- Don't follow your passion.
You heard me right.
I said, do not, don't follow your passion.
I say that one more time.
Don't follow your passion.
Now, what am I talking about?
You hear this all the time.
They'll talk about, well you gotta find your passion.
Do what you love.
It's a very North American thing.
Let me talk to you about the Asian culture.
We don't talk about growing up, the concept,
we don't talk about, oh you gotta find your passion,
you gotta find what you love, no.
In the Asian culture,
first you focus on making a fucking living.
You do not have the right to talk about passion
before you make a living.
Now, it's a very different philosophy,
I'm not saying one is good or one is bad or-
they're just different.
If you think about it,
if you can not pay your bills,
if you're not providing for your family,
you're not being a husband and you're not being a wife,
that are supporting your kids.
That can send them through schools.
They're supporting your parents.
Then you have not earned the right to follow your passion.
When I was getting started, let me tell you this.
The first few years of my career I was working my ass off.
I was in front of my computer 12, 14 hours a day.
I was calling, I was working hard.
There was no fucking passion.
There's not one bit of that, that I like.
You think I want to be in front of my computer
studying, learning, growing, doing stuff,
getting calls, getting rejected, meeting with people,
doing all the hard work?
I don't like one minute of that but that's what it takes.
It's not about following your passion.
Following your passion does not mean
you're gonna have this successful life.
Because chances are, when you follow your passion,
you do what is comfortable for you.
Oh, I can see what I like to do.
Oh, I'll do that, it's easy for me to do.
That's not how you take success.
Now, if you don't want success,
then you don't have to watch this video.
You can watch some other videos.
Go watch some Prime Video or something like that.
You don't have to watch my video.
I'm talking with you on success.
If you truly want success, you have to do,
not just do what you love,
you gotta do what it fucking takes.
You gotta sacrifice.
Once I made enough money, once I'm successful,
then I can delegate the stuff that I don't like to do.
I can delegate stuff that I'm not very good at.
Now, I can focus on my zone of genius.
Now, I have earned the right to follow more of my passion.
What do I like to do?
Such as, teaching, I could do that.
But in the beginning, for you young guys out there,
you haven't earned a fucking right to follow shit.
You need to pay the bills.
You need to make a living.
Do that first.
Take care of your fucking family.
Don't talk to me about passion.
Once you have obtained some success,
then you can talk about-
okay, now can I go and do more of what I love?
So forget this passion thing.
Here's what you do, focus on your gifts
and focus on the market.
Just because your passionate about something,
there's so many people who are starving.
Maybe starving artists, right?
Starving talents, they're very passionate
about what they do,
can't make a fucking living doing what they do.
No one is gonna pay them, why?
Because they don't follow the market.
Just because you love something-
Look, I love, I collect,
as you know if you're fans of my work,
I collect Marvel Super-Hero collectables.
Can't make money collecting those things.
It costs me money to collect those things.
So, I know it is okay
'cause I make my money from something else.
I follow the market.
I give the market what the market wants.
Once I make the money, yeah I can do what I love.
I have more freedom, I have more choices.
But don't focus on that it's a fucking illusion.
Forget that shit.
Do what it takes, follow the market, follow your gifts.
What are you good at?
Not necessarily, what are you passionate?
What are you good at?
What can you do better than anybody else in the marketplace
it's willing to pay for?
And you may not agree with me on this.
You might think, oh Dan, oh you're just all about money.
I'm not just about money.
But I'm not about struggle either.
No good, it's just ah I'm so passionate,
you're fucking broke.
Make the money.
Follow the market, follow your gifts,
develop your gifts, develop your skills,
then you can focus on yourself.
Then you can think about, okay now I can-
now I have more means,
I have more resources to pursue my other passions.
If you're building and you're 20, you're millennial,
you're 18, 19, 20, don't talk to me about that.
You have not earned the right to do that.
Become successful first, do whatever it takes.
Follow the market, follow your gifts,
then maybe, (pause) maybe,
you and I can sit down and talk about your passion.
Until then, forget it.