Habits and Hustle - Episode 574: Why Passion Won't Lead to Success

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

What if "follow your passion" is actually bad advice? We hear it all the time: do what you love and the money will follow. It sounds inspiring, but it is not always realistic. Loving something does not automatically make it a career, a business, or a strategy. Sometimes the better move is to follow your effort, because wherever you consistently put in reps is usually where you build skill, confidence, and real opportunity. Your passion can stay your passion. You can love fitness, cooking, fishing, music, or watching documentaries without needing to turn it into your full-time job. In fact, sometimes turning your hobby into your career is exactly what makes you lose the joy of it. The real question is not always "What do I love most?" Sometimes it is "Where am I already putting in the work, getting better, and creating value?" In this episode of Habits and Hustle, I share why "follow your passion" can create a false sense of reality, why effort is often a better indicator of success, how boring businesses can build extraordinary lives, and why leaning into what you are good at may be the fastest way to get more of what you actually want.   What's Discussed: 00:10 - The truth about following your passion. 01:06 - Why is it crucial to concentrate on your strengths. 02:34 - Why following what you love may not be enough. 05:18 - Why turning your passion into your career isn't always a good idea. 07:34 - Do what you're good at.   Thank You to Our Sponsors! Magic Mind: Head over to magicmind.com/jen and use code JEN at checkout. Pique: Go to piquelife.com/jenniferrsd to get 20% off for life plus free gifts Momentous: Ready to try supplements that actually do what they claim? Head to livemomentous.com and use code JEN for 35% off your first subscription.  Therasage: Visit therasage.com and use code JEN to get 15% off your order. Your skin Prolon: Prolon is offering listeners 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift.   Find more from Jen Cohen: Website: jennifercohen.com Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements  

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. Before we get into today's episode, I want to take a moment to talk about something that changed how I think about skin care, and that's peak. Because here's what nobody tells you. You can spend a fortune on serums and creams and still look tired. And then you start to actually wonder, maybe your skin is just done. But the real reason is that your cells are dehydrated and inflamed underneath. So nothing you put on top is actually going to fix it. You're just treating the surface when the problem is way deeper. And that's why I love Peake's radiant skin duo. You take the sun goddess machin the morning to detox, calm inflammation, and turn your glow back on from the inside.

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The link is in the show notes, but once again, to get 20% off, you must go to www.w-w-W-I-F-E-E dot com slash Jennifer S-D to grab the radio skin duo now. Okay, you guys, this is a topic I really wanted to dive into today, which is this idea of following your passion. You know, I think a lot of times successful people tell other people that they should be following their passion, when really, in my opinion, I think what we should be doing is following our effort, because wherever our effort is, is where we build reps. And the more reps we have in something, the more time we put into something. thing, the better we get at that thing. And that is where we really kind of find our success. You know, I don't know where the lines got blurred, where it became this idea that we have to have our job and our career be what we're the most passionate about. You know, I love watching

documentaries, let's say, on Netflix, but I'm not making a living doing that because otherwise I'd be broke, right? I wouldn't make any money doing that, right? But if I did something that I was good at and made money for that, I can then use that to pursue my hobbies, which is my passions. Like, I don't think the two have to necessarily be connected. If they are, then great. But a lot of times it's not. And I think there's a lot of pressure on people. And I think to have to do that because it's so much in the conversation, it so much in the zeitgeist. But you know the funny thing is, I did speak about this. I had a podcast with this guy named, well, I'm sure you guys may have listened to it with Professor Galloway, Prof. G. And he's so accurate when he talks about this part because he says that, you know,

if you really talk to the people who are the most successful people in the world, the multi-billionaires, multi-millionaires, they made their money in metal, in the minds, in doing things that aren't very sexy, that aren't the jobs, the sexy. entrepreneurial, hashtag-y things that are Googled a bazillion times. It's places where they made a lot of money, but it gave them the opportunity with that money, right, to do all these other things that they love to do. And I think that happens with, in real life. I think that happens. I think that we are giving people a sense, a false sense of reality when we just say these very overarching Hollyanic lines, like just follow what you love and that will be enough. No, it will not,

not always. It can. But I think a better strategy is to follow where your effort is and see where you're putting in the time. And wherever that is, you will get stronger and better at it. And that should be what you end up doing. And like I said, a lot of times, like we sometimes actually naturally gravitate to the things that we're better at, that we're good at. I did that with my life and my career, my entire life. And I zigzagged everywhere, right? I was in fitness. I was in music. I was in sports. I was in media training. But the one through line that I had with everything was that I leaned on the things I was good at. And it took me in a lot of different directions, but I eventually found my way and it evolved over time. And I believe that's what

people should do. So when they are following their effort, they will notice, and you will notice, that that effort is very much usually in line with where your strengths lie anyway. And if we do that and we follow that, success will follow. I love that. I think it's really important. I was going to bring it up on the execution idea episode of the exact opposite thing that we were talking about with really mundane businesses that just crush and do really well and have great execution, like car washes and like those kind of things, like that people

would consider boring and maybe not someone's passion. But they allow that person to go travel, to go do all these things that they want to do to provide for their family, create generational wealth. It's like insane. It's the award ceremony speech phenomenon is what I used to call it back in the day, where it's like everyone that's this crazy famous actor telling you to like chase your dreams. And then they just get all, that's where we get all these like sort of starving musician and artists that come to L.A. and have this, you know, delusion that everyone can make it.

And listen, if you can't live without chasing your passion, okay, fine. But I think a lot of people can. Also, the other thing that happens is if your hobby is your work, there can be the case where like you end up not liking your hobby anymore. Because it becomes work, it becomes not enjoyable. So you kind of like ruin that pleasure for yourself. So that's a good point. I was going to say, it happens to me all the time. It happens to me so many.

So when I was hardcore in the fitness business, like I was like really doing a lot of personal training and I was doing that hour after hour because I went into that. You know, I quit all these other career paths and then I followed fitness. And then what happened was I got burnt out and I ended up not liking it anymore because I made my passion and my heart. and my hobby, my actual career, I was really tired of it. I got super burned out and I ended up leaving it for a bunch of years and went into media training because I just like didn't want to work out anymore. Like the one thing I loved the most in life was exercise and fitness and movement. And when I was doing it as my career, it became so too much for me where I was like, I'm over this. I'm like, you know, peace out. I'm going to do something different. And,

I did that for many years, but then I got back into the health and fitness space. I reintroduced it to my life in a different way, not the way I thought my passion was, right? I thought because I loved to work out that if I just work out with people, that's what I should be doing. But really, I took that idea and I rejigged it and I loved the business of fitness and figure out a way to work within the confines of fitness and all that I. other things in wellness, but in a different way, that was something I was suited for where I kept on like leaning into because that was where I was naturally, I naturally gravitated to the different businesses that I could build within the fitness business and not do it as the daily workout situation. So I just feel like I'm a big believer in chasing what you want,

but I'm also a big believer in chasing what you're good at because that will follow what you want. They're very connected. What you're good at and what you want, they're very closely tied. Yeah, doing what you're good at can help you get what you want. Doing what you're good at can absolutely get you with what you want and not like just because you love fishing and just because you love video games. That's your passion. You love swimming, whatever it is. Leave that as your hobby and your passion. That's okay. And I promise you you'll be able to do those things more if you lean in to what you're actually good at too for the other stuff. I like that. That was great. It's good.

Bye. Thank you. Thank you.