I loved the video below because I have heard these things so many times, and I know from experience that this “wisdom” isn’t helpful. Mostly, it makes me roll my eyes. Do you do that as well? 

I have only recently started following Daniel Pink on YouTube and I am thoroughly enjoying his content. The videos are helpful, educational, and amusing. The first point in “Life Advice That Sounds Good But Will Destroy You” is knocking down “You can be anything you want to be.” 

News flash: You can’t be anything you want to be. 

I wanted to be a ballerina in my early twenties but I didn’t have the right body type or talent. I took four-hour classes several days a week and it was never going to happen for me. 

Pink talks about looking at your strengths and trying to capitalize on them instead. This seems like a much better plan. 

Speaking of making a plan, that is his second point. Making and following a plan for your life seems like good advice, and can work for a small subset of people, but things change and markets shift. On top of the fact that you don’t know what you don’t know. 

Most people have gotten where they are through zigs and zags, not on a straight line up and to the right. Pink says, “Life isn’t like chess. It’s more like bumper cars.” That feels true. 

Pink’s third point is why “Follow your passion” is bad advice. He says, “This is the undisputed, undefeated heavyweight champion of bad advice.” As an example to back this up he says, “I’ve been writing for 25 years, seven books, a thousand articles. If you ask me right now, ‘Is writing your passion?’ I’d say, ‘I don’t know.’ Writing is really hard. Some days I like it. Many days it stinks. But it’s what I do.”

Brilliant. 

I often think to myself enough with the passion pummeling already. It can feel like a beat down. What if passion is too big a feeling and you just can’t find that level of excitement or enthusiasm? What do you do then? Pink’s dissection of this and his suggestions are excellent. 

Point number four is “Always be positive,” which on top of being impossible, isn’t helpful advice. Pink says, “Constant positivity is often just denial in yoga pants. Because negative emotions are instructive, they clarify the world, teach important lessons. Frustration nudges us to figure out alternative paths forward.”

The final point is “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Yes, having a strong professional network is important, but Pink says, “I really hate this one. It is just enough truth to be poisonous. But looking at life as one gigantic, greasy networking event isn’t just bleak, it’s a bad strategy. Let’s start with the facts. Yes, connections matter. But unless you’re obsessed with getting invitations to billionaire yacht parties, they matter less than you might think.”

I know you are going to love this video as much as I did. It’s 12 minutes well spent. 

Photo by Monica Melton on Unsplash