“ ‘Follow your passion’ is dangerous advice.”

So Good They Can't Ignore You

关于职业的选择，这本书给出的第一个建议就是不要‘Follow your passion’，在书的前言上面，他详细介绍了一个追求自己激情的人是如何失败的例子。

“I was always asking,‘What’s the meaning of life?’ ”Thomas told me when I first met him, at a coffee shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

After earning a pair of bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and theology, then a master’s degree in comparative religion, Thomas decided that Zen Buddhist practice was the key to a meaningful life.“There was such a big crossover between the philosophy I was studying and Buddhism that I thought,‘Let me just go practice Buddhism directly to answer these big questions,’ ”he told me.

Thomas’s search also inspired him to travel across China and into Tibet, and to spend time in South Africa, among other journeys, before ending up in London working a rather dull job in data entry. Throughout this period, Thomas nurtured his conviction that Buddhism held the key to his happiness. Over time, this daydream evolved into the idea of him living as a monk.“I had built up such an incredible fantasy about Zen practice and living in a Zen monastery,”he explained to me.“It came to represent my dream come true.”All other work paled in comparison to this fantasy. He was dedicated to following his passion.

然后他就决定去当和尚了。花了九个月完成申请过程。

It took nine months for Thomas to complete the application process.When he finally arrived at Kennedy airport, having been approved to come live and practice at the monastery, he boarded a bus to take him into the Catskill countryside.

当他以为自己终于实现了自己的梦想的时候，一段时间修道院里的生活却让他最终认识到“The reality was, nothing had changed. I was exactly the same person, with the same worries and anxieties. It was late on a Sunday afternoon when I came to this realization, and I just started crying.”

Thomas had followed his passion to the Zen Mountain Monastery, believing, as many do, that the key to happiness is identifying your true calling and then chasing after it with all the courage you can muster. But as Thomas experienced that late Sunday afternoon in the oak forest, this belief is

frighteningly naïve. Fulfilling his dream to become a full-time Zen practitioner did not magically make his life wonderful.

Thomas和我们大多数人一样，认为追寻自己内心得渴望，听从它的呼唤，你就会得到你想要的，你就会实现你的梦想。但是事实上并不是这样的。

As Thomas discovered, the path to happiness—at least as it concerns what you do for a living—is more complicated than simply answering the classic question“What should I do with my life?”

这个世界很复杂远非仅仅回答一个简单的问题就能感觉的。

我们一直都很喜欢用最简单的方法来面对这个复杂的世界，一直以来在互联网上有很多自我提升的方法都是非常简单的，什么学会一个方法让你的倍增工作效率，增加一种本领提升几百倍的工资，学会一种读书方法超越99%的人。

但是，现实是非常复杂的，而这些简单的方法，是完全忽视这些东西的。因为他们并不能在现实当中简单的使用，所以它就直接忽视现实中的不适应的条件。

所以这些方法只能存在于网上，因为网上本来就是与现实脱轨的，网上没有现实那么复杂的东西，这也是为什么我不太喜欢网上鼓吹的付费学习，因为根本就是瞎扯。这写知识只是让人爽的道理而不是在现实社会中真实有用的东西。

尤其是最近体会更加深刻，因为参加了一个两天的会议，在这里每个人都在发言，各方利益都在角逐，部门利益，公司利益，个人利益都参与进去。发言人的利益，面子都要考虑。

这个时候我突然发现一切都没有用了，你必须参与进去去博弈，在不断的发言争吵博弈当中，平衡各方利益，去做妥协，去说服。这些都是需要真实的生活经验在里面的。这种情况需要的是你真实的经历过，争吵过，做过这种事。你才有机会在里面做到游刃有余。

这是你知道很多道理没有用，你学过很多知识也没有用，现实需要你跳进去，在这个漩涡中去挣扎去体验去寻找解决方法。没有进去，站在岸边是没有用的。没有真实的经理，是解决不好事情的。

所以说，现实是很复杂的。没有一种方法可以保证你能解决所有的事情的。