Answer by Colin Shillingford:
Telling people to follow their passion is bad advice.Spotted a great video lecture just this morning on 99U:
Cal Newport: "Follow Your Passion" Is Bad Advice
"American culture is obsessed with the idea that we need to find our “passion” in order to be happy and successful. But there’s a problem: “It’s an astonishingly bad piece of advice,” says best-selling author Cal Newport. We have no pre-existing passion. Instead, passion is found by first building a rare and valuable talent and using it to take control of your career path. In other words, be so good and work so hard that no one can ignore you."
I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Newport. I've been realizing more and more often lately just how true what he is saying really is.
Passion should be a by-product of working towards the pursuit of a skill (or skill set), IMO.
Telling people to follow their passions (without any other advice or guidance) simply sends them on a dream chase which may be more harmful to their careers in the long-term.