It's rare that you meet people who are passionate about their work.

Too rare, according to the founders of Pursue the Passion. The site was started by a group of college students who didn't know what they wanted to do with their lives. They found a sponsor in Jobing.com, bought an RV, and started exploring the possibilities. They've interviewed hundreds of people from across the country who love their jobs. They post the interviews on their website, giving others a glimpse of how these people found paths to the work they love. UpMo.com talked to co-founder Brett Farmiloe about what it means to pursue your passion, particularly in today's economy.

UpMo: Given the current economic situation, it would seem that many people are more concerned about receiving a regular paycheck than pursuing their passions. Are you getting the impression that people are "hunkering down"? Has your approach or philosophy changed at all, in light of the employment outlook, or is it applicable no matter what?

Brett Farmiloe: Excellent question. With unemployment reported at 8.1% today, the highest in my lifetime, I believe it's more important than ever to pursue a passion within the workplace. Pursuing a passion does not always mean to quit the job that is giving you regular paychecks. What it does mean is to do something that you're passionate about. Passion isn't just something that you 'love.' Often, it's what really pisses you off. It's what motivates and moves you to take action. Action is what we need as the world around us approaches stagnancy. So whether you're employed or unemployed, you have to follow that feeling that's so often ignored and take action on something you love or are pissed about. Action= Productivity. Pursuing a passion is more important today than it was when the economy was booming.

UpMo: You have toured the country interviewing people who love their jobs. What are some of the common threads among these people in terms of how they found work they love? Are they, for example, goal-setters, great networkers or simply extraordinarily hard workers?

Brett Farmiloe: It's funny because this question is the basis for our Pursue the Passion book and documentary that's coming out on Labor Day. There are three things that are the common threads of people who found work they love. There are always three things, right? But those three things are that people took ownership in their life, they took risks when necessary, and they worked hard to get the job they would be passionate about. Ownership is a decision. Risk is where that decision is tested. Hard Work is where the risk pays off. Every person who is successful has those three elements to their story. It's simple on paper, but very difficult to execute.

UpMo: Many people find it hard to reconcile the idea of "pursuing your passion" and the need to earn a living. Many of us start a career in survival mode: we need to earn money, pay off debts, then perhaps want to start a family, which adds more financial responsibility. How do you address the balance between passion and practicality?

Brett Farmiloe: Well, the simplest answer is to decide what you're passionate about at that moment in your life. You can be really passionate about paying off student loans and work for money out of school. Money can be a real motivating force for some people, and there's nothing wrong with working for money. Being passionate about your family can be another thing that makes you really passionate about the work you do. You could hate the work you do, but if you're working for your family because you're passionate about giving them the life you want them to have, then it's worth it. And if you want to be passionate about the work you do, then that's all good too. It's a matter of identifying where the passion comes from, knowing that passions do change over a lifetime and that you're not limited to 'one,' and balancing your life around that clarity.

UpMo: Can you describe Pursue the Passion's "formula" for identifying your passion?

Brett Farmiloe: Yep. It's in the second answer I gave. Ownership + Risk + Hard Work = Passionate Living. To add to that, to make it workforce relevant, people also need three things in work. They need significance, a good environment, and a way to measure their work. If employers and managers are able to give them these three things, then employees will naturally gravitate to taking ownership in their work. They'll take a risk if they're in an environment that they feel comfortable doing so. And if they can measure their work, they'll work hard. It's simple, but not too many people realize the simple things.

UpMo: Can you talk about one of your favorite interviews and what you personally learned from it? Based on your experience with this project, what advice would you give people about getting what they want out of their career?

Brett Farmiloe: Yikes. We've got over 300 interviews under our belt. It's tough to choose one. We've interviewed Matt Flannery, a goat farmer, and a prison warden who was a former maximum security inmate. I've learned different things from all of them. But the students we speak to freak out when we tell them about one interview we had with the Senior Tastemaster for Coldstone Creamery. This guy (see video below) gets paid to create new flavors and taste 5 to 10 ounces of ice cream a day.

As far as advice for getting what you want out of a career ... it might sound too "self-promotion-y" but it's absolutely true ... it's to pursue the passion. That's the motto I live by. It is to always be pursuing something that brings out the passion in what I do.


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