Post by Toyin omopariola (@toyin33)

Do Not Follow Your Passion If You’re From A Poor Home.

I think we have romanticized passion so much that we have stopped telling young people the truth about it.

You’ll hear a person tell another to follow their passion, to do what they love, to not settle for a job they don’t enjoy.

Beautiful advice you say, but beautiful advice can become terrible advice when you give it to the wrong person at the wrong stage of life.

There is something I have observed about wealthy families that we don’t talk about enough. A lot of wealthy parents do not necessarily tell their children to simply follow their passion, because the child was not born into a vacuum, rather they were born into a system.

There may be businesses to inherit, assets to manage, relationships to maintain, a family name to protect, institutions to build, employees whose livelihoods depend on the family, and wealth that took generations to accumulate.

So sometimes, the child says, “I want to be a musician,” and the parent says, “Fine. But first, learn the business.” “I want to be an artist.” “Fine. But understand money, ownership and the family enterprise.” “I want to become a writer.” “Fine. But build the capacity to stand on your own feet.”

It is not always because the parents hate their child’s passion. Sometimes, they understand something the child does not yet understand which is, a system that took decades to build cannot be preserved by feelings alone.

This is also why I sometimes get uncomfortable when I hear a young person from a poor home being told to “just follow your passion.”

My brother, with all due respect, you may not have the luxury of making passion your first economic strategy. You are starting life with a completely different set of circumstances. You dont have family assets waiting for you, you don’t have a house you can fall back on, you dont have parents who can fund three years of experimentation, you don’t have a family business generating income while you “figure yourself out.” You don’t even have the luxury of failing repeatedly without serious consequences.

So perhaps your first assignment is not to find yourself. Perhaps your first assignment is to build yourself.

Get a skill. Get good at something people will pay you for. Find legitimate work. Learn how money works. Learn how business works. Learn how to sell. Build relationships. Save. Invest. Create some stability. Get yourself out of survival mode. And while you are doing that, you can still nurture the thing you love.

Write your book after work. Learn music at night. Take the photography course. Build the YouTube channel. Whatever it is, but don’t confuse what you love with what currently pays your bills. They can eventually become the same thing, but they don’t have to start that way.

In fact, some of the things you are passionate about today may become much more enjoyable when you are no longer desperate for them to feed you.

There is dignity in doing work you did not initially dream about because it is honest, it pays you, and it is helping you build the capacity to choose your next move.

And please, don’t misunderstand me.

I am not saying poor people should abandon their dreams. I am saying you should stop allowing your dream to make you economically irresponsible.

Passion is beautiful. But passion does not pay rent simply because you are passionate. Passion does not automatically create customers. Passion does not make you competent. Passion does not replace capital. Passion does not build systems. Passion does not guarantee that the market wants what you have to offer.

Sometimes you need to spend the first chapter of your life doing what works so that you can eventually afford to do what you love. You can be passionate about your destination without being foolish about the road you take to get there.

If you come from very little, don’t be ashamed of building your life strategically.

Get passionate about legitimate work that gives you money. Build. Then, when you have built enough capacity, you can give your passion a much bigger seat at the table.

Because there is a difference between following your passion and having the economic freedom to pursue it. And sometimes, the first thing you need to build is the freedom.

#toyin

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