5 People Who Turned Passions Into Successful Careers
“Scroll down for:
– A list of 20 passions and interests we love to follow on Insta,
– Research on the effect your passions can have on your career,
– 5 people who turned passions into successful careers.”
What would you do with your free time if you could clear your schedule for a month?
After catching up on sleep and spending time with friends and family, you will likely fill your calendar with the activities you’re most passionate about.
It could be sports, hobbies, creative work, connecting with people, nature, food, history, or other areas of interest.
Merriam-Webster defines passion as “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.”
They describe an interest as “a feeling that accompanies or causes special attention to something or someone.”
So, figuring out your passions and interests begins with what you feel and what you focus on.
Are Your Passions and Interests Distractions or the Gateway to Career Success?
What comes first: success or happiness?
According to the London School of Economics and Political Science, happiness.
It's a gateway to long-term career success, not the other way around.
“Evidence indicates that happiness is indeed a critical precursor to success….
The happier people are, the more likely they are to later find employment and be satisfied with it…
People who are happy at one time point often report higher income at a later time point.
Overall, the longitudinal literature suggests that happiness heralds success, rather than the other way around.”
Balancing work and obligations makes discovering your passions seem like an indulgence.
But making time for hobbies can help you reduce stress, and improve your health. It can also help you develop new skills.
According to Psychosom Med, “individuals who engaged in more frequent enjoyable leisure activities had better psychological and physical functioning.
They reported:
greater positive affect,
life satisfaction,
life engagement,
social support as well as
lower depression and negative affect;
they had lower blood pressure, cortisol AUC, BMI, WC,
and better perceived physical function.”
They also noted that leisure activities buffer the negative psychological impact of stress.
So, leaning into your passions can cure stress and help you find career success.
20 Passions and Interests We Love to Follow on Instagram
Want to get a quick snapshot of where your interests lie?
Open any social media or streaming video app.
The content you consume daily is a good place to start.
Below is a list of 20 passions and interests. They also represent some of the top hashtags used on Instagram, according to HubSpot.
It may seem simplistic, but these topics also represent massive industries.
Most people say they don’t have time to spend on their passions and interests.
Yet, they manage to consume significant amounts of content around these topics daily:
Countless people have harnessed their passions and interests to create prosperous careers.
But leaving an industry entirely isn’t the only way to find passion in your career.
We live in a time where side hustles are easy to get into. They can lead to a complete career transformation over time. Or they can become hobbies that feed your soul on your time away from work.
5 People Who Turned Passions and Interests Into Meteoric Success
While the benefits of nurturing your passions and interests extend to health and personal development, they can also be the key to a successful career.
It can be challenging to figure out a career path centered around a hobby, especially when your background and experience are in more traditional industries.
However, now more than ever, plenty of successful people have used their passions to catapult them into career success. Here are just a few examples of how they took that initial spark of interest and turned it into an empire:
Ina Garten
Before becoming America's favorite home cook, Ina Garten worked for the White House Office of Management and Budget.
You would think a job in the White House would be the ultimate career goal.
But writing nuclear budgets wasn't enough to make her happy.
So, after years of working (and hosting dinner parties) in D.C.,
Garten enrolled in a cooking program at the renowned Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
The experience was a turning point in her life, cementing her commitment to culinary arts.
Shortly after, Garten saw an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons called the Barefoot Contessa. Taking a chance on her passion, she bought the shop.
After that, she went from nuclear budgets to perfecting the baguette.
It wasn’t long before she started a successful catering company. She also became a bestselling cookbook author. It wasn't long before her work caught the eye of tv executives. By 2002, she began filming tv shows, sharing her culinary expertise with the world.
Her success proves that even if you’re already successful in one area, passion can push you further than you ever thought possible.
Trixie Mattel
Drag superstar Trixie Mattel has taken her success in drag and used it to fuel several ventures.
Trixie runs a successful beauty brand, a YouTube channel, and even a motel in Palm Springs.
In one of her popular YouTube videos, Trixie used an old-school Easy Bake Oven to bake a cake.
As you can imagine, hilarity ensued.
The video was so entertaining that I decided to subscribe.
I don’t particularly share her passion for makeup artistry.
But I love watching her content.
Trixie's YouTube channel is an excellent example of how you can develop a side hustle that feeds into your day job.
Her success also shows a direct path from being a creator to success in television.
Her show Trixie Motel is groundbreaking in how it combines renovation with drag culture.
Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, Founders of The Home Edit
Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin founded The Home Edit in 2015. Their meteoric success proves that if you’re good at something, you can make a career out of it.
A mutual friend introduced the former fashion PR professional and stationary designer.
The Home Edit was born from their mutual passion for organization.
Since then, they have blown up. They have over 6 million followers on Instagram. Not to mention a show on Netflix, bestselling books, and product lines.
They've also organized the homes of high-profile clients around the country.
Their success proves that a passion like home organization can spark a huge business opportunity.
Do you spend a lot of time and money at The Container Store?
If so, take a look around the store next time.
There is a brand behind every product they offer. And each product solves a problem for their customers.
If you could create a brand for this space, what would it look like?
Who knows, it might be the next home organization success story.
Julia Haart
Julia Haart is best known for her hit Netflix show, My Unorthodox Life. The docuseries follows her journey from an orthodox community to New York City.
The show started filming when she was CEO of Elite Worldgroup. But her true journey began long before becoming a fashion executive.
Starting over in your forties is difficult enough. In Julia Haart's case, it was even more challenging. She left an orthodox community with little more than a desire to start a new life on her own terms.
Her design experience at the time included sketching the clothes she couldn’t wear in her orthodox community. She also notes that she gave birth in Louboutins.
Nonetheless, she created a successful shoe line in 2014 by focusing on her passions despite her circumstances. Designing the platform shoes that she always wanted to wear changed her life. It helped her find a new tribe and rise to prominence in a city that she walked into with little more than a dream.
Her story proves that hard work and focusing on what your audience wants pays off. It might be comfortable platform shoes, size-inclusive fashions, or even a tv show.
Gary Vaynerchuk
As someone who started working for a family business, Gary Vee stands out as an entrepreneur. He combines a crazy work ethic with an open door policy for his followers.
On a daily basis, he gives actionable advice from a practitioner's perspective.
It's applicable at any level, which is why young entrepreneurs love to follow him. His values are often old-school but wrapped in empathy.
If you already know what you're passionate about, but aren't sure where to start, follow Gary Vee. His social media accounts are all geared toward people starting or building brands.
His tips cross platforms and generations. But more importantly, they are accessible to people without a business degree.
You can boil down his passion to the democratization of entrepreneurship.
Sometimes, we need more imagination when it comes to our passions.
But as these examples show, it starts with saying yes to what makes you happy.
It may feel like redirecting your focus can distract you from your career goals.
But as research shows, figuring out what makes you happy brings you closer to career success than you think.
