Advice for the unwary

By Suzanne Cummins

Most people do not ask me for advice - I just feel compelled to give it unsolicited. Free. I think of it as sharing. The recipients of my advice think of it as getting what they paid for... if they read it at all.

But despite that, here is my current advice to help those who might otherwise go awry: Following your passion does not pay – literally.

My son Ben wrote for an online soccer journal when he didn’t have enough other stuff to do after getting his bachelor’s degree. He didn’t get paid for this but I think there was a time he hoped he would find a way to monetize his passion for soccer journalism. It never happened.

Ben figured out it is nigh on impossible to get paid for that soccer journalism, which he loved. That is called having a hobby. There are people who say that if you follow your passion in your career, you “never work a day in your life.” Those people either have rich parents or a high tolerance for poverty.

Of course, you have to work when you are getting paid for what you do. You will never love all that you do in a paying job because you are getting paid for producing value – not for self-gratification. Students have told me that they want a job where they travel and get to spend time meeting interesting people. I want that job too! But I am pretty sure you won’t find that listed on ZipRecruiter. Because a job is not really about you – it is about the mission.

I loved teaching – I really did. But grading papers all night in order to give students rapid feedback only made me feel passionate about getting some sleep. I don’t want to openly talk about the other kind of passion it did evoke because I would rather not remind G-d of my potty mouth during those grading extravaganzas.

I think the real goal is that whatever you undertake for your livelihood, you bring passion to your endeavors, and you put your heart into it. Whether it is where you self-directed your career, or where you simply landed, you are the source of your own joy. Sometimes you will be abused by unscrupulous employers. Sometimes you will be unable to garner enthusiasm for the job you land. You can strategically change things, as long as you stay agile, able to shift gears and make sacrifices. But eventually, if you are lucky, your stars will align and you will find a place where the balance is right. Your efforts will be emotionally rewarding enough to get you past the awful parts, and the paycheck will be sufficient to support you and your family.

And you may even find that you passionately love what you are doing. Or at least you love what you are getting paid. Or if not, you can be (like my son Ben those years ago) impecunious but “one of a handful of Jewish soccer journalists in the greater Tucson area.”

For your information, I use my own advice for shul. At least for the Musaf service. When the reader repeats the Amidah, I personally want to take time for a snooze. Unless I missed the earlier Shacharit service, at which point it is all new to me and I am good - but I digress. For those rare occasions when I actually get to shul on time, passion is what pulls me through Musaf, not what leads me there.

That, and the thought that a yummy Kiddush buffet awaits the not-too-distant future. The point is that bringing my own passion to the service gets me through to the cake. Did I mention that I love cake?

P.S. I did not get paid for writing this piece. Or any cake. I am a bit bummed about that...

— Suzanne Cummins is a Senior Lecturer Emeritus at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management