Here is the full text and summary of Terri Trespicio’s talk titled “Stop Searching For Your Passion” by at TEDxKC conference.
Listen to the MP3 Audio here:
TRANSCRIPT:
The day I got laid off from my job at Martha Stewart I was relieved. I loved the job. I really did but the relationship was over and I didn’t know how to end it and then it broke up with me. At the time I’ve been also hosting a radio show for the Martha Stewart brand on SiriusXM and then not long after that got canceled too.
On the day of my last show I got onto the elevator at the 36th floor and as it started to drop, I started to cry. Every floor took me further and further from what I had been, a magazine editor, a radio host, the person with the cool job to talk about at parties. And honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do and quite frankly no one was looking for me.
So I did what anyone would do in that situation. I was making some phone calls, hey, what are you up to, that I mention I’m available. I needed to get paid to do something, right? I mean, I live in New York City. If you’re not paid to do something, you’re not going to be there very long.
With this idea that I had to know when I was supposed to do now, is to pursue this passion. It just bugged me. It always had and that’s because there’s a dangerously limiting idea at the heart of everything we believe about success and life in general. And it’s that you have one singular passion and your job is to find it and to pursue it to the exclusion of all else.
The pressure starts really young and it goes your whole life but it’s perhaps most pronounced when you’re graduating from school, right? Wow, the world at your feet, what are you going to do now? And it’s so intimidating it’s like picking a major for life. I had a hard time picking a major for four years and I changed that once if not twice. I mean it was like just intimidating.
And this compelling, I mean this really forceful cultural imperative to choose your passion is stressful to me but it’s not just me. Everyone I talked to agrees with me. The woman who sold me this dress, I told her what I needed to dress for when I was talking about and she said, oh my gosh, I really need to hear this talk because I just graduate from school, my friends and I we don’t know what we’re passionate about. We don’t know what we’re supposed to do.
I’m leery of passion for a few reasons. But one of them is that passion is not a plan. It’s a feeling and feelings change. They do. You can be passionate about a person one day, at a job and then not passionate the next. We know this and yet we continue to use passion as the yardstick to judge everything by, instead of seeing passion for what it really is, the fire that ignites when you start rubbing sticks together.
Anyway I was such a mess when I was in my twenties, such a mess, I was anxious and depressed and had no life to speak of. I was tempting to keep my options open and I was sitting around at night in my underwear watching Seinfeld reruns, actually I still do that, that’s not the worst thing in the world to do. Fine.
But I called my mother every night crying and I was turning away perfectly good fulltime jobs, why because I was afraid. I was sure that I would pick the wrong one and get on the wrong train headed to the wrong future. My mother begged me to please take a job, any job, you’re not going to be stuck. You’re stuck now. You don’t create your life first and then live it. You create it by living it, not agonizing about it. She’s right, she’s always right.
And so I took a full time job as an assistant at a management consulting firm where I knew nothing about nothing. Okay, zero. Except I knew I had a reason to get up in the morning, get showered, leave the house and people who are waiting for me when I got there. And I got a paycheck every two weeks and that is as good a reason to take a job as any. Did I know that — if I want to be an office administrator for the rest of my life? No, I had no idea, truly.
But this idea that everything you’re supposed to do should fit into this passion vertical is unrealistic. You show me someone who washes windows for a living and I will bet you $1,000,000 if not because he has a passion for clean glass.
One of my favorite columns is a piece by Dilbert creator Scott Adams. He wrote a piece in The Wall Street Journal few years ago about how he failed his way to success and one of his jobs was as a commercial loan officer. And he was taught specifically: do not loan money to someone following their passion. Now loan it to someone who wants to start a business, the more boring the better.
Adam says that in his life success fueled passion more than passion fueled success. When I got my first job as a magazine editor in publishing, I was thrilled. But I had to take a pretty big paycut because at the time I’d been a catalog copywriter at a Wig Company. Laugh if you will, clearly you are and many many people did. But Wigs paid and so I had to figure out a way to make some money. So a friend of mine invited me to a jewelry party and I said what is a jewelry party? She said it’s like tupperware but with bracelets. I said, okay, got it.
I went and I had the best time. I was there hanging out trying on jewelry and the salesperson’s having a great time and I was like, that’s a job. I could do that. I mean really she seems to be having a great time. Now I had no background in sales — Girl Scouts, and I was terrible and I had no passion for jewelry. I mean honestly my earrings cost $20 combined all of them and then I was like I think I can fling silver jewelry to suburban moms drinking daiquiris. Yes, I could do that.
And so I did it, I signed up, I became a jewelry designs rep and listen to me I was not setting the world on fire away, really. I was so like awkward and afraid of selling, and I got better, I got better. I started making some money. I started getting really passionate about it, not just because of the money but because what I realized is people bought at the stuff. They were happy to pay for it. I sold so much jewelry that year. I won a free trip to St. Thomas. I eventually let my jewelry business go because my career path shifted, but I was so glad that I did that because it planted an entrepreneurial seed I didn’t know was there and that bears fruit to this day.
