"Follow your passion" is a luxury belief disguised as universal wisdom.
I'm 17, running a startup that generates revenue, and I've sat through dozens of career counseling sessions where adults tell me to "find my passion" like it's hiding under a rock somewhere waiting to be discovered.
Here's what nobody tells you: passion follows competence, not the other way around.
You know what I'm "passionate" about right now? Building AI infrastructure. Memory systems. Agent coordination protocols. Technical architecture that makes me want to pull my hair out at 2 AM.
Was I born passionate about stateful reasoning in multi-agent systems? No. I didn't even know what that meant a year ago.
I became passionate about it because I got good at it. Because I saw results. Because customers paid me money for solving their problems. The passion came after the competence, not before.
The passion-first model is backwards
When you tell a 17-year-old to "follow their passion," here's what actually happens:
They search for something they already enjoy (usually consumption, not creation). They try to monetize it. They fail because enjoyment doesn't equal marketable skill. They feel like failures because society told them passion was supposed to be enough.
I like chess. I'm passionate about chess. Should I become a professional chess player? No, because I'm not good enough and the market for professional chess players is tiny and I'd probably starve.
But career counselors don't say "find something you could become world-class at that also has market demand." They say "follow your passion" because it sounds inspiring and lets them avoid the uncomfortable truth that most passions don't pay bills.
What actually works
Here's the model that nobody teaches:
Find something with market demand. Get extremely good at it. The passion develops as you build competence. The money follows the skill.
I didn't start building AI agents because I was passionate about AI. I started because I saw a market opportunity and had enough technical skill to attempt it. The passion developed as I got better, as customers started paying, as the product started working.
Now I'm genuinely passionate about it. But the passion is a result of progress, not the cause.
Cal Newport calls this the "craftsman mindset" versus the "passion mindset." The craftsman focuses on getting so good they can't be ignored. The passion follower focuses on finding work that matches their pre-existing interests.
Guess which one builds valuable skills? Guess which one makes money?
The class divide nobody mentions
"Follow your passion" is advice rich parents give their kids because they can afford for them to fail.
If you have a trust fund, go ahead, spend three years trying to make it as a travel blogger or an organic juice entrepreneur or whatever. Your downside is capped. You'll be fine.
If you don't have rich parents, "follow your passion" can destroy you. Because passions are expensive. Starting a nonprofit costs money. Becoming an artist requires years of unpaid work. "Finding yourself" through travel requires a bank account.
The kids who can afford to follow their passion don't need the career advice. The kids who actually need practical guidance get told to "follow their dreams" by counselors who've never worried about rent.
What they should teach instead
Instead of "follow your passion," schools should teach:
"Build valuable skills in areas with market demand."
Not as inspiring. Way more useful.
Find something that:
People will pay money for
You can become excellent at
Has room for you to grow
Then get obsessively good at it. The passion will develop as you build competence. The money will follow the skill. And you'll avoid the trap of being 30 with a "passion" but no marketable abilities.
I'm not saying ignore what you enjoy. I'm saying enjoyment should be one factor among many, not the only factor. And it's often not even the most important factor.
The real test
If someone tells you to "follow your passion," ask them: "How much money did you make following yours?"
If they're wealthy from doing what they love, listen to them. They've proven the model works.
If they're a teacher or counselor giving generic advice they've never personally tested, ignore them. They're repeating something that sounds nice, not something that works.
The people who actually followed their passion and succeeded will tell you the same thing I'm telling you: passion followed competence. They got good first, fell in love with it second, got paid third.
Why this matters now
I'm building Nexus not because I woke up one day passionate about AI infrastructure. I'm building it because I saw a problem, had skills to solve it, and customers willing to pay.
The passion came later. After the first customer. After the first working prototype. After seeing that this thing I built actually helps people.
If I'd waited to "find my passion" first, I'd still be searching. Instead, I built competence in something valuable, and the passion followed naturally.
That's the real career advice nobody wants to give because it's not romantic. But it's true.
— Arjun