Let your passion walk beside you

We’ve always been told that pursuing our passion will naturally lead to more money, recognition, and success. It sounds obvious — if you love something deeply, of course you’ll outperform others at it. But is it really that simple? For a long time, I viewed passion as a stepping stone to another income stream — something that must prove itself useful in worldly terms. Yet passion, by definition, is an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. It is not inherently tied to profit. And yet, we’ve grown up absorbing quotes like: “Follow your passion and you’ll never work a day in your life.” We hear this and start hunting for the one thing that will solve our dissatisfaction. But passion and monetisation are not the same path. Turning a passion into a livelihood can take years — sometimes decades. So what happens in the meantime? Do we abandon our passion just because it isn’t paying yet? Or do we learn to let passion serve us more quietly?

So let’s separate passion from money and look at it in its purest form. The real reward of pursuing a passion is the joy you feel simply by doing it. Think about it: when you love learning about something, every time you read or explore it, you feel drawn to go deeper. That curiosity sustains itself. Not everyone feels that way about the same things — and that’s the beauty of it. Passion is deeply personal. It is your own unique way of finding meaning and pleasure in effort. Where many rely on external stimulation — entertainment, distractions, or addictions — your passion allows you to feel alive simply through engaging with what you love.

But the moment we introduce validation — fame, money, applause — something shifts. The joy once rooted in your inner world starts depending on external approval. You no longer learn, write, paint, build, or teach for the love of it — you begin to monitor views, rankings, titles, and responses. What was once a sanctuary becomes performance. And performance is fragile, because applause is inconsistent. When your passion is tied to validation, it becomes exhausting. The very thing that once felt freeing begins to feel like work.

So the real pursuit is to protect your passion. Guard it from becoming a tool for approval. Don’t let the thing that makes you feel alive be controlled by something you cannot control. The nobler path is to treat your passion as something sacred — something worth preserving.

This means being brave enough to acknowledge that you’re learning, growing, and imperfect — and that’s exactly how it should be. The goal is not to become something impressive; the goal is to keep feeding your curiosity. When that becomes your intention, negative validation loses its power. The reward is already received the moment you engage with the passion itself.

From this place, sharing becomes natural. You begin to talk about what you learn — not to be admired — but to be useful. To share something hopefully helping someone like you on a similar journey. You’ve already received your joy; now you simply extend it. And when you share from this sincerity, you naturally begin to attract others who feel the same. What once felt like a solitary path slowly becomes a gathering — a community shaped not by performance, but by shared curiosity.

As Carl Jung said:

“No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown allies will come and seek you."

Passion was never meant to be chased, monetised, or displayed. It was meant to accompany you. It is the quiet flame that keeps you alive from the inside. Protect it. Nurture it. And allow it to grow with you — not for the world, but for your own soul. Because the moment passion stops being a performance and becomes a companion, life begins to feel fuller, deeper, and far more meaningful than any applause could ever offer.