Everyone should do for a living what they feel passionate about and love doing—and then be really good at it.
I always joke and say that I was born retired, that I never worked even for a single minute in my life. Why? Because I followed my passions and decided to earn my living doing the very things I love doing anyway. This way, work never feels like work, which is why I have never actually worked.
It all goes back to the circumstances I was born into: a strong focus on education and knowledge as well as appreciation of anything to do with language and languages. So, fresh out of high school, I hung out my shingle as a freelance translator even before enrolling at university to add a piece of paper that would attest to my chosen profession. That decision would open a lot of doors, some by design, others by accident: while continuing to work as a translator, I would also intermittently work as a teacher, voiceover talent, language coach, assistant writer in television, and newsreader telling millions of TV viewers about the news of the day. I can honestly say that I have no bucket list: I have done and see it all.
But passion was not my only key to success. Whatever I did, I gave it my all. A hundred per cent was never good enough me; I injected at least 150 per cent into whatever work I did. Essentially, the one common denominator of everything I have ever done is language. Language is my main tool—as a translator, writer or voice talent. For me this meant that I had to be not only good, but perfect. Yes, I am a perfectionist, and proud of it.
When I look at the output of the vast majority of writers, journalists and translators today, I want to cry and vomit. There are people who call themselves writers, but can’t be bothered to learn how to use words or the rules of syntax—and don’t get me started on people’s inability to master punctuation. The same is true of journalists. They all forget that in order to write (or translate) for a living, they must first master language, that is, their mother tongue or native language, or the language they choose to work in.
Why become a writer when you write “tensile” when the word you really wanted to use is “tinsel”? (And why didn’t the book editor catch that? Editors today, too, are just as incompetent as the so-called writers they’re supposed to guide and assist.)
On LinkedIn, my network includes a variety of translators, writers, copywriters and journalists. Before I open my newsfeed, I always make sure to have some smelling salts at hand to prevent me fainting when I read their posts, in which they go on about how correct spelling and punctuation, for example, don’t matter at all. Those people take no pride in their work! They believe that doing something half-hearted is good enough. What is more, since most of them are members of the infamous Gen Y and Gen Z set, they’re more concerned about not getting triggered and about “self-care”. In other words, doing their work with perfection is a trigger for them. They wouldn’t hear of it! What they don’t realize is that their constant problems with self-care and mental health all stem from the fact that their work is slipshod and less than mediocre, because they can’t be bothered to muster the level of perfectionism that is required of any professional worth his or her salt. A sense of personal satisfaction and achievement comes only from delivering a job well done. Nay, a job done perfectly! Ironically, that’s why most of them post almost daily about the “impostor syndrome” (without managing to spell “impostor” correctly!), begging (sometimes with teary-eyed selfie videos in the attachment—gag me!) their fellow networkers for words of support to help them get over their feeling like impostors. (That kind of narcissistic post is also very common among Gen Y and Gen Z.) Newsflash: if you’re a writer, journalist or translator who doesn’t care about proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc., you ARE an impostor!
A recent article in The Atlantic put it best:
How to find happiness at work? It so happens that a very good strategy for finding happiness in work is … to strive for excellence and love. Excellence at work is sometimes called “earned success,” a mixture of effort and accomplishment that in turn enhances your job satisfaction and commitment to a career.
Excellence, that means at least 100 per cent, and ideally even more than that, but not 99 or 87 or 71 per cent. When you tell your followers on LinkedIn, for example, that you don’t care about spelling and grammar, you tell them, in fact, that you don’t actually care about your work and the skills necessary to do a good job. As is noted in the same article:
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
In short, unless you’re prepared to go all the way, get out and “take alms” instead.