What Is Bill Gurley's Advice for Finding a Career You Love?

David Senra, reading Bill Gurley's talk and book Running Down a Dream, says the way to find a career you love is to pick work you have an immense personal passion for. Gurley's first piece of advice is to find your passion and pick a profession you have a deep personal interest in. Nothing makes you more successful than loving the work, because you will work harder than anyone else and it will feel like fun. Senra reads Gurley's line that the choice is the most important decision a person can make in a career.

The passion has to be your own, not a parent's, a sister's, or the family's. Do not choose for status or pay. Plenty of high-profile careers pay well and look like where successful people go. Chase one without passion and you burn out. You cannot fake passion. Someone who really loves that job will outrun you.

Gurley then quotes Bobby Knight. The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win. The test of a dream job is whether you enjoy the preparation, not only the winning.