Originally posted on LinkedIn by Chris Snoyer, who is a member of Founder’s Only and occasionally guest posts here.
I was grabbing a coffee at Le Gourmand in Toronto and I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said “Find what you love and let it kill you.” I was initially skeptical, because death sucks, but I was also intrigued, so I Googled it. Maybe you know this already, but it’s a quote from Charles Bukowski, an American poet/writer. The full quote reads:
“My dear, Find what you love and let it kill you.
Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.
Let it kill you and let it devour your remains.
For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover.
~Falsely yours”
I probably won’t go tattooing this one on my left ‘cheek, on account of there being so many disheartening words within (you know, the whole eventual nothingness thing), but it’s very thought provoking, and largely true. We’re all going to die, so spend your time doing something you love.
A few thoughts:
- There is a big difference between being drained because you just put your all into something you love, and being drained because it’s commonplace in your industry to work 16 hour days (Looking at you, investment bankers…)
- If you’re not in a role where you feel both strong positive and negative emotions from time to time, you’re probably not being challenged.That’s no way to grow passionate about your work. Do more!
- Finding your passion and pursuing it is not as easy as applying to work for the Toronto Blue Jays. If you told 12 year old me that I’d ever be passionate about app-based microlearning, I would have scoffed, and then asked “what the heck is microlearning?” Decent TED Talk on passion here by Teri Trespicio.
- Whatever it is we love, we don’t have to let it kill us tomorrow. Take time for your physical and mental health (looking at you, startup founders…)
Alright, make it a great day!