“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Although the precise attribution of this quote remains elusive, the sentiment makes so much sense it can go unchallenged. No one wants work that is drudgery, where you count the minutes until you can leave every day. But loving your work may not always save you from it being work.
The pressure to love your work has been heating up this century, arguably starting with the seminal 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University by late Apple founder Steve Jobs. He encouraged the assembled graduates, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.” As college professors, we see a direct throughline between this statement and the students who shuffle into our offices to confess what they feel is a great failure: they haven’t yet identified what they might love to do. They feel aimless after graduation, sure that they won’t do great work, and might not love their lives as a result.
