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Priya | The Pretend Poet's avatar

So glad you said this, Brad. So much of her advice, and the advice of or around other super successful people is just so impractical for most people.

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Brad Davenport's avatar

Thanks. 😊

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Fred Langva's avatar

Without passion, you would not have the desire to continue on the generally long process to acquire a skill. Eventually, there will come a point in life where you need to make that decision to see if you can make a living off that skill you have passionately worked on. That decision is heavily weighted against our obligations.

I would say that almost all of us, as we enter the last half of our life, have some regret about not following one of our "passions". Sometimes, we get a second chance and are able to follow a passion. So, I would mostly have to agree with Oprah.

BTW, McDoland's never sold curly fries. Arbys never started with curly fries, they introduced them around the end of the 80s if I remember right. They tried out a number of options including baked wedges which I liked a lot. :)

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Brad Davenport's avatar

I hear you. And absolutely no need for an apology of any kind. I love to hear other people’s opinions. That’s the point of me writing what I do. None of us live in a vacuum. We need to listen to what others have to say.

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Brad Davenport's avatar

While I respect your opinion, I have to disagree about passion. I feel that most people try to find their passion rather than try to become helpful. If they can help other people in some way and get success at it, then that can become their passion. But we should all respect other people’s opinions 😊

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Fred Langva's avatar

I didn't think I degraded your belief, and I apologize if it may have seemed that way.

Being of service to others requires a great deal of passion, but having passion about something doesn't mean we are being in service to others. Athletes are a prime example of this. Many don't become a service until they have achieved success, and even then, the "service" they do may not be the most effective.

We can have many "passions" in our lives. Some can be helpful to others, some may not.

I do agree that we need to "temper" what the "self-help gurus" say when manifesting that into our lives but we should be doing that with whatever someone is telling us. Not everyone does that and that is where damage is done.

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Bette A. Ludwig, PhD 🌱's avatar

In theory, it sounds great to tell people to follow their passion, but the reality is that for most people, it's not realistic. The other piece of this is Oprah probably worked 15-16 hour days for most of her life. She neglected to tell people that passion comes with working many hours a day.

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Brad Davenport's avatar

I agree. You cannot package up and sell this kind of advice with overblown hype, to the majority of people.

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Zo's avatar

What a great read Brad. I agree completely with what you are saying. I cannot imagine quitting my day job to follow my passion for even a month. Maybe if it were just me but with responsibilities I cannot quit today in the hope of tomorrow. I have to make sure I can finance that tomorrow too! Love your step by step approach…

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Brad Davenport's avatar

I’m with you Zo. It’s so impractical for the majority of people. 😔

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Heléna Kurçab's avatar

As you have written, her advice is not necessarily wrong, simply incomplete. “Her intuition is knowledge.” Trusting your intuition/heart without knowledge to guide it, is indeed a recipe for disaster because, as stated at Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is treacherous..”

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