Stop Following Your Passion. Follow This Instead

What if your biggest competitive advantage isn’t your passion, but your curiosity? In this episode, I explore why following the topics you’re naturally drawn to can lead to more meaningful work, a stronger personal brand, and a career that’s harder to replace in the age of AI. I also share how writing, travel, music, business, and jiu-jitsu have shaped my own path, and why building a unique stack of skills may be the key to creating a life you genuinely enjoy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alrighty then guys, hope you're all doing well. Welcome back to the channel. Got my yerba mate at hand. If you've never tried yerba mate, uh which if you're from the west you probably haven't. If you've been to Latin America or you know Latin American people, you've probably seen yerba mate before. It's basically like uh kind of like a tea, but it's ground, you know, ground mate, yerba, and um yeah, you put this powder in it, this kind of earthy green looking powder in this, and then you mix it with water, and this little straw filters out the uh the bits, so you only get this tea, and it's pretty refreshing, pretty refreshing. Mate is when you drink it cold, typically you drink it with ice water, and telede is when you drink it with hot water, but it's essentially the same thing, you have a mate. So there you go. Quick mate uh lesson there to start up start off the uh the episode. So let's get into the video. Lately I've been thinking a lot about whether it's possible to build a great life and have earn a great living simply by pursuing your interests. And by following your interests, I don't mean like, oh, just follow your passion and everything will work out type of way. I mean something more practical. I mean like what if the things you've you're naturally curious about are actually the best clues to where you can focus your efforts and produce your most valuable work. Because the people who will continue to stand out in a world of AI now are the ones with their own unique perspectives and the ability to communicate well and be likable. They're the people who build an audience around ideas that they genuinely care about, you know? Because genuine when you're genuinely curious about something, it's very difficult to put on an act. Like people can sense if you're if you're bullshitting, you know. There's a quote by uh Naval Ravakant. Uh, don't know if you've checked out Naval, I'd highly recommend you check out his work. The guy's a genius. And he says, do what feels like play to you, but looks like work to others. You know, that's where you're gonna, that's your unique unfair advantage, essentially. That's where you're gonna be able to make the most amount of money. So that idea made me ask myself the question: if money wasn't a factor, what would I actually spend my days doing? Well, I'd definitely wake up somewhere warm. I'd live somewhere with a warm climate because I hate the cold. I'd get I'd go outside for some sunlight, have a walk, have a coffee, then come home, make breakfast, and then probably sit down and do some like journaling or like writing for for a while. Because I've realized I wish I'd gotten into writing and journaling a lot younger because you know it's it really helps me think, you know, inside my head, like my ideas can feel a little bit tangled and unfinished and not clear. Once they're actually on the page, they become something that I can actually analyze and organise and improve. And writing isn't just how I communicate my ideas and I get my ideas out, it's actually how I discover them sometimes. Because from there I take the strongest ideas and then I'll turn them into content to be distributed across social media. Maybe turn the best ideas into a newsletter, a podcast episode like this one, handful of short videos taken from that long-form content, LinkedIn article. You know, one idea, one core idea becomes many pieces of content, and it all starts with just daily writing. And what comes out won't always be isn't always good, you know. It's just sometimes it's more the process of continuing to show up. Um, check out the book The War of Art, uh, talks a talks a lot about this. I'd also spend my time on creative pursuits, writing music, playing guitar, vibe coding apps. I've started getting into and really enjoying that, solving niche problems, walking, traveling to new cities, walking through new cities, uh, exploring the history, the landscapes, learning languages, training jujitsu, working out, reading and learning, taking courses, listening to podcasts, traveling, hanging out with friends. This is truly how I would actually spend my time. Like if money was no object, I would do that. I would spend all my time on those things. And they're all driven by the same thing, curiosity. None of them feel like work to me. I keep coming back because I'm actually generally interested. Like I love showing up to jujitsu class, I love picking up the guitar and learning a new song. Like that's when time just passes for me. Um, they put me in a flow state, you know, where hours just disappear. And people often say that you should follow your passion, but I think following your curiosity is a much more Yeah, I think following your curiosity passion is emotional, you know, it comes and goes. Curiosity makes you watch another episode, read another chapter, ask another question. That's not passion, that's curiosity. Build another project, solve another problem. You know, you keep showing up long before the rewards arrive because it feels good and you're naturally curious about it, and that's