“So good they can’t ignore you” by Cal Newport is a book that was recommended by our February speaker, Inês Santos Silva.

This book surprised me. The first statement of the book is that we should not follow our passion. Precisely the reverse of what we are being told every day, nowadays.

Why shouldn’t we follow our passion? According to the author searching for a job related to a pre-existing passion will only lead to frustration, anxiety and job hopping. 

“Ryan did not follow his passion into farming. Instead, like many people who end up loving what they do, he stumbled into his profession, and then found that his passion for the work increased along with his expertise.” 

Organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, etc. these ae who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work and whom the author talked with. From their experience described in this book, we can conclude that the answer is to find way to excel at something. Passion comes after you become good at something valuable. And that’s how you end up loving what you do. The focus is not so much on what you do but how you do it.

Newport also challenges the idea of time spent at something to be good at it. By analyzing the examples of two people who spent the same amount of time practicing guitar playing. How using the same amount of time, lead to so different results and why. The big difference is how you spend that time. What do you do to really challenge yourself? The difficulties you give yourself and got out of your comfort zone.

I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to know what to do about his/her life, who want a change, who believe in the follow-your-passion theory or anyone who wants to develop further their current career.

I would also recommend this book to anyone managing people. I’m a big believer that people are the secret to make any business successful. In this book you can read about the benefits of ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) and its impact on atmosphere, happiness at work and productivity.

done. “No results, no job: It’s that simple”; “Giving people more control over what they do and how they do it increases their happiness, engagement, and sense of fulfilment.”.

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