Passion is nonsense and money can't buy happiness, explains this marketer

Seth Godin is a teacher and sometimes a blogger and an entrepreneur, reports Tech in Asia

Seth Godin is perhaps the most famous marketer in the world, recently inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame. Godin is also a founder of internet companies Yoyodyne and Squidoo.

His blog, which you can find by simply typing Seth into Google, is one of the most popular in the world.

Could you introduce yourself in one sentence?

“I’m Seth Godin. I’m a teacher and sometimes I’m a blogger and an entrepreneur.”

You’ve said before that a passion or a calling is nonsense. Could you elaborate?

“Let’s start with Carnegie Hall, where I’ve spoken a couple of times to students from Juilliard and other places. I think we can agree that [Juilliard] is the pinnacle for someone who’s devoted their life to learning the cello.

“It’s easy to imagine that a kid who starts at the age of three and practices three or four hours a day, and then gets picked by a teacher and then gets picked by Juilliard and then gets picked to be at the executive level at Carnegie hall, has succeeded as an artist.

“The thing is, they’re not artists. They are cogs in the symphony industrial complex. They have been taught, from the age of three, to play the music as written. Playing it as written is a compliance activity.

What advice would you give to someone who thinks money will solve all their problems?

“If I had substituted the word heroin for money, I think that most of us would look at that and say, ‘That’s absurd. Just don’t become a heroin addict because we all know that becoming a heroin addict rarely leads to long-term happiness or contribution.’

How do you want to be remembered?

“I’d like to be remembered by what the people who learned from me taught other people.”

The article was published on Tech In Asia. You can read the full article here