Why “Follow Your Passion” Is Bad Advice — with Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Scott Galloway opens the conversation with a confession: he dropped his oldest son off at college and is struggling. The purpose that defined the last 18 years—raising men for others—feels complete, and he’s left wondering what comes next. That raw moment sets the stage for Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, co-founders of Stanford’s Life Design Lab, to explain why the search for purpose often goes wrong and what to do about it.

Why “Follow Your Passion” Is a Dysfunctional Belief

Burnett and Evans argue that the most common career advice—“follow your passion”—is actually harmful for most people. The research, from Stanford’s Bill Damon, shows that less than 20% of people have a singular, identifiable passion. The other 80% hear that advice and conclude something is wrong with them. “They go to the back of the line,” Burnett says. “Come on, you have a passion, come on up.” Among the 20% who do have a clear passion, most of it is for the arts—and those people are often told their passion isn’t a real job. The better approach, they say, is to build your way forward through curiosity and small experiments. “Prototyping is just run a little experiment,” Burnett explains. “Talk to somebody who’s interesting, who’s doing the thing that you’re interested in, or have a little experience of doing something that you’re curious about.” These small prototypes build momentum and increase cur