In Relentless Pursuit of Genuine Interest
"...but I think it’s about more than that. I think it’s about finding the things that light you up inside so much that you can’t help but dive in and do things you are wildly proud of."
Some things I believe:
Everyone wants to work on things that deeply interest them, yet most people never get the chance to
It's impossible to do your best work - work that silences that nagging feeling that you're not doing justice to your potential - without being deeply interested in it
You'll never learn what interests you most until you deliberately and relentlessly strive to figure it out
I spend a lot of time trying to identify great work and the ingredients that go into it. Great work is a combination of many things, but the most important is obsession. Read a book about Steve Jobs, or listen to an interview with Michael Jordan, and you’ll feel that obsession. People that do great work are so intensely interested in what they're doing that the world outside of that seems to stop. The three points above could simply say “find what you’re obsessed with.”
If obsession precedes great work, what precedes obsession? Brie Wolfson gives us a clue1:
When investors are looking to make bets on companies, they look for product-market fit. I think we can and should use that same framework to make bets on talent. That same magical spark that ignites when a company finds their perfect place in the market happens when a person finds the right problem to work on. Let’s call it person-problem fit.
Because if we’re going to have the dynamite careers we aspire to, and be rewarded accordingly, it’s going to start with figuring out what holes are you-shaped. I’ve heard this described before as “playing the right game,” or “climbing the right ladder,” but I think it’s about more than that. I think it’s about finding the things that light you up inside so much that you can’t help but dive in and do things you are wildly proud of.
If that final line isn’t describing obsession, I don’t know what is.
Seeking Genuine Interest
The first step—perhaps the most enormous step—is to find what you are genuinely interested in. Genuine interest is a map that leads to endless opportunities for improvement. The sooner you find it the more it all compounds.
But knowing what you’re interested in is tricky. It’s deceptively innocent. It feels obvious; like you should know it. Yet most people don’t.
I’m 26 and it’s an interesting age because until this point everyone has followed a similar path. In school, even if you’re the brightest, you can only get so far ahead. In university, while people begin to explore different ideas, everyone remains somewhat comparable.
But mid-twenties are when you begin to forge your own path. The rest of your life starts to take shape and the guidelines offered in school or university disappear. The decision of what impact you want to have on the world is yours and yours alone.
Many of my friends have started questioning their careers and what they want to do moving forward. I pivoted careers straight out of university and often get asked about it. Something interesting about these conversations is that most people have no idea what they're genuinely interested in. It's not just that they're uncertain; they're stumped. They don’t know what life looks like away from the path they’ve been following for so long.
One of the reasons people fail to think about what they actually want to do is that society does the thinking for them. ‘Man is the creature who does not know what to desire,’ wrote Girard, ‘and he turns to others in order to make up his mind.’ He called this mimetic desire and it explains why so many people find themselves following paths they hate: everyone else is doing it too, so it must be right2.
I recently re-read Shoe Dog, the story about Nike, written by it’s founder Phil Knight. It’s a phenomenal book, and a paragraph at the end jumped out at me:
God, how I wish I could relive the whole thing. Short of that, I’d like to share the experience, the ups and downs, so that some young man or woman, somewhere, going through the same trials and ordeals, might be inspired or comforted. Or warned. Some young entrepreneur, maybe, some athlete or painter or novelist, might press on. It’s all the same drive. The same dream. It would be nice to help them avoid the typical discouragements.
I’d tell them to hit pause, think long and hard about how they want to spend their time, and with whom they want to spend it for the next forty years. I’d tell men and women in their midtwenties not to settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don’t know what that means, seek it. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.
And that’s why it’s so important to know what interests you most. To be able to pull out the map and navigate the path ahead of you. And no one but you —not your manager, not your partner, not your parents — can do that work for you. It’s on you to find the things that light you up inside so much that you can’t help but dive in and do things you are wildly proud of.
In Closing
Interest is a weird thing to talk about. But the reason I did is that it’s so often overlooked. Deeply questioning what I’m interested in hasn’t led to absolute answers. Instead, it’s been a way of clarifying the things I’d been chasing, thinking of them in ways I hadn’t thought of before. It led me to rethink a lot of the decisions I’d made in the past. Most importantly, it made me rethink the decisions I was about to make.
The article from Wolfson contains a host of ideas and exercises aimed at uncovering the problems you’re best suited for. Try some of them, they may surprise you.
Talking about your interests is an effective way of identifying if you’re interested in something for the essence of it, or if you’re interested because it will impress other people. The reaction I get when I speak about things I’m deeply interested in is seldom one of enthusiasm. Rather, it’s surprise that I could be so interested in something so random. I’ve lost count of the number of raised eyebrows I’ve seen when going on about tacit knowledge or tools for thought. But that’s a good thing. It's an indication that the thing that interests you is for you, not anybody else. That’s what you want. Anybody that’s ever been obsessed will know these looks. When Jobs spoke about personal computing in the 70s and 80s people didn't think he was a genius - they thought he was a weirdo with a strange obsession for screens in a box. Mr Beast was so obsessed with YouTube that he talked about growth strategy with friends on Skype every day for more than 1,000 days. Outside of those Skype calls he would’ve seemed out of his mind. But that's where the magic lies.
Great article again Keags! Very interesting