how you do your best work. Eventually, then something happens, you become uniquely skilled at things that really only you can do, and then you become the niche, you become the niche, you are your own niche, and this is how you become AI proof. You accumulate thousands of hours in your own domain, whatever they are, without feeling like you are forcing everything, uh anything. I always felt like the education system at school, even though I'm grateful for the education I got, um, I always felt like it was a bit rigid and didn't allow students to pursue their natural curiosity. Of course, there's so many students they need to pass their grades, so I get why it's set up in the way it is, but I don't always think it's the best at guiding students towards what they're naturally best at. And these skills that you put your time into, they begin to stack on top of each other. You know, maybe you learn marketing or sales, and then you learn writing, and then video editing, um, AI. You know, you learn a little code, you become interested in human psychology, you pick up another couple of languages, even, and then you've built a combination of skills that is very difficult to copy, and together they're uniquely yours. Most people they spend 40 or 50 hours a week at a job which they don't particularly enjoy. They're watching the clock and they're doing it because they can't make them make a living doing anything else. Or they could, they just don't think they can, or they have a lot of financial obligations which keeps them chained to that job, which I think is a sad way to live your life. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what you are happy doing, if that's what you want to do, fair enough. But I think now there's there's alternative paths if you don't feel like you are made for that. I've worked many jobs in my time which I wasn't passionate about. While working full-time, I built my music business on the side where I was performing gigs on weekends. I started a marketing agency, and I was creating content on the side. It can be done, it's a lot of work, but it can be done. You literally just have to cut distractions and then make some sacrifices for a period of time, and then by the time you get home, you've already spent most of your mental energy energy solving someone else's problems at your job. It can be difficult to do your best work when you're mentally exhausted. So if you're not sure what you're naturally interested in, just pay attention to like what YouTube rabbit holes you go down, like what books do you finish and can't put down? What topics keep coming up in your conversations? You know, these are clues, and if you follow these clues, they'll eventually lead you to work, which feels less like something you have to do and more like something you feel drawn to. And the rewards don't show up immediately, you have to walk the path, but when you're on the path and you're following your curiosity and you're following these interests, topics which generally interest you, it doesn't feel like a grind. I don't think the goal is to ever build a career around one single passion. Because let's say you are the Facebook ads guy, like I'm a marketer, I've ran a Facebook ads, paid ads agency for the last year and a half. Like, a lot of other people can be can do Facebook ads, so it's like what actually separates you from that core sort service that you offer, and it's all your other things around that service. What you bring to the table, maybe you're particularly good at reporting, at communicating with clients, explaining ideas, problem solving, all these extra intangibles which really make someone drawn to work with you. And I think the goal is to build something, build a life around what you're curious about. You know, how cool would it be to look back and you're really proud of what you created? Like, I imagine how like Paul McCartney must feel from the Beatles. Like the body of work he's created is just absolutely insane. And all the great actors, you know, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, like the Terminator movies, and all of the you know, the life he's had, being a bodybuilder, and it's like what a legacy, you know. Looking back, almost everything worthwhile in my life started from a place of curiosity. Learning guitar, travelling, building a business, jujitsu, content creation, and at the start of all of them, I sucked and I was clueless. Like, I was terrible at guitar, I couldn't use my pinky finger. It took me ages to let just to you to be able to fret with my pinky finger because it hurt too much. My first jujitsu class, I got absolutely tied up like a pretzel trying to roll with someone who'd been training two or three years, and I was like humble enough to keep showing up, you know. For some people, that destroys their ego. They can't handle being being uh being owned like that, but it is what it is. I understand that time makes you good at something, so I can't come in as a newbie and expect to be be able to handle someone who's been training for two or three years. It doesn't make sense, otherwise, why would you even why would you even do it? You know, all of these interests, none of them began with like a carefully constructed plan. I was just interested in it. I was curious just to take that first step, just to show up and kept wanting to do it. And maybe that's really all you need to do. Pursue your curiosities. So, guys, that's today's episode. Hope you found it insightful. If you did, comment below and uh subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. And I will see you on the next one. Peace out.