Why Passion is Overrated Bullshit

An honest look at why "do what you love" often leads to burnout add how to build authentically with purpose

Alright, let's be real. The statistic shouting that 90% of businesses fail feels less like a warning and more like a punchline for anyone crazy enough to start one. Especially for creators and solopreneurs. You pour your heart, soul, and probably too much caffeine into your venture. You’re driven. You’re passionate. You have to be borderline irrational just to take the leap. But here’s the rub: passion burns bright, but it also burns out. It gets smothered by the daily grind, the algorithm gods, and the quiet fear that maybe you are just shouting into the void.

So, if the odds are brutally stacked against your business making it in the traditional sense, how do you avoid feeling like you've failed when things inevitably get tough? Forget just surviving. How do you actually win even when the scoreboard isn’t showing big numbers? What if hitting a wall, pivoting, or even closing up shop didn't have to mean defeat? The secret isn't just more hustle or doubling down on fleeting passion. It's about finding something deeper, something unwavering that reframes the entire game. Let's dig into the power of purpose as your actual anchor, the thing that ensures you can succeed even if your current business iteration doesn't.

The Passion Trap

"Follow your passion." It’s sprayed across motivational garbage, preached by online gurus, and maybe even echoed by your own damn hopeful ambition. Why not? It sounds awesome. Doing what you love for a living is the ultimate dream, right? Especially for creators, that initial explosion of passion is often the only thing powerful enough to get started. It fuels those late nights and makes the scary idea of putting your work out there seem slightly less crazy. It drags your ass out of bed when common sense screams at you to stay hidden.

But here's the hard truth the feel-good quotes ignore. Passion, all by itself, is a shitty long-term strategy. Think of it like rocket fuel. It's great for blasting off, but terrible for actually navigating the journey. Passion can be incredibly unreliable. It comes and goes with your mood, your energy levels, or how much sleep you managed to grab. The very activity you were passionate about, like creating amazing designs, can suddenly feel like a soul-sucking chore. It gets buried under endless emails, client headaches, invoicing nightmares, marketing bullshit, and trying to please the algorithm gods. Your passion for the art gets choked out by the demands of the business.

This is where things get messy. Relying only on passion often leads you straight into burnout city. You feel like you’re sprinting on a hamster wheel, maybe even hitting some goals, but still wondering why you feel empty or pissed off. You start questioning the whole damn point. If this was your big passion, why does it sometimes feel like a trap? That feeling? That’s your gut telling you passion, while important, isn't the entire map. You need a better compass.

My Burnout Story

Believe me, I know this passion trap firsthand. Almost ten years ago, I jumped into the e-commerce game. The initial buzz was incredible. Building my own thing, holding a product I created and crafting a brand. It felt like pure magic. The passion burned hot. My plan? Use this as a quick stepping stone, two years max, then cash in and go do something "important," like saving the planet.

Well, reality had other plans. I beat the odds. Three years in, I had built three e-commerce brands. Things were objectively "good." But behind the scenes? I was working my ass off constantly, grinding myself into dust for something supposed to be temporary. The stepping stone had become the entire goddamn road, leading to the wrong destination. I was exhausted, running on fumes, the magic totally gone.

Then life hit me with a literal pain in the ass, or rather, my back. I herniated a disc. Again. But this time was different. The pain was relentless. Painkillers were useless. Physio did jack shit. Stuck flat on my back, I had too much time to think. And it hit me hard: my time is way too precious, too damn limited, to spend it grinding on something I didn't have a deep, burning desire for. Not just passion, but a real why.

The pain and sleepless nights, ultimately led to some deep nights. My business, despite its success, was completely out of sync with my core desire. I realized I wasn't just meant to sell stuff online. With that came a brutal decision: cut ties with the business I treated like my baby. It took another year to untangle everything, but I finally made my exit.

I shifted fully into branding and design. Now, this wasn't just picking the part of the e-commerce hustle I enjoyed more. Fuck that. The real reason ran much deeper. Sure, good branding can help sell more shit, make more money. But honestly, that's just a side effect, a way to keep score. It wasn't the point. The real reason I gravitated towards it was emotion.

I had always been fascinated by why people do what they do. What makes them tick? Branding and design became the perfect lens to explore that. When you craft a brand, you're trying to make people feel something specific. When you design something, you want an emotional response. Emotions aren't just esoteric whooh, whooh stuff. They are the core of how we perceive everything. Emotions dictate how we feel about a product, a company, a person. They drive why we connect, trust, and buy.

