“Follow Your Passion” is overrated - A Career Truth from the Anu Bulusu Book

The worst career advice you can give?

“Follow your passion”.

Love singing? Keep it as your joy, not your job. The minute you turn passion into invoicing, it stops being fun.

This grid taught me the difference between what fulfills you and what pays you.

I’ve lived in all four quadrants of this grid. Sometimes painfully, sometimes powerfully.

Drifting: In high school, I hadn’t found my passion, and I definitely wasn’t committed to myself yet. I just went with the flow.

Burnout Zone: I chased a post-grad degree in Civil Engineering, full of passion but no job prospects. Passion fizzled fast when I realized it couldn’t pay the bills.

Steady Builder: In my corporate years, I was committed. Reliable. Maybe not always high on passion, but I showed up because I said I would. And that mattered too. I grew steadily, did well.

Enduring Impact: As a founder / CEO, I finally hit the zone. I discovered my passion isn’t a job title. It’s building things from scratch. Bootstrapping, chasing the first few clients, watching something come alive. Turns out, I’m still a civil engineer at heart; just building a different kind of structure.

In the end, commitment is what carries you through.

Passion is the spark, but without commitment, it fizzles every time.

Where are you on the grid right now? Looking forward to your answer at connect@anubulusu.com!