Now as you know, an entire cottage industry has sprung up around helping people find their passions, write books, coaching, webinars, whatever and their heart is in the right place, it’s great. I’m all about self-discovery. But when you ask someone what’s your passion, it’s triggering. It’s like upsetting, like oh my god, I have to come up with a good answer for this.
One of my friends is in her mid-forties and she’s looking at like what’s her life going to be now. And she’s like I don’t know what I’m passionate about. And she is legitimately concerned about this. She’s ready to hire a team of people, it’s like why are we worried about this, you know why, because you think something’s wrong with her. I felt something was wrong with me when I was in the seventh grade and everyone was really in this like the rock bands and their actors and they would carve the names of those bands in the tables at the library.
And I never carve anything because I couldn’t think of anything to carve. I mean I liked Bon Jovi as much as the next girl but not enough to deface school property. That’s probably why I don’t have any other — I don’t have any tattoos either, I’m assuming that’s boring. It’s really boring, I thought something was wrong with me but that’s the fear, isn’t it, that when someone asks you at a party, on a date, at a job interview, what are you passionate about, that you’re not going to have this wow compelling answer, and that that means you’re not interesting or ambitious or that you don’t have a singular obsession or scary talent that you are hiding, and that your life is not worth living and that’s not true.
Passion is not a job, a sport or a hobby. It is the full force of your attention and energy that you give to whatever is right in front of you. And if you’re so busy looking for this passion, you could miss opportunities that change your life. You could also miss out on great love because that’s what happens when you have tunnel vision trying to find the one. We all think we know the kind of person we are and the kind of person we could love. But sometimes we’re wrong, blissfully wrong.
And sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to do next, right? I mean I don’t, I love not knowing what I’m going to be doing five years from now or what I’ll be into. And that’s okay, it’s okay not to know. You know why, because the most fulfilling relationships, the most fulfilling careers are those that still have the power to surprise you. And as for the things you know you want to do, you want to write a book, you want to start a business, you want to change careers, great.
But if you’re sitting around waiting for passion to show up and take you there, you’re going to be waiting a long time. So don’t wait, instead spend your time and attention solving your favorite problems. Look for problems that need solving. Be useful, generous. People will thank you and hug you and pay you for it and that’s where passion is, where your energy and effort meet someone else’s need. That’s when you realize passion lives and realizing what you have to contribute. What do you think when you ask what they are passionate about, they say helping other people.
So don’t wait. Listen to my mother. Just start doing because to live a life full of meaning and value, you don’t follow your passion. Your passion follows you. Thank you.
Want a summary of this talk? Here it is.
SUMMARY:
In her talk titled “Stop Searching For Your Passion,” Terri Trespicio shares her personal journey and insights on the concept of passion and how it relates to success and fulfillment. Here are the key points from her talk:
1. The Relieving Layoff: Terri starts by recounting the day she got laid off from her job at Martha Stewart, and surprisingly, she felt relieved despite loving her job. This event marked a turning point in her career.
2. The Pressure to Find Passion: Terri highlights the societal pressure to identify one’s singular passion and pursue it relentlessly. She emphasizes that this idea creates stress and anxiety, especially for recent graduates.
3. Passion is Not a Plan: Terri argues that passion is a feeling, not a solid plan. It can change over time, and it’s unrealistic to expect that one’s entire life should revolve around a single passion.
4. The Fear of Choosing the Wrong Path: Terri discusses her fear of choosing the wrong career path and how she resisted taking full-time jobs because of it. She advises against agonizing over choices and encourages taking action.
5. Success Fueled by Passion: Terri shares examples of successful individuals, like Scott Adams, who didn’t follow their passions but achieved success and found passion along the way.
6. Taking Opportunities: Terri explains how she ventured into jewelry sales despite having no prior experience or passion for it. She discovered her passion through the process and learned that people were willing to pay for her products.
7. The Pressure to Have a Compelling Answer: Terri addresses the fear many people have of not having a compelling answer when asked about their passion. She emphasizes that it’s okay not to know and that one’s worth is not determined by a singular obsession.
8. Passion is Where Attention and Energy Meet a Need: Terri suggests that passion arises when you focus your attention and energy on solving problems and meeting the needs of others. Being useful and generous can lead to fulfilling experiences.
9. Don’t Wait, Start Doing: Terri’s mother advised her not to wait for passion to show up but to start taking action. She asserts that, to live a meaningful life, one should actively engage in solving problems and making a difference.
10. Passion Follows You: Terri concludes by stating that passion follows you when you live a life of purpose and value. It’s not something you find but something that emerges from your actions and contributions to the world.
Terri Trespicio’s talk challenges the conventional wisdom that one must search tirelessly for a singular passion and instead encourages people to take action, be open to opportunities, and find fulfillment in making a positive impact on others. It offers a refreshing perspective on how to navigate career choices and find purpose in life.
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