-up bit by bit by bit.

What Actually Fuels Creative Careers

Here’s the shift I see happening: We’re exiting the “passion-first” hustle culture and entering a new era of thoughtful, grounded, creative businesses.

Where success looks like:

• Making things that matter (not trending)
• Staying in the game for the long haul
• Working with people you respect
• Having space to think clearly
• Having time to recover

You don’t need to build a rocket 🚀 ship. You simply need to build something you want to return to tomorrow, then the next day, then the next…

If You’re Here, Maybe You’re Done Chasing Too

Maybe you’re also done optimizing for likes, impressions, or whatever the algorithm wants this week.

Maybe you’re more interested in meaningful, strategic, aligned work. In shaping a creative rhythm, sustaining your life — not depleting it.

If so, ask yourself:

• What if I measured progress in focus, not frenzy?
• What if I stopped chasing “passion” and built with rhythm?
• What if I redefined success as building my enough, not others’?

Grab a Learning Journal, and write out the answers to these. Then, if you want to explore some more, drop these questions into ChatGPT or another AI tool and ask it for more prompts to write about.

Forget “Follow your Passion”

That’s marketing copy for people selling the latest $149 digital courses.

Build capacity. Build rhythm. Build slowly. Build a life you don’t need to escape from.

That’s the work. And you don’t need anyone’s permission to start.

If you’d like to read more, check out other articles in the Box Cutter Co. publication and consider stopping by my Substack page, where I’ve been publishing Free issues weekly for almost 3 years. 👇

I publish regular Free issues of **Box Cutter Co.* — where I am CEO of my time and energy. I share things every week about writing, thinking, and creativity. As well as building a thriving creative business in “The Business Creator Economy*.”

You can also find my daily posts on **LinkedIn**. Stop by and connect.