Passion vs. Paycheck
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Hey there, Shankar here. We're dropping this episode on September 22nd, 2025. That's 10 years to the day since we first launched Hidden Brain into the world. Welcome to the first episode of the Hidden Brain Podcast. I'm Shankar Vedantam. A lot has changed since we started this podcast. But for us, one thing remains steadfast. Week in and week out, we love making this show for you. It's been our calling. So today, we mark this anniversary with an episode about just that. Callings, and how finding one can change our lives. If you've been listening to Hidden Brain for many years, please come to my live tour. I'll be in Baltimore on October 11th, in Washington DC on October 12th, and in Los Angeles on November 22nd.
More dates are coming in 2026. I'll be sharing seven key insights from the first decade of the show. For more information and tickets, go to hiddenbrain.org slash tour. Again, that's hiddenbrain.org slash tour. Hope to see you there. And here's today's show. This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. In 2005, an intense man with a receding hairline and glasses stood before thousands of young graduates in Palo Alto, California. He wore dark robes with a hood of cardinal red. Truth be told, he joked, I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. The speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University's commencement that year didn't just transfix his audience.
It would transfix countless other audiences in the years to come. His central message was simple. As he put it, your time is limited. Don't waste it living someone else's life.
I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for work as it is for your lovers.
Finding a vocation, the inventor and entrepreneur said, was no less important than finding a soulmate.
As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
And what if you hadn't found something you loved? What if the work you did paid the bills but didn't complete you? The iconoclastic leader of Apple Inc. had very definite advice for the recent graduates.
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle.
The idea of being driven by a calling goes back centuries. It was the language used to describe religious people who were called to the priesthood, to a life of service and prayer. You were called, in effect, by God. Today, millions of people in secular professions yearn to be similarly galvanized by their work. This week on Hidden Brain, the immense power and the downsides of pursuing a calling.
Have you ever looked up from your work in the middle of the day and asked yourself, is this all there is? Am I really doing what I was meant to do? What are the thoughts and images that go through your mind at times like this? Who do you compare yourself to? What do you wish you were doing instead? At Babson College, Jennifer Tostekaris studies how we find meaning in work and ways we can derive more satisfaction and purpose in our professional lives. Jennifer Tostekaris, welcome to Hidden Brains.
Thank you so much, Shankar.
Jen, I want to start with a story of a stockbroker in the 19th century. What do we know about Paul Gauguin's life as a middle-class breadwinner in 19th century Paris?
Yeah, so before he was the celebrated world-renowned artist that we know today, Paul Gauguin was a workaday stiff. He was a very reluctant stock trader. He hated this job, which required him to sort of dress up, put in long hours in the office. And he had this sort of, let's call it a side pursuit, maybe not quite a side hustle, but he certainly had this interest outside of work, which was art and both making art and collecting art.
Perhaps you know someone like this, whose days are filled with work they detest.
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