MARK CUBAN – FORGET ABOUT FOLLOWING YOUR PASSION! – A RAINBOW OF ROLE MODELS {WEDNESDAY SERIES}
I celebrate ACHIEVEMENT EVERY DAY! WEDNESDAY’S “A Rainbow of Role Models” Series demonstrates role models come in ALL races, genders, ages, and titles. “There is dignity, in achievement and success—in becoming, a great factor in civilization.” Carter G. Woodson.
I hope you will share these short articles; perhaps a few people will be curious to learn more.
Disclaimer: Good Day, Readers. WealthBuildingPowers blog is a financial literacy/competency blog and does not provide specific investment recommendations.
STYRON’S INTRODUCTION:
Mark Cuban may seem like a typical pick for my role model series. While Cuban is a billionaire, I picked him for a better reason. He gives GREAT COMMON SENSE ADVICE!
Shortly after college, I landed in the field of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Sustainability. It was not my passion but a field where my efforts and hard work produced results for my employers and my career. Do you want to know what my passion is? I might tell you one day! Stay tuned!
MARK CUBAN SAYS FORGET ABOUT THAT PASSION THING! – A RAINBOW OF ROLE MODELS {WEDNESDAY SERIES}

Mark Cuban says the worst piece of career advice is- Follow your Passion. Instead, follow your EFFORT and the improvement that results! Where you put in your effort, that tends to be the things that you are good at. And if you put in enough time, you tend to get really good at it.
Ask just about any motivational speaker or career expert. Or ask Steve Jobs: As the Apple co-founder once said, “You’ve got to find what you love. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”
Most people believe passion comes first.
But not Mark Cuban. When Adam Grant asked him if there was a “worst piece of career advice you’ve gotten,” Cuban said:
While passion can spark effort, the reverse is more often true. Effort, and the improvement that results, creates passion. Do something poorly? You probably dread doing it. Do something well? You enjoy it — and the better you get, the more you like doing it.
Science agrees, especially where starting a business is concerned. According to a study published in Academy of Management Journal, the more effort entrepreneurs put into their startups or side hustles, the more enthusiastic they get about their businesses.
As startup founders gain skill, expertise, and experience, their enthusiasm grows — with or without early financial success. Effort, and resulting improvement, creates passion.
Not the other way around.
‘Follow Your Passion’ Can Be Disastrous
It’s easy to confuse a hobby or interest for a passion, especially one that will result in career or business fulfillment. Rarely is that type of preexisting passion valuable.
As Cal Newport writes in So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Search for Work You Love, “Telling someone to follow their passion can be disastrous. That advice has probably resulted in more failed businesses than all the recessions combined, because that’s not how the vast majority of people end up owning successful businesses.”
That’s because most passions indicate interest, not effort. Plenty of people — maybe you’re one of them — are passionate about sports. Or adventure. Or travel. I enjoy motor sports, and I really like driving — or riding — fast.
But how much effort do you, or I, put into that passion? How much effort do we put into improving our talent, our knowledge, and our skills? In my case, not a lot. Passion only indicates interest.
Instead, ‘Follow Your Effort’
Passion is nearly always the result of significant time and effort, because effort leads to improvement and expertise.
As Cuban wrote on his blog in 2012:
There are a lot of things I am passionate about. [But] the things I ended up being really good at were the things I found myself putting effort into. A lot of people talk about passion, but that’s really not what you need to focus on.
… when you look at where you put in your time, where you put in your effort, that tends to be the things that you are good at. And if you put in enough time, you tend to get really good at it.
If you put in enough time, and you get really good, I will give you a little secret: Nobody quits anything they are good at, because it is fun to be good. It is fun to be one of the best.
But in order to be one of the best, you have to put in effort.
What you do in your spare time — not passively experience, but actively do — clearly indicates an interest. As Cuban would say, you’re already putting in the effort.
So follow that effort. Every highly skilled person started learning, and then benefited from the virtuous cycle of effort and achievement: Effort leads to achievement, however small. Achievement feels good. Feeling good motivates you to put in more effort, leading to more achievement, more motivation, more effort–the result is a never-ending virtuous cycle.
Follow your effort, and place a little more structure around the process of improving, learning, and growing. The more effort you put in, the more enthusiastic you will get. The more passionate you will become. The more likely you will be to develop the talent and experience required to turn a passion into a new business or career.

One where passion is not required because you’ll realize you’re doing what you love in time.
Even if it didn’t start as a passion.
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ABOUT ME
I am a proud nerd (as my beautiful wife and daughter have told me) investment and finance blogger with an N.C. State, Chemical Engineering, University Rutgers, MBA and Harvard University, Advanced Management education.
I left a corporate career because I desired to make a difference as a speaker and writer. I was blessed to be coached and mentored by strong women and men in my family and professional life. It is my time to serve and give back.
DISCLAIMER
I started my first business at ~13 years of age (a small but brilliantly created plant nursery). I am a successful investor in stocks, options, and real estate and am happy to share my finance and investment lessons. I am NOT a licensed financial advisor. Please do not construe my suggestions on this blog as recommendations for your situation. As an investor, you must establish your risk/loss tolerance. Investment in any asset involves risk, including complete loss.
Please seek your licensed CPA or fiduciary financial advisors for individual financial advice.
I write this weekly blog to make an impact by reaching an audience and demonstrating the need for financial literacy. I will help you get there.