Quit your job and follow your passion. You’ve heard that before. But is it good advice? Where else would you hear something like this about any other work aside from starting a business or becoming an artist. Who tells that to an aspiring astronaut or brain surgeon?

Seriously, astronauts suffer insane amounts of schooling, math, and sucking up to the powers that be in the military, at NASA or SpaceX. A brain surgery gig may be more difficult with the decade-plus of education and residency. And the rewards that generally follow becoming an astronaut or brain surgeon reflect on the dedication, study, and hard work that follow those career paths.  

For so many things, people do NOT simply quit their jobs and follow their passion. So why do you hear this so much? I think there’s a reason (and it’s a bad one), but first a story.

When I started my first semi-successful business, I (sort-of) followed the advice of quit your job and follow your passion. Or rather, my job quit me.

• Worked at a marketing agency.
• Opportunity to break away and work at a smaller agency.
• “Job” ended about 3 months into it.
• Started my marketing agency.
• Within 6-months replaced my previous salary

But, it was not sustainable for a lifetime for me personally. Ultimately, I don’t think quitting my job to “follow my passion” turned into a long-term success engine that could become a sellable asset. It was a vehicle for location independence which was nice. But it was not a vehicle for financial independence. Over time, I just burned out in wanting to make it go big. This small business still exists, we’re still providing value, and the business is still profitable. 

But the follow your passion is the career version of the Disneyism “follow your heart.” It’s a feeling. And feelings absent education is a recipe for disaster.

(Sidebar: I’m not suggesting feelings have nothing to do with your career. Far from it. Feelings can be a helpful guide in the context of other inputs. What I’m arguing against is “follow your heart” only. Because there’s so much more to a new career than feelings.- close sidebar.)

The whole “quit your job and follow your passion” isn’t good advice. It’s short-sighted. It doesn’t take into account the harsh reality that will smack you in the face when you…

• Quit your W-2 employer to start a business without adequate preparation, 
• Stop working to paint in your basement only to find nobody is buying work.
• Move to Nashville to break into country music.

Let’s just take starting a business. For every success story out there, there’s 2 other failures in the first 10 years. 

“According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of U.S. small businesses fail within the first year. By the end of their fifth year, roughly 50% have faltered. After 10 years, only around a third of businesses have survived.” (LendingTree.com)

And that’s for all the businesses who actually filed papers — not the countless others who “started” but never got off the ground. 

Bottom line, most businesses fail. That’s reality. If you’re thinking about starting a business, your eyes should be wide open to realities before you leap into your passion.

So we can see there are challenges when starting a business or becoming an artist, or breaking into Country music. These are not impossible challenges, but they are challenges. And I think that those people who beat the odds and ultimately become successful do a few things that the failures didn’t do. They follow three biblical principles.  

1. Get Educated & Stay Educated

“Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” Proverbs 11:14 (ESV)

• Learn about the new industry. 
• Practice the new industry.

Before we get to these other biblical principles, I’d love it if you could smash the like button or click in. That helps spread this video more on YouTube to help others build their new careers on Christian principles. So smash the “like” and let’s move on. 

2. Count The Cost

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Luke 14:28-32 (ESV)

• The immediate context of this passage is about becoming Jesus’s disciples.
• But the wisdom is applicable in this “quit your job follow your passion conversation.”
• Think about what this new project will cost you.
• Consider if it’s worth it. 

3. Commit Your Passion to the Lord

“Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3 (ESV)

• At Total Calling we’re interested in personal development from a biblical perspective.
• To pursue anything, career, job, dream apart from the blessing of God is foolishness.