1. FINDING
A JOB YOU LOVE:
mythS and
reality
by nicolas nervi
what business can learn
from professional sport

2. p3 Introduction
p4 Myth 1: You don’t have to like your job to be good at it
p6 Myth 2: Few people earn a good living from their passion
p8 Myth 3: Plain, old-fashioned hard work is all that matters
p10 Myth 4: Your boss does not care if you don’t love what you’re doing
p12 Conclusion
p13 About the author
contents
2

3. It’s rare to hear people get excited about work, isn’t it? For the most part, we accept
that lacking passion for our jobs is a ‘normal’ part of people’s lives. But is it? Lack of
enthusiasm and passion for your work leads to poor performance, disengagement,
turnover, resistance to change efforts, and a negative work culture.
“Passion (or lack of it) is - at its core - a business issue.“
If we’re going to improve productivity, innovation and our take-up of ongoing, rapid
change in our organizations, we must foster passion in our workplaces, and in every role
we create. But how? Isn’t a white-collar-job-that-excites an oxymoronic idea?
No, not necessarily. It’s a privilege to find a job you love, that’s for sure, but it’s not
impossible. And, finding ways to get more enjoyment out of what you’re already doing
is just as important— after all, no job is perfect. Here, we explore the myths many of us
are (perhaps unwittingly) following in our careers and in the way we lead our organiza-
tions, and we discuss some simple lessons from one of the world’s elite athletes to help
us all do more of what we love, and love more of what we do.
what is it about
nicolas nervi
3

4. If you don’t completely detest your job you should be pretty happy. After all, work is
‘work’, and you get paid to be there. And here in lies the first myth many of us believe
about work: you can be good at your job even if you don’t like it.
Some people can sing, run a marathon, give an inspiring off-the-cuff presentation and
calculate the square root of an imaginary number in under a minute. They’re ‘good’ at
these things, and many of these talents could lead to a job.
However, being good isn’t enough.
To be really, really great you need motivation, drive and passion. Passion drives us
forward. It helps us pick ourselves up when we’re down and inspires us to keep learning
and getting better at what we do.
We feel driven when we love something. So, if you don’t love it, you’re going to find it
hard to stay motivated for the next decade... or four.
Yes, you can be ok at a job you don’t love, but you can be even better at a job you do.
So, there are two ways forward: either find a job you enjoy more, or find ways to be
more passionate about the job you already have.
You don’t have to like your job to be good at it
MYTH #1
Passion
keeps you
striving
4

5. Failure is inevitable,
it will come for sure.
Consider the failures
as positives you can
learn from— this is
an art, but it will bring
you success in life. MIKE AIGROZ
Mike Aigroz is a Swiss professional triathlete who competes in the Ironman
long-distance race series. He spends 25 hours a week training to complete
in the grueling 3.8 km swim, 180 km bike and 42 km run that the Ironman demands.
He is the 2012 Vice European Champion, and finished 6th
at Ironman Hawaii in 2011.
www.mikeaigroz.ch
Work your will
Doing something we love for work is a privilege, but as Swiss
triathlete Mike Aigroz knows, it still takes a lot of hard work to get where we want to go.
Nothing comes easy—and as the saying goes, you get out of things what you put in.
5

6. Is a painter more talented than a property developer? And, is a beautiful painting worth
more or less than an apartment with ocean views? Well, it depends on the painter and
the painting, doesn’t it?
What we will pay for things depends on the value we perceive that they hold. And the
same is true of our careers. We subconsciously (or consciously) weigh up the value of
our compensation package with what we think our passion is worth to us.
Welcome to the second myth that many of us believe about work: you can’t earn a living
doing what you love.
How much money is enough? What figure would be enough to convince you to do
something you’re truly passionate about?
You might make more money as a lawyer than you can as a swimmer, but will the
compensation be worth it if you’re not passionate about the law?
The need to make ends meet is real and often pressing. But, there are points in our
lives when we have choices and opportunities, and it’s these points when we need to
consider the true cost of not doing something we’re passionate about (and good at).
People do make money out of their passions. Some make a lot, some make a little,
but it’s hard to put a price on doing something you love.
If you can’t change careers, consider ways you can do more of the tasks you do like
(and less of the ones you don’t) or how you can deliver your skills and passions to other
areas of your organization.
When you do something you love, you can often find ways to turn it into a career. We
can also focus on the parts of our jobs that we do love, and try to apply this to our cur-
rent roles in new and innovative ways.
Creating the job you really want to do is possible if you think of lateral ways to apply
what you’re passionate about in your workplace. For example, if you love working with
others, find more ways to collaborate and show your organization how they can
benefit from your skill and passion in this area. Can you lead more special project teams
or committees? Can you run more workshops or meetings for colleagues? Think about
what you’re good at and enjoy, find a gap in your organization and then promote your
skills as the answer—find the intersection between your desires and needs and that
of your organization.
Few people earn a good living from their passion
MYTH #2
Be gracious
and think
laterally
to find
a market
or purpose
for your
passion
6

7. Don’t complain too
much, don’t always
think grass is greener
the other side, don’t
be too negative and
critical with your
situation—be grateful
for what you have.
Failure to recognize
your assets brings frus-
tration and constant
disappointment. MIKE AIGROZ
7

