Passion, Proficiency, Profit: How I Found the Right Career

The wake-up call

In my early 20s nobody pushed me to think big or explore unconventional paths. Most of my peers were happy with the safe, traditional route, and I nearly followed. At university I interned at an accounting firm and sat in a cubicle all day feeling bored and unfulfilled. I thought a stable corporate job was what I was supposed to want.

In my final year I saw people a few years ahead of me in those stable jobs. They earned decent money, but they came home drained and complained constantly. One senior colleague told me, "I can't do this for the rest of my life." I did not want that: being good at something I did not care about, stuck in the grind.

At the same time I noticed where my free time went. I tinkered with technology and business ideas, and even ran a small side hustle flipping second-hand calculators and gadgets because it was fun. Friends came to me with tech problems and app ideas. A close friend said, "You light up when you talk about tech and startups. Why are you still aiming for accounting?" He was right, but nobody around me was entrepreneurial, so I had convinced myself a tech career was unrealistic for someone like me.

The three-circle framework

Then I came across a blog post by the author Michael Hyatt with a simple diagram of three overlapping circles. Your ideal career sits at the intersection of passion (what you love doing), proficiency (what you are good at) and profitability (what people will pay you for). Where all three overlap is your sweet spot.

It instantly explained why accounting felt wrong. It was profitable, and I was capable at it, but I had no passion for it. I realised two out of three is not enough. You need all three to be happy in the long run.

What happens when one circle is missing

Leave out any one of the three and you hit a wall. Passion plus skill without profit means you are broke, doing what you love without making a living. Passion plus profit without skill means you fail or get fired, because enthusiasm does not deliver results. Skill plus profit without passion means you are miserable, grinding for a paycheque.

The data suggests this is common. Gallup finds that only around 21% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. Roughly four in five people are not really into their jobs, often because they chose for money alone, followed a love with no market, or stuck with the convenient skill. If that sounds like you, feeling stuck in your job is worth reading next.

How I applied it to myself

I sat down and drew my own circles. Under passion: technology and building things. Under proficiency: problem solving and learning new skills fast. Under profitability: software and the tech industry, where skills are in high demand. The overlap was obvious: software development and tech entrepreneurship.

So I pivoted hard. I could not afford an expensive course or another degree, so I taught myself through online courses and YouTube, quit my job to focus, and coded up to 12 hours a day for months. Within about six months I was helping friends with IT degrees prepare for coding tests and had landed several small software projects for clients. That proved that with intense focus you can build in-demand skills quickly, and confirmed I was on the right path.

Over the next few years I launched my own ventures. More importantly than the money, I was waking up excited every day, with control over how I worked. I had found the overlap.

Draw your own three circles

Step one: passion. Take a piece of paper and list what you genuinely enjoy or find fascinating: writing code, making music, helping friends with money, designing logos, cooking, teaching, analysing sports stats. Look for moments when hours fly by.

Step two: proficiency. List your skills and strengths, technical ones like a programming language, video editing or accounting, and soft ones like communication, empathy and leadership. Ask people close to you, because they often spot talents you take for granted. Include things you are not good at yet but are willing to master, such as UI and UX design or data.

Step three: profitability. This is the reality check. For each passion and skill, ask whether there are jobs or businesses in that area. A common-sense test is enough for now. Circle items with clear career potential and put a question mark by the rest. Be honest: becoming a pro gamer or streamer is possible but highly competitive, while design, animation and UX have lots of opportunities. If you are unsure which tech roles fit you, try which tech career fits me.

If nothing hits all three yet

Do not panic. You may need to explore more, since passions are often discovered by trying new things, or level up a skill before the profit side clicks. Be strategic: keep a less profitable passion as a hobby or side hustle, and take a job that builds useful skills in the meantime, steering gradually towards the overlap.

A friend of mine is a talented painter. Making a living as a fine artist looked extremely tough, so she moved into graphic design, where her artistic talent is in high demand. She now earns a solid income designing for clients and agencies and is still creative every day. Another acquaintance loved music history and took a degree in it, then found almost no jobs that needed knowledge of 18th-century composers and ended up in an unrelated office job. He is not alone: underemployment among recent graduates is widespread, which we dig into in our underemployment research. The lesson is not to give up what you love. It is to check whether it can support the life you want, and adjust if not.

The target keeps moving

Finding your sweet spot is not the end. The World Economic Forum has estimated that around half of all employees need to reskill, and its Future of Jobs work projected tens of millions of roles displaced by automation alongside even more new ones emerging. The work that needs doing is shifting, and the half-life of skills is shorter than ever. A framework that was popular two years ago can be overtaken by a new tool.

That is an opportunity for people who embrace lifelong learning. You cannot get a degree at 22 and never learn again for 40 years. The good news is that if you love what you do, much of that learning is fun and self-driven. I am constantly reading, taking courses and experimenting because I am genuinely interested. Naval Ravikant puts it well: earn with your mind, not your time. Treat learning as investing in your biggest asset, yourself.

Career pathways are changing too. You no longer need another four-year degree to build a new skill. Focused, project-based learning can get you there much faster, and many of the people we teach come from business, biology, music and medicine.

Where do you stand?

If you have found your overlap, double down and do not get distracted by shiny objects. If you have not, identify what is missing. Do you need to discover a passion? Build or learn a skill? Or find a more profitable angle for what you already love and do well? Once you know the gap, you can act.

For me, seeing the path was step one and actually building it was step two, with plenty of late nights and doubt along the way. Do not settle for a career that lacks passion or wastes your gifts just because it feels safe. If tech is in your circles, our free trial is a low-risk way to test whether you enjoy building software before you commit to anything.