Passion vs Profit

“People want to pursue their passion and make a living with that, of late,” Jigneshbhai remarked while sipping his coffee.

Swami and I were busy in our passion for the double chocolate muffin. But what Jigneshbhai said still caught our attention.

“Yes, a colleague of mine left his job a while back to follow his passion for travel,” Swami remarked.

“Great,” Jigneshbhai remarked.

“And another wants to become a musician. Another guy left to write books, it’s an epidemic,” Swami said.

“That’s amazing. Quite cool,” Jigneshbhai continued exulting. Quite uncharacteristic of him, I thought.

“I think that I have a passion for chocolate,” Swami said, biting into the muffin and gulping it down with his café mocha.

“You should try opening a chocolate shop,” Jigneshbhai proposed.. “This article says, follow your passion, do what you love, and you don’t have to work a single day in your life,” Jigneshbhai read out from some website.

“That’s inspiring, isn’t it? No more nonsense with Raichand,” Swami said full of delight, referring to his painful boss.

“It’s a good story,” Jigneshbhai replied. “It is contradictory.”

That remark deflated the balloon of Swami’s passion in an instant. Swami quickly finished his passion, that is the chocolate muffin, and got ready to quiz our wise friend.

“Why do you say so? So many people are making a living following their passion. They must be doing something right,” Swami challenged.

“Yes, they are,” Jigneshbhai remarked.

“So, follow your passion is not a story,” Swami revolted.

“Yes, it is,” Jigneshbhai smiled.

“Why?” Swami asked again.

Even I was a bit perplexed. Jigneshbhai had actually followed the path of passion in his profitable business all these years, I thought.

“Because the story sells,” Jigneshbhai said.

“The story sells?” Swami asked.

“Yes, of course. Who likes to read – ‘work hard for years without any return and maybe if you persist, then your passion may turn profitable’?” Jigneshbhai said.

“But isn’t follow your passion true? You did it yourself, I thought,” Swami asked, in all earnestness.

“Partly true. No one tells anyone that between passion and profit there is a lot of process, persistence, perseverance and patience,” Jigneshbhai said. “Maybe then, passion and profit will meet.”

Swami and I didn’t quite like it. This wasn’t music to Swami’s ears. The idea of combining passion and profit was romantic.

“No, but if you pursue passion, profit will come. That’s what the experts say,” Swami clearly wasn’t convinced.

Jigneshbhai sipped on to his coffee.

“It may, not will. Profit comes when someone buys your passion. There are no guarantees that someone will,” Jigneshbhai said.

“I don’t agree with you. You are too pessimistic,” Swami asserted. He sulked and turned his focus on his passion.

Jigneshbhai smiled serenely.

“Are you saying we shouldn’t pursue passion for a living?” Swami probed Jigneshbhai after a few minutes of silence.

Jigneshbhai munched on two bites of Swami’s passion in silence. Swami and I knew something was cooking.

“No, you should, if you can. But you should be realistic, not stupid. Maybe keep them separate, for a while. Or you might lose both,” Jigneshbhai remarked.

He stared into blank space while cherishing the taste of the muffin and the coffee. Swami and I waited.

“Because profit provides the means, passion provides the meaning,” he added, as he finished the muffin.

Swami and I pondered over what he said. But Swami wondered there must a better way.

Seeing which Jigneshbhai continued. “One hopes to combine passion and profit, but the two may or may not meet. One must be ready for either of that to happen. One must hope they meet.”

That’s when the wealthy old man walked towards Swami from the adjoining table. We had heard that he had an eye for deals and that eye had helped him build the kind of wealth he had. But what he said left us with a semblance of a solution to this quandary of passion versus profit.

He tapped Swami on the shoulder and said, “Keep working on your passion till you find a way to turn it into profit or don’t need the profit. Unless, of course, you are as lucky as me, and like me, and you have a passion for profit.”

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