Stop Looking for Your Passion and Start Building It
Why clarity comes from action, not introspection
I was a death metal vocalist.
Not as a side thing.
Not just for fun (although I did love it).
That was my identity.
I screamed into microphones while grown men in cargo shorts moshed in piss soaked bars.
I was good at it.
Then I became a tech journalist.
Covered E3.
Sat in White House press briefings.
Then I freelanced as a copywriter.
Now I run an AI automation business.
None of these transitions came from some grand revelation.
No mountaintop moment.
No therapist breakthrough where I finally "found myself."
I just kept taking shots before I felt ready.
And somewhere in the mess of trying shit, a path emerged.
The Backwards Advice That Ruins Careers
We've been sold a myth about passion.
That somewhere deep inside you is this perfect calling, and if you just think hard enough, journal enough, take enough personality tests, it'll reveal itself like some career-shaped Easter egg.
Bullshit.
Research from Stanford psychologists Paul O'Keefe and Carol Dweck studied thousands of people and found something uncomfortable.
People who believe passion is something you discover, that it's already inside you waiting to be found, are more likely to quit when things get hard.
They're less open to new experiences.
They stay narrow.
Meanwhile, people who treat passion as something you develop through action try more things, push through difficulty, and end up in places they never could have imagined because they weren't locked into finding some predetermined destiny.
The "follow your passion" crowd has it backwards.
You can't know what you love until you've actually done enough things to gather evidence.
Sitting in your apartment reading self-help books about finding your purpose is just procrastination wearing a spiritual mask.
Waiting for clarity is fear.
That's all it is.
Fear dressed up as thoughtfulness.
How Passion Actually Works
Studies on work passion involving tens of thousands of people show a pattern.
Passion doesn't typically exist before you start something.
It develops after you've been doing it for a while, gotten decent at it, and seen some results.
The process looks like this:
Try something.
Do it enough to get competent.
Notice how it feels.
See if people value what you're creating.
Pay attention to what gives you energy versus what drains you.
Then decide whether to keep going or try something else.
Passion follows competence, not the other way around.
I didn't wake up one day knowing I wanted to be in tech journalism.
I was a metal vocalist who happened to be decent at writing.
Someone offered me fifty bucks to review a video game.
I said yes.
That led to more assignments.
I got better.
Doors opened.
Before I knew it, I was interviewing people at the fucking White House.
No vision board.
No clarity meditation.
Just saying yes to an opportunity that seemed vaguely interesting and seeing where the reps took me.
The framework isn't complicated:
Take a shot.
Do the reps.
Gather evidence.
Adjust or double down.
That's it.
That's the whole thing.
The DM That Changed Everything
Here's where most people get stuck.
They understand the concept of taking action, but they're waiting to feel ready first.
Waiting until they have more skills, more credentials, more certainty.
I was building AI automations for small projects.
Nothing impressive.
I had no portfolio site, no fancy case studies, no social proof.
I saw Jay Campbell posting about optimization and biohacking.
Thought maybe he could need a new landing page.
Had absolutely zero connection to him.
I could have spent six months "preparing."
Building the perfect portfolio.
Crafting the ideal pitch.
Waiting until I felt qualified.
Instead I just fucking DM'd him.
No elaborate strategy.
Just: "Hey, I can make you a new landing page that doubles your conversions. Want to talk?"
That single message.
Sent before I felt ready, before I had impressive credentials, before I had "clarity" about my exact positioning.
It changed the entire trajectory of my business.
You cannot think your way into clarity.
You can only act your way into it.
The people who spend years figuring out what they want while taking zero action?
They're not being thoughtful.
They're being comfortable.
And comfort is the enemy of discovery.
The Evidence-Based Approach to Building Passion
Cal Newport looked at research on career satisfaction and found something that pisses off the "follow your passion" crowd.
The happiest, most engaged professionals rarely started with passion for their field.
They started with something that seemed reasonable, then deliberately built rare and valuable skills.
As they got better, they gained autonomy, recognition, and impact.
Those conditions created passion.
The work became meaningful because they were good at it and it mattered to others.
Researchers call this “harmonious passion.”
When an activity becomes part of your identity through freely chosen engagement, not through external pressure or ego.
It's associated with learning, sustained effort, and actual well-being.
Unlike the desperate, anxiety-driven version where you're trying to prove something.
The shift happens when you stop asking "What am I passionate about?"
And start asking "What can I get good at that people will pay for?"
From there, you enter a feedback loop.
Competence brings results.
Results bring confidence and resources.
Those things let you experiment more.
Some experiments stick.
Others don't.
You keep what works, drop what doesn't, and your direction becomes clear through motion.
Not through meditation.
Through motion.
My career path looks completely random from the outside.
Metal vocalist to journalist to copywriter to AI automation.
What's the thread?
There isn't one.
That's the point.
I didn't need a grand plan.
I needed to be willing to try things before I understood how they'd fit together.
Looking back, sure, I can tell a story about how each thing led to the next.
But I didn't see it at the time.
Nobody does.
The narrative only makes sense in retrospect.
What to Actually Do This Week
You already know what shot you've been avoiding.
That email you haven't sent.
That project you haven't started.
That person you haven't reached out to.
The thing you tell yourself you'll do once you have more clarity, more skills, more time.
Stop waiting.
Pick one action that feels just slightly too ambitious.
Something that makes you a little uncomfortable because you're not "ready" yet.
Something where you don't have all the answers.
Then do it before next Friday.
Not because you've figured out your passion.
But because you understand that your direction will become clear through taking shots, not through thinking about taking shots.
Send the cold DM.
Publish the rough draft.
Pitch the idea you're not sure about.
Start the project before you know exactly where it's going.
Because here's what happens when you don't.
You spend another year in the same place, telling yourself you're being strategic when you're actually just being scared.
The research is clear.
Treating interests as fixed things you discover keeps you narrow, risk-averse, and stuck.
Treating them as things you develop through experimentation makes you resilient, adaptable, and way more likely to end up somewhere interesting.
I didn't plan to go from screaming in basements to building AI systems for entrepreneurs.
I just kept taking the next shot that seemed vaguely promising.
Each one taught me something.
Each one opened doors I didn't know existed.
Your passion isn't hiding somewhere waiting to be discovered.
It's waiting to be built through the accumulated evidence of:
What you're willing to try
What you're willing to get good at
What actually creates value for others
So take a shot this week.
Before you feel ready.
Before you have clarity.
Before you're sure it's "the right thing."
Because waiting for certainty is just another way of choosing to stay stuck.
And you've been stuck long enough.