Understanding this power comes with a choice. Use insights into emotion to manipulate people, or use them to connect authentically, to resonate, to inspire. And that second path of inspiring people, aligning with their deeper values through genuine connection, that felt like the thing I was actually meant to do. That was the core purpose I had lost sight of. The back injury was brutal, yeah, but it was the painful gift I needed. It brought clarity. It helped me to recognize that my fascination with human emotion wasn't just a curiosity. It was the key to understanding my own WHY and the kind of impact I truly wanted to make. It was aligning my work with my purpose.

Purpose vs. Passion

So, my story wasn't just swapping work I liked better. It was digging underneath the WHAT and HOW to find the fundamental WHY. That WHY is what we mean by purpose. And it's a different beast entirely from passion. Think of passion as the firework: bright, exciting, provides the initial burst. Purpose is the fucking North Star: constant, maybe less flashy, but the fixed point you navigate by, especially when lost in the dark. Passion asks, "What excites me?". Purpose asks, "What impact do I want to make? What values guide me? What contribution can I offer? Which gifts am I meant to share?“

Purpose runs deeper, tied to your core values. It's usually focused outward, on contribution or change, not just enjoyment. Because it's anchored in something fundamental, it's way more resilient. Purpose doesn't vanish with a shitty week, a failed launch, or an asshole client. It’s the underlying reason you get back up.

Why does this matter so damn much for creators and solopreneurs? Purpose is the bedrock of authenticity. Knowing your WHY helps you communicate clearly, build trust, and naturally attract people (clients, followers, collaborators) who resonate with your mission. This creates a powerful emotional connection, the heart of any strong brand people care about. Your purpose becomes your magnetic core. It acts as a decision filter, cutting through noise to choose aligned opportunities, making it easier to say „hell yes“ to the right things and „fuck no“ to distractions. Crucially, it provides the deep resilience fuel needed to weather storms.

Failure or Feedback?

Remember that charming 90% failure statistic? Operating from purpose flips the script. It changes what "failure" even means. When your driving force is a deep WHY, not just hitting metrics, success and failure get overhauled.

Your purpose acts like a filter for meaning.

Life throws curveballs. Businesses hit walls. Launches flop. Without purpose, these feel like personal failures. With purpose, they become data points. Feedback. If a business model isn't working, it doesn't mean you've failed. It might mean that specific vehicle isn't the best way to deliver your purpose right now. The purpose itself remains intact.

Did that project "fail," or did it give crucial information about what your audience doesn't connect with? Did you pivot hard, or discover a more aligned path? Maybe you closed a venture. Was that the end, or graduating from a lesson needed to better execute your purpose next time? Purpose allows seeing setbacks not as indictments, but as redirects.

This shifts your focus. You stop obsessing over competing with everyone else or chasing hollow metrics. Your main competition becomes yourself. Your ability to show up more authentically for your purpose today than yesterday. Are you living your WHY more fully? That becomes the real scoreboard. This internal alignment is the win, regardless of external numbers. When you focus on embodying your unique purpose, natural differentiation happens. You stop copying others because your WHY is yours. It shapes your voice, offers, brand, making you stand out without gimmicks. This resilience, this ability to learn and adapt without losing direction, is the superpower purpose gives you. It’s how you keep "winning" the game that actually matters.

More Than Just Survival

So, what does all this purpose stuff actually get you, beyond just feeling better about potential failure? It transforms your entire experience. Forget just surviving; this is about truly thriving. You tap into a deeper sense of fulfillment because your work connects to something meaningful. That inherent resilience becomes your default setting. On the business side, the benefits are real.

Your purpose becomes the core of a powerful, authentic brand identity. This attracts ideal clients and builds a loyal community. People who are connecting with your WHY, because they believe in what you believe. It gives crystal clear market positioning, differentiating you. You make a meaningful impact. And perhaps the biggest win? Building a life and business that drastically reduces the chances of looking back years from now filled with regret.

Look, passion is awesome. It gets you in the game. But as we've seen, it's not enough to keep you there without sucking your soul dry. Passion might start the engine, but purpose steers the ship through storms, ensuring you head towards a destination that actually matters to you. For creators, for solopreneurs, digging deep to uncover and align with your core purpose isn't just fluffy self-help bullshit. It's the ultimate strategy for resilience. It's the foundation for authentic connection. It’s how you build something meaningful and "win" on your own terms, even when the path gets rough. So, the real question isn't just "What are you passionate about?" It's "What's the deeper WHY driving it all?" Are you ready to figure yours out?