So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

By Cal Newport

In an unorthodox approach, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice, and sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving their careers. Not only are pre-existing passions rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work, but a focus on passion over skill can be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.

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Book Information

Publisher: Business Plus
Publish Date: 09/08/2020
Pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781455509119
ISBN-10: 1455509116
Language: English

What We're Saying

December 18, 2012

In anticipation of announcing the winner of the 2012 800-CEO-READ Business Book of the Year tomorrow, here's a recap of the category winners. Click on the links below to read more about these top books of 2012. Which book is *your* pick for the top book of the year? READ FULL DESCRIPTION

December 17, 2012

Our founder and president, Jack Covert, recently told Andrew Hill of The Financial Times that business books, “in their core and their soul, are self-help books, where people go to make their company better, to make their job better. ” And while that may be true of business books in general, there are many that are very specifically directed at Personal Development. This year, the best of those was Cal Newport's So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love from Business Plus. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

December 13, 2012

Over the course of this week, we have posted the shortlist selections in the General Business, Leadership, Management, Innovation & Creativity, Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Sales, Personal Development, and Finance & Economics categories. Just one last category left: Personal Development. Stay tuned, because on Monday, December 17th, we'll announce the category winners, and, on Wednesday, December 19th, we'll celebrate the overall winner of the 2012 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards! READ FULL DESCRIPTION

September 14, 2012

So Good They Can’t Ignore You: When Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport, BusinessPlus, 304 pages, $25. 99, Hardcover, September 2012, ISBN 9781455509126 I have a dear friend that has worked in the arts community for decades tell me recently that what strikes him most about great artists is not their passion, but their “toughness. ” I was reminded of that statement again when I picked up So Good They Can’t Ignore You, a great new book on career development by Cal Newport being released this month by BusinessPlus. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

August 28, 2012

After so many people lost their jobs in the economic downturn, it seems as if there is another wave of people who've been bitten by the entrepreneurship/passion bug and are looking for a way out of their current job. Nothing against improving one's position, but authors like Cal Newport are critical of the 'grass is greener' perspective. The result, he thinks, is that skills get softened when one jumps from one passion to another, and no skills get developed to the point of expertise - a problem whether one is working for someone else, or themselves. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 23, 2013

When I got in my car, the temperature gauge on the dashboard read negative four degrees. It was sunny out, but it was the kind of sunlight that seems reluctant—like a lone light in a walk-in freezer—struggling through the cold air to get to you. So when I backed out of the driveway yesterday morning, I thought to myself, "there is no way we get a good crowd this morning, on the coldest day of winter. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 20, 2016

Cal Newport has a penchant for challenging accepted wisdom and exposing a deeper truth in our work lives. His new book explains why the technology taking over our work is undermining our ability to do it to our greatest ability. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 07, 2016

Cal Newport details the advantages of deeper focus and concentration, of "deep work," and how to cultivate it. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Full Description

In an unorthodox approach, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice, and sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving their careers.

Not only are pre-existing passions rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work, but a focus on passion over skill can be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers. Cal reveals that matching your job to a pre-existing passion does not matter. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it. With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love, and will change the way you think about careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.

About the Author

Cal Newport, Ph. D. , lives in Washington, D. C. , where he is a writer and an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University. He also runs the popular website Study Hacks: Decoding Patterns of Success.

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