Answered by Colin Shillingford

Colin Shillingford的回复：

Telling people to follow their passion is bad advice.

告诉人们去追随自己的激情就是个很糟糕的建议。

This morning I spotted a great video lecture on 99U which happens to touch on the topic:

今早我在99U（译者注：美国一家创意网站）上看到一个很棒的演讲视频，恰巧就谈到了这个话题：

Cal Newport: "Follow Your Passion" Is Bad Advice

卡尔·纽坡特：“追随你的激情”是个糟糕的建议

A Quote directly from Cal Newport:

以下摘自卡尔·纽坡特的演讲：

"American culture is obsessed with the idea that we need to find our 'passion' in order to be happy and successful. But there’s a problem: It’s an astonishingly bad piece of advice," says best-selling author Cal Newport. "We have no pre-existing passion. Instead, passion is found by first building a rare and valuable talent and using it to take control of your career path. In other words, be so good and work so hard that no one can ignore you."_

畅销书作者卡尔·纽坡特说：“美国文化中盛行一种观点：如果你想获得幸福和成功，你就要去发掘自己的‘激情’所在。但这里有个问题：这是个非常糟糕的建议。激情不是预先存在的，想要发掘它，首先我们需要形成自己独有的才能，然后利用它来掌控我们的职业生涯。换句话说，我们需要做到足够优秀，工作足够努力，让别人无法忽视我们。”_

I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Newport. I've been realizing more and more lately what a passion really means. As passionate as most of us are about many things in our lives, relying on that alone will not advance us in our careers.

不得不说，我由衷地赞同纽坡特先生的观点。最近，我越来越能体会激情到底意味着什么。尽管大多数人对生活中诸多事物都充满激情，仅凭这个根本无法让我们的事业平步青云。

Passion should be a by-product of working towards the pursuit of a skill (or skill set), in my opinion.

在我看来，激情，是在我们精进自己某项技能（或一系列技能）的过程中所产生的副产品。

Telling people to follow their passions (without any other advice or guidance) simply sends them on a dream chase which may be more harmful to their careers in the long-term. Passion is a great thing to have, but must be accompanied by determination, creativity, talent, and strategy in order to help someone establish a suitable career path.

在没有给予其他任何建议或者指导的情况下，告诉别人去追随自己的激情，只不过是让他们去追逐梦想，而从长远看来，这可能更不利于他们的事业。拥有激情是好的，但要想建立合适的职业生涯，还需要毅力、创造力、天赋和策略。

Speaking from personal experience, not all of the things I am passionate about are things that I should pursue as a career. One should carefully research a profession before considering a transition into that type of role, because some work seems glamorous or appealing until you are doing it day in and day out.

就个人经验而言，并不是所有我所热爱的事情都适合拿来作为事业。在考虑转行之前，你需要认真考察一番，因为在你真正为之夜以继日地忙碌之后，有些工作就不会那么光鲜迷人了。

Most people will need mentors, guidance, coaching, experience, and support before they can turn a passion into a career.

大多数人都需要在咨询导师、接受指导、进行培训、学习经验、获得支持之后，才能将自己所热爱的事情转化为事业。

I strongly suggest getting mentored before pursuing a new career, that way you can get a glimpse into the industry and all of the related activities before you decide that it's right for you.

我强烈建议，在从事新行业之前多听听过来人的指导，那样你才能初步了解一个行业和相关活动，然后再决定它是否适合自己。

Note: Following your passions is not a bad thing, by any means. In fact, it is very important to be passionate about the career path you are pursuing and the things you love doing for income. Advising others to follow their passions without elaborating or giving them the tools or guidance to do so, is the issue I am addressing in my post._

注：无论如何，追随自己的激情都不是一件坏事。事实上，对于自己所从事的事业，或者希望能以此谋生的事情，心怀激情是非常重要的。但仅仅建议人们追随自己的激情，却不详细说明，也不告诉他们方法或给予指引，这才是我本文想批评的现象。