Reddit comment from Awesomeade:

I think the advice of "Filling a Need" is much more relevant and useful than "Not following your passion".

In my case, when I started searching for a job after graduating college with a MechE degree, I certainly wasn't following my passion, but it still didn't work for me. I was one slightly above-average engineering grad in a sea of similarly qualified people, and I was really only in it for the money. Gee, I wonder why nobody was choosing to hire me?

Oddly enough, it was actually a situation where passion would have been incredibly useful. Passion would have set me apart from the sea of salary-seekers, and more importantly, it would have drastically increased my motivation to apply more places and increase my chances.

Eventually, I decided to pivot and pursue something much more appealing to address the motivation issue. I also got lucky, because full-stack web developers were in crazy high demand at the time, and still are. I chose to follow my passion, stumbled my way into filling a need, and now I'm prospering.

So, while it makes for a slightly less catchy title, I think the take away from this video is, "Do what makes sense." Find a need, and fill it if you can.

3000+ Reddit comments:

https://reddit.com/r/videos/comments/4n9hb6/mike_rowe_explains_why_following_your_passion_is/