Passion or Success?

Interesting topic of discussion - having brought up in America by an Indian Air Force pilot turned perfection-seeking businessman has its perks and discussions. My dad is an extreme overacheiver - by all standards. He runs two independent businesses simultaneously, can fly MIG's, graduated top of his MBA class, got a full ride to any school he ever went to, and was in fact invited to every institution he went to, and he has majored in Physics, Mathematics, Economics, and now Restaurant Management (lol, seriously; although the coursework was 100% practical).

Our discussions stem from a random statement of observation, but lead to debates about the definitive and practical nature of the topic involved. We try to keep it as civil and impersonal as possible, but considering that the topics discussed contain all the ingredients that we are so so passionate about, it does in fact surface some interesting observations and opinions we have about each other and the phenomena in question.

Our most recent (and recently most often) topic of discussion has been putting a good passion to a good professional use. Clearly this has a direct correlation to my leaning career switch from engineering to writing. I have always believed that passion cannot be defined. It's something you feel towards an activity or hobby and you can be either naturally gifted or uselessly horrible, it is nonethless something you truly enjoy and are most comfortable doing. My dad puts forth that no matter what, to some extent you have to be putting your interest to practical use for it to be a true passion.

This is a good stance when given its practicality and nature of my current state, but I still disagree on the count that it defines the intensity of your liking towards the subject. There are millions of people that work in monotone paper pushing jobs just to pay their bills, and they are indeed passionate about something or another. One might be instinctively good at painting or reading or dancing, but just because they might not have a practical use for it yet, doesn't mean that their passion is not valid. There are perhaps some logisitical and reasonable barriers that prohibit them to put this hobby to practical use limiting the applicability to their current professional state.

It cannot be argued that if there is a way for you to convert your passionate hobby to good monetary use, you should pursue it whole-heartedly and aggressively. But aside from the lucky few, most of us have to subside our true passions and resort to logical avenues that can assure job security and a steady income; mostly because that is how success is measured in today's world, and success is more profitable than passion.

The true question when making career decisions and professional choices is to answer what is more important to YOU? Passion or success, because initially, it is not always possible to redeem both at the same time. It takes baby steps in either direction to incorporate both these elements. If you're lucky enough to let success wait its turn, then I would suggest that pursuing that true hobby is a much better route - it makes for less confusion later on when professional and passion fronts are in full swing, and making either choice seems completely unfair to the other.