#43 - Ickigai
A second helping of bad advice
Last week we started the three-week mini-series on bad advice. This week we focus on what might be the worst advice you have ever been given.
One of the best books I’ve read this year is “How to Make a Few Billion Dollars” by Brad Jacobs. Despite the title, it’s remarkably humble and accessible. Brad writes with a friendly, approachable tone, and the book doesn't feel like it’s aimed at those solely focusing on extreme wealth.
After starting with “rearranging your brain” (in Brad’s case, through CBT), the book evolves into an easy-to-follow guide to succeeding in the capitalist world.
Brad started in oil brokerage in 1979, but his big breakthrough came in the 90s, consolidating rural trash hauling, building United Waste and flipping it to Waste Management in 1997 for $1.9 billion. He then built United Rentals into the world's largest heavy equipment rental company. In total, he’s started seven companies, and taken each of them to at least billion-dollar enterprises.
About his time at United Waste, Brad writes:
United Waste taught me that I love working with outrageously talented people to deliver outsized returns for shareholders in public stock markets.
The book has 250 pages of actionable, logical (sometimes lofty) advice. But let’s pull out one idea that doesn’t appear.
One of the most common pieces of advice given to people who are unsure about their career goals is to find or follow their passion.
The Problem With Passion
If Brad had ‘followed his passion,’ would he have chosen trash hauling, heavy equipment or shareholder returns?
Unlikely.
Is he passionate about these things now? Undoubtedly.
Being told to follow your passion isn’t necessarily bad advice, assuming you have one and you happen to be exceptionally good at whatever it is.
Being told to find your passion is particularly terrible advice. The wording implies that it’s something lying around, a shiny coin waiting for you to pick it up. Or that all you need to do is look harder, and it will miraculously present itself to you.
I am far from the first (or the most eloquent) person to have written about why passion is a foundation for such terrible advice. Here is TR hall of famer Scott Galloway, from his book ‘Algebra of Wealth’:
For most young people, “follow your passion” isn’t actionable. By one estimate, only 20% can even identify a singular passion they want to follow. If you have one, it’s probably in one of the creative fields, industries that are notoriously exploitative of young, idealistic workers. Only 2% of professional actors make a living from their craft.
For the vast majority of us, passion isn’t something we find. It is something we need to work to build.
The world's most successful divorce lawyer likely didn't start with a passion for divorce. But to get to their position, thousands of hours of work have led them to become passionate about what is presumably generating a rather tidy income and life for their family.
Ikigai
One, more specific alternative to “finding your passion” is the Japanese concept of Ikagai.
Ikigai claims that your true purpose combines what you love, what the world needs, what you’re good at, and what you can be paid for.
Sounds incredibly appealing. Who wouldn’t want that?
Its logical and simple appeal makes this a popular idea and something that people want to learn more about. The book on the topic is hugely popular, an international bestseller with multiple millions of copies sold worldwide. Here is the summary of the book, taken from Amazon:
We all have an ikigai.
It's the Japanese word for 'a reason to live' or 'a reason to jump out of bed in the morning'.
It's the place where your needs, desires, ambitions, and satisfaction meet. A place of balance. Small wonder that finding your ikigai is closely linked to living longer.
Finding your ikigai is easier than you might think. This book will help you work out what your own ikigai really is, and equip you to change your life. You have a purpose in this world: your skills, your interests, your desires and your history have made you the perfect candidate for something. All you have to do is find it.
I am one of the millions who read the book.
Spoiler alert - I didn’t find my singular Ikagai.
One of the main success stories in the book is a Japanese comic book artist. This is clearly an incredibly relevant career path for us all to learn from and aspire to.
I’m being harsh.
But just like Scott G. said about passion, this isn't relevant or actionable for the majority of young people, and the language around "finding it" simply covers up the immense amount of work and luck that any successful career in a popular field requires which we discussed above.
But my biggest problem with Ikagai is that it's very close to being useful. It just needs one tweak.
Ikagai falls down by trying to force you down the path of a singular pursuit. Read the summary again. It's all about trying to find the one thing you are supposed to, the one thing you must find to make yourself truly happy.
Real fulfilment is multifaceted. The trouble with Ikigai is that it promises a kind of life-changing clarity.
Most of us aren’t going to discover one singular, transcendent "purpose" by introspecting over what we love, need, or are good at. Life is complex, and so are we.
We might be passionate about something (a combination of what we love and are good at according to the concept), but trying to force it into the other categories may be impossible. I’m not sure the world needs more book reviews, life hacks or advice critiques, but here we are.
The Portfolio of Purpose
Maybe, instead of searching for a singular purpose, we should focus on building a "portfolio of purpose" — a mix of activities that collectively adds up to fulfilment.
The portfolio of purpose is my alternative, my enhancement to Ikigai.
The individual components are essential. Having these in your life leads to improved fulfilment and, ultimately, happiness. But if they come from four different avenues—hobbies or projects alongside your job— that's absolutely fine.
The beauty of a purpose portfolio is that it doesn't require you to aggressively shoehorn your interests, skills, and passions into a predefined framework. Instead, you can thoughtfully curate a collection of activities that complement each other and collectively add up to a fulfilling existence.
Perhaps your core career isn't your singular "passion", but by pairing it with intentional time with family and friends, further education, or projects you're excited about, you can still find joy and meaning from the collective. Focusing on this collective is often more logical and practical than trying to make a sweeping, knee-jerk change to a career.
Your portfolio might include:
Your primary career path
A side project or creative outlet that you're invested in
Volunteer work or community involvement that allows you to give back
Hobbies or physical activities that bring you joy and rejuvenation
I imagine this is why many people write. Even if you love your job, you may not get everything you need out of it. Rather than throwing your career away, writing on weekends is one way to add diversity and build your purpose portfolio.
Over time, the best case scenario is that you have enough success and joy from your primary career path that it becomes your passion and you don’t need side hustles. But, in the interim, a portfolio approach can keep you motivated holistically.
I spent a good while worrying that I wasn't finding fulfilment and blamed it on not having a passion or knowing what my singular Ikigai was. The reality was this was just a distraction from the work I needed to do to develop, build, and put the pieces of a fulfilling life together step-by-step, rather than hoping I'd find it the next time I looked behind the sofa.
What I watched this week
I introduced him above, but I’d imagine there’s a decent chance you haven’t heard of Brad Jacobs.
If you are interested in business, I would wholeheartedly recommend getting to know him, his energy and his wisdom. Here is a great place to start:
What I read this week
A lot about GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic. The Economist ran a huge feature and several articles on the potentially world-changing drugs this week. Here was my favourite, about the psychology of body image and how Ozempic may change it.
I have mixed feelings about the drugs - those feelings aren’t relevant for now - but for sure it is going to be fascinating to watch this play out over the coming years.
Thank you for reading, see you next week ✌🏻❤️
This reminds me of how we approach relationships—expecting our partner to be everything at once. Similarly, with Ikigai, we often hope for one career to fulfill our job, passion, mission, and purpose all at once.
But I don’t think it’s about finding one thing that does it all; it’s more about balancing each important area, like a well-rounded portfolio, as you mentioned.
Good one! 👌🏻
I did a fun thing that gave me interesting Ickigai results that were multifaceted. I asked ChatGPT to use my birth chart (and gave it details) as a guide for completing my Ickigai. The result was not singular but conceptual. With it, I got some great thinking points that led me down some new paths. I agree with you though, passion comes in many forms and being told its the “one thing” is damaging. Liz Gilbert gave a great podcast interview about when she realized giving that advice was hurting people rather than helping.