How to find your thing
Don't search for your passion—search for your loop. Find the repeatable daily actions that energize rather than drain you. A doctor's loop is diagnosing pain; a founder's is building and selling. Most of your time won't be spent on the sexy industry or product—it'll be on growth mechanics. Ask yours
41mKey Takeaway
Don't search for your passion—search for your loop. Find the repeatable daily actions that energize rather than drain you. A doctor's loop is diagnosing pain; a founder's is building and selling. Most of your time won't be spent on the sexy industry or product—it'll be on growth mechanics. Ask yourself: Do I want to spend my days doing enterprise sales, running Facebook ads, creating content, or managing influencers? Pick the sales motion you love, because that's what you'll actually be doing 80% of the time.
Episode Overview
This episode challenges the conventional advice to 'follow your passion,' arguing it's ineffective for most people. Instead, the hosts propose following your 'bliss and blisters'—finding work that creates enthusiasm strong enough to endure inevitable hardship. They introduce the concept of finding 'a loop you love'—the repeatable daily activities that define any career—rather than fixating on industries or products.
Key Insights
Passion Is Actually About Suffering
The etymology of 'passion' comes from suffering, not joy. Joseph Campbell's original advice was 'follow your bliss,' which he later wished he'd framed as 'follow your blisters'—evidence of willingly endured pain in pursuit of something meaningful. True passion isn't about constant happiness; it's about being so drawn to something that you're willing to suffer for it repeatedly.
Most People Don't Know Their Passion (And That's Normal)
The hosts, both in their mid-30s and considered successful, admit they still don't know their passion. The constant search for passion can actually increase unhappiness, as people mistake what's familiar for what truly lights them up. The advice to 'follow your passion' creates paralysis because 90%+ of people genuinely don't know what that is.
Pick a Sales Motion, Not an Industry
Your time spent on the actual product or industry is minimal—maybe 15%. The rest goes to growth mechanics: enterprise sales, Facebook ads, SEO, content creation, or influencer management. Pick the growth channel you love, because that's your actual daily work. One host threw his sales shoes in the trash after a meeting, realizing he hated the enterprise sales loop despite the lucrative deals.
Enthusiasm Leads to Mastery, Mastery Creates Passion
Cal Newport's insight: passion is a byproduct of mastery. But mastery requires enduring enthusiasm—the kind that makes you practice piano before bed when you're exhausted. Paul Graham suggests letting enthusiasm be 'not just the motor, but the rudder'—it provides fuel and direction. Enthusiasm naturally takes you to the frontier of any field, where you notice the gaps that become opportunities.
The Top Regret of the Dying
Based on thousands of hospice patients, the #1 regret is: 'I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.' Most people realize too late they lived according to others' expectations. Other top regrets include working too hard, not expressing feelings, losing touch with friends, and not choosing happiness.
Notable Quotes
"Don't follow your passion, follow your bliss. And later he changed it to follow your blisters."
"I'm 36 years old. Some people might regard me as successful. I still don't know what my passion is. And I think about it all the time."
"Let enthusiasm be not just the motor, but the rudder of your boat."
"I distinctly remember a trip where I took the shoes off post-meeting. I threw them in the trash can and I got in the cab without shoes on and I said, 'I'm never doing that again. These shoes are done.'"
"You want to find a loop that you love. That's the loop I love and I've been now been doing this podcast what? 6 years? Something like that and um I'm fresh. Fresh as a daisy."
Action Items
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1
Identify Your Daily Loop
Break down any career into its repeatable daily actions. A healer loop: patient comes in pain → diagnose → prescribe → send out with less pain. A founder loop: see status quo → imagine better → build → sell → build team. Don't pick based on industry; pick based on which loop energizes you after doing it repeatedly.
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2
Look for Your Blisters
Examine where you willingly suffer. Blisters are receipts—evidence of a price paid over and over that you couldn't force through willpower alone. If you find yourself doing something in your off-hours, losing track of time, or enduring hardship to keep doing it, that's a signal you're following genuine enthusiasm, not just familiarity.
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3
Choose Your Growth Channel First
Instead of picking an industry you're passionate about, identify which sales/growth mechanism you enjoy: content creation, paid ads, enterprise sales, SEO, or influencer partnerships. You'll spend 80%+ of your time on growth, not product, so pick the growth motion you can sustain enthusiastically for years.
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4
Read 'The Top Five Regrets of the Dying'
Before committing to a path, understand what thousands of dying people wished they'd done differently. The #1 regret: living according to others' expectations rather than being true to themselves. Use this wisdom to give yourself permission to pursue what genuinely calls to you, even if it's unconventional.