Better Later Than Never

It is difficult to believe that anyone has ever approached a task and said to themselves, "Self, I'm going to do this half-arsed. I am just not going to put one iota of effort, pride, or passion into this at all."

It is far easier to believe that some people are just not capable of doing certain things well. No amount of pithy adages or positive reinforcement will motivate them to perform the task in anything but a lackluster manner.

I believe some of those people are people who have simply just not found their calling, and because of that, do not feel connected to their careers.

History is rife* with stories of people who plodded along working as clerks or stevedores or bicycle messengers, earning a living but not really into their job...until one day, something happens that flips a switch and suddenly they not only know exactly what it is they should be doing, they jump into it full on, making every effort to succeed in whatever it is that stirred the passion.

Two examples: 

Noreen Culhane, current Executive Vice President, Global Corporate Client Group, for the New York Stock Exchange. After college, she worked for 5 years as a Catholic school teacher, but it wasn't her passion - business was and is, and she found it by taking a job with IBM and working her way up the corporate ladder (she spent twenty years with IBM before joining the NYSE).

Ron Larson, Professor of Mathematics at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College, Pennsylvania. Professor Larson married young (when he was 18) and he and his wife Deanna opened up a small business, Larson's Custom Quilts, which they operated until selling it in 1962. Professor Larson then went to college, earning an Associates degree in 1964, his Bachelors in 1966, Masters in 1968, and finally his Doctorate in Mathematics in 1970. He worked full time his last four years of college, in a restaurant and then in a grocery store. He worked hard because he had found his passion, and it wasn't quilting. 

I use those two examples because they are living, breathing people. Of course there are many, many more to be found in the historical record (The recently deceased Dennis Farina would be a great example - 18 years as a competent cop in Chicago, then got his toe wet in film as a technical advisor and discovered what it was that really stirred his passion).

It can be difficult to consider that one's passion hasn't made itself known before, say, one's 30th birthday (or even much later), but it is not only probable, it actually happens everyday on this little blue marble. 

Child prodigies might get all the press, but sometimes, every so often, it takes a while to find one's true calling. 

*Word of the day, rife - courtesy of John R.