8. In her book, The Top Five Regrets of Dying, author Bronnie Ware says the second most
common regret is “I wish I didn’t work so hard”. It’s common to feel that we spend too
much time doing things we have to do rather than the things we want to do, and for
many of us, work fits into this category.
The third myth that many of us believe about work is that: as long as you work hard,
you’ll be successful at what you do.
Whichever way we look at it, working hard at something we love is always easier and
more successful than working hard at something we don’t. Even the most talented
people have to work hard at their craft. Real success rarely comes easy. But, doubtless
the effort will feel less like a chore if you love the process. Besides, you spend a lot of
time at work and if it’s not mostly enjoyable and satisfying, that’s an awful lot of your life
spent doing something you’d rather not be.
So, consider the difference between ‘working hard’ and ‘work that feels hard to do’—if
you do something you’re passionate about, it may just feel a little easier and worthwhile.
Plain, old-fashioned hard work is all that matters
MYTH #3
There’s
a difference
between
hard work,
and
working
hard
8

9. Try to have fun: enjoy the process, not just the reward
When Mike Aigroz is preparing for an Ironman race, he is training every day and pushing
his pain barrier to its limit. His key challenge is to try to see the positives right the way
through the process to keep himself motivated, rather than just focusing on possible
success at the end.
There is a heavy cost to all the training—whether it’s injury or time away from friends and
family, so you need to know the hard work along the way is something you enjoy as much
as the possibility of winning or achieving your goals. Consider which parts of the process
or task you really enjoy and focus more on those.
Try to enjoy every
single good moment
in your life, never be
jaded and don’t forget
the simple things that
bring you joy and
happiness. Live in the
moment, feel the plea-
sure and see these ex-
periences as vitamins
boosting you,
reinforcing you. MIKE AIGROZ
9

10. Organizations, HR departments and managers make huge investments to try to improve
the performance of their employees. We talk a lot about engagement and alignment
and strategy and performance indicators. Yet, when we’re doing something we love,
we’re already engaged, aligned and performing at our best, even if we do need a little
coaching and structure along the way.
In many ways, success and great results are the consequence of the doing what we love.
So, the final myth is: your boss doesn’t care if you’re dispassionate about your work.
Our own research shows that fewer than half of the world’s employees feel inspired by
their manager to do their best work. And, almost four in every ten employees globally
report that they are not committed or engaged with their current employer. Yet, what
are we doing about it as individuals and organizations?
For the most part, we’re pretty busy accepting that lack of passion is a ‘normal’ part
of most people’s lives. For the most part, we spent 40 or so hours every week getting
on with doing the job whether we want to or not. And, both sides of this equation—
employer and employee—are suffering as a result.
So, if we really care about business performance, it’s time to start talking about passion
and why it’ s a critical part of our jobs and our organizational success.
Your boss does not care if you don’t love what you’re doing
MYTH #4
Have
respect and
recognize
the mutual
interest
in success
10

11. Organizations and individuals have a vested interest in each other’s success. If we
respect this, we can find ways to benefit both by doing what we love.
Sometimes, we need to provide open, honest feedback about what’s going well and
what’s failing. If you’re passionate about doing well and advancing the mutual interests
of your organization and yourself, you’ll be able to proactively seek and provide con-
structive feedback in a respectful way. Conflict is a sure-fire way to reduce our enjoyment
at work, so the less we have of this, the better. We can’t always control the action of oth-
ers on this front, but we can always do better ourselves, and ultimately, it will pay off.
Respect yourself,
respect your competi-
tors, respect the rules,
respect your environ-
ment: respect is funda-
mental in this world,
and it’s fundamental
to success. MIKE AIGROZ
11

12. The business world can be a tough place to stay positive and passionate, and often it’s
up to us as individuals to make this happen. Organizations are often so busy pushing us
through processes and adapting to change that we forget to have fun, promote passion
and celebrate successes. We are often so busy ‘doing’ that we stop realizing that our
motivation for our work is two-fold:
we should do what we love (as much as possible); and
love what we do.
We may not have 100% control over the first part, but we have a lot of control over the
second point.
Taking time to notice the good parts, celebrate our progress, ask for constructive
feedback and accept that failure is part of learning are all behaviors that we can practice
to fuel our passion for our work. We all have obligations; we all need money to live and
it’s not always possible to work in your perfect job doing only the stuff you love doing.
In fact, everyone finds that there are aspects of their jobs that they don’t love. However,
there are ways to increase the time you spend doing the stuff you’re good at and
passionate about, as well as to increase the enjoyment you get out of the entire day.
SO...
12

13. ABOUT the author
Nicolas Nervi is a Senior Marketing Manager at Kelly Services for Europe, Middle East
and Africa (EMEA). Throughout his 15-year career, Nicolas has promoted passion and
enthusiasm at work, and continually demonstrates how these traits are the key to
sustainable business performance and success. In addition, Nicolas is passionate about
sports, and applies these same principles to his athletic performance.
ABOUT KELLY
Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: kELYA, kELYB) is a leader in providing workforce
solutions. Kelly®
offers a comprehensive array of outsourcing and consulting services
as well as world-class staffing on a temporary, temporary-to-hire and direct-hire basis.
Serving clients around the globe, Kelly provides employment to more than 550,000
employees annually. Revenue in 2011 was $5.6 billion.
Visit kellyservices.com and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, & Twitter.
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