Zone of Genius — if only it were that easy (the problems with passion)

Zone of Genius is enticing.

Identify the thing that you’re really good at and like doing. The activity where you can enter flow. And spend the rest of your life doing it.

That’s one step up from following your passions — but it’s not enough.

The advice to follow your passions suffers from many flaws. Key amongst them is that many of us just aren’t that good at what we’re passionate about. It doesn’t help to follow my writing passion if I can’t… well, write.

Zone of Genius overcomes this limitation by focusing only on the things you’re good at.

But, aside from the fact that until I have experience I won’t know what I’m good at, and even then I need to know that I’m actually good at it, that leads to a whole bunch of other problems. Like whether I’ll really like doing this all the time? Or whether doing this can support me?

That last point is a killer.

Just look at the millions of authors on Amazon who can’t make a living. Some must be in their Zone of Genius. That means that being in your Zone of Genius is not sufficient.

To remain in your Zone of Genius, you need to do so in a way needed by others.

That sounds a lot like Ikigai — but then, Ikigai isn’t enough either.