The Worst Professional Advice Billionaires Might Give

SadaNews - Billionaires tend to offer one bad piece of professional advice, according to self-made millionaire and bestselling author Scott Galloway, which is "Follow your passion!"

Galloway, a serial entrepreneur and marketing professor at New York University, said in an episode of the "Path" video series on LinkedIn that was published on June 3: "The worst advice billionaires give is 'follow your passion.' Whoever tells you to follow your passion is already wealthy."

Born in Los Angeles to a single mother, Galloway said his family's income did not exceed $40,000 during his childhood, and he believed that his passion for sports would achieve him financial freedom. After realizing that professional sports were not within his reach, he graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and landed a job as an analyst at Morgan Stanley.

He quickly realized that he did not have the necessary skills for that, as he stated. He began discussing different ideas and decided that he would be better suited for entrepreneurship than being an employee at a large company. In 1992, he co-founded the marketing firm "Prophet" and eventually sold it in 2002 for $33 million, according to LinkedIn.

Later, Galloway co-founded a research company called L2 in 2010, which was acquired in 2017 for more than $130 million. His career path indicates that success does not mean blindly following one’s passion or heading into a stereotypically profitable field. He said, "Instead, combine what you are good at with what can make you money, and seize opportunities to change your career path."

Galloway added: "I applied for 29 jobs [after graduation]. I received one offer. The key to my success is rejection, or rather, my ability to endure it." Because if you don't hear "no" often, you will never hear a great "yes."

Galloway's viewpoint mirrors similar comments from Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, who often advises young people to look beyond their passion when choosing their career path. He recognized early in his career his leadership talent and passion for helping others, which led him to hold various positions on boards of companies like IBM and the Metropolitan Opera, with nearly 16 years at Mastercard, according to CNBC.

Miebach tells interns in a recent interview with LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Daniel Roth: "I love the fact that you are following your passion, but you also need to focus on what you are really good at? What sets you apart? Identify the intersection of your passion, what is truly important, and what you can excel at? Combine all of that together."

Discovering your strengths doesn’t happen overnight, and it may require some honing, or even failure. Suppose you are a news producer who was recently laid off, and you started filming and editing documentaries to keep yourself active. Now, you've realized that your strength lies in long-form content and storytelling rather than hard news and short programs.

According to psychologist and happiness expert at Yale University, Laurie Santos, you can turn difficult setbacks into opportunities to learn by adopting a growth mindset, or the idea that you can always refine your skills. This way, if you face failure or rejection again, you will know the steps to take, and which to avoid, to keep making progress in your life and career.

Santos said, "This allows us to learn more about how to improve in the future."