Book Club: So good they can't ignore you

Cal Newport has written a very engaging and important book on the topic of whether or not you should follow your passion. He questions this ubiquitous advice, its real world implications and the financial viability of following through on following your passion.

The happiest, most passionate employees are not those who followed their passion into a position, but instead those who have been around long enough to become good at what they do. On reflection, this makes sense.
— Cal Newport
  1. Don’t Follow Your Passion - without first conducting experiments etc. and understanding what it will or will not give you

  2. Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You - in order to get the work that you want

  3. Turn Down A Promotion in order keep control of your work

  4. Build Career Capital - have patience and persistence to develop skills/experience

Career capital is based on what value you offer the working world. If you can do something of real value, that’s rare. Otherwise it wouldn’t be valuable. Almost by definition, in order to become valuable in a market, it’s going to take time. So you need patience, tolerance for working on things that are hard and making progress that’s slow over a period of years — not weeks or months.

BOOK CLUB: You’re welcome to join us on the 4th of July to discuss the book. If you’re interested, please register here: