In the 1970s, India's breweries wouldn't hire a woman master brewer. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw built a biotech company instead, starting with an enzyme for beer. Why 'find your passion' can backfire, what experiments and a Johannesburg study show about how direction really gets made, and one small test to run this month.
Takeaways
- In experiments with college students, people led to see interests as fixed, waiting to be found, lost interest faster when a fascinating topic turned difficult than people who believed interests can be developed.
- In Johannesburg, young job seekers' guesses about their own strengths matched their test results only about four times in ten: direction comes more reliably from testing than from looking inside.
- This month: a guess, a test, a question. One small test that puts you near the real work, hard part included.
Chapters
- The master brewer India wouldn't hire0:17
- The passion hunt2:44
- Found or built4:46
- Two people who don't know7:13
- Hear it done8:44
- Build yours10:16
- The answer12:15
References
- O'Keefe, P. A., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. — Implicit theories of interest: Finding your passion or developing it?(2018)
- Carranza, E., Garlick, R., Orkin, K., & Rankin, N. — Job search and hiring with limited information about workseekers' skills(2022)
- Chen, P., Ellsworth, P. C., & Schwarz, N. — Finding a fit or developing it: Implicit theories about achieving passion for work(2015)
- Ibarra, H. — How to stay stuck in the wrong career(2002)
- Cech, E. A. — The Trouble with Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality(2021)
- University of Michigan Institute for Social Research — Career priorities emphasize passion over financial security during pandemic(2022)
- Harvard Business School, Creating Emerging Markets — Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, interviewed by Tarun Khanna(2018)
- WIPO IP Advantage — Building on a foundation of IP (Biocon)
- Science History Institute — Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw