Adventure Capitalist

There seems to be a meme, especially in Lifestyle Design circles that you should do what you’re passionate about, and money will come. A second variation of this is that you can get anything you want, if you just think positively and want it hard enough.
I call bullshit.

I’m pretty passionate about football (or “soccer”), especially when it comes to “my team” (Liverpool FC). It doesn’t mean I’m going to become a professional footballer making £100K a week anytime soon. Nor does it mean I will become a coach or manager. At best I might some day coach little league (when/if I have kids of my own), but that’s about it.
Passion is not a substitute for skill, effort and shrewdness. Passion might be a pre-requisite for being able to make a sustained effort at something that might at times be disheartening, difficult and challenging or simply take time. But don’t for one second buy into the bullshit that passion is all you need.

Now on to “positive thinking”:
I’ll acknowledge that positive thinking can be a powerful ally, it can be the key to feeling better about yourself, being able to push yourself when times are hard without losing hope.
But don’t ever mistake thinking with doing. Thinking is all about you internally, unless you have some unknown Jedi-powers, thinking will not move mountains, thinking will not achieve great feats, in fact, it won’t even make you coffee.

I am not rubbishing passion or positive thinking at all, but if you think they alone will be enough to reach your goals, you’ll be very disappointed by the cards life will deal you.
Passion does not equate to aptitude,  just as thinking is not acting, nor is activity achievement.