Running head: MONEY OR PASSION, WHICH IS THE BIGGER INFLUENCE?

Money or Passion, Which is the Bigger Influence?

Leonardo Pereira

Divine Savior Academy

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Throughout history many have tried to answer what brings true happiness. Some people

believe that wealth is the answer to true happiness, others proclaim that living a life of passion

for something brings you happiness. (Anderson, 2012). Happiness is one of the most important

thing that people try to acquire throughout their lives and many believe that success is the way to

achieve happiness. The truth of the matter is “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is

the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” (Albert Schweitzer).

Happiness is the gateway to a better life, which explains the reason for so many people trying to

obtain it. Happiness also plays a huge importance when it comes to performance at work. The

researchers from the University of Western Ontario in Canada found that a positive mood

enhanced performance. (Beilock, 2011). Scientific research shows that choosing a job that one is

passionate about will leave them financially better off than choosing a job for its pay. (NLP).

This piece of evidence is one of many that proves why passion should have a bigger influence

when it comes to deciding one's happiness.

The reason why happiness is so difficult to obtain is because of the countless obstacles

that get in the way from many being able to reach it. Especially since people live in a world that

is brainwashed that make humans from a very young age believe in that money is the key to

happiness. (Anderson, 2012) Although some believe that to be true, people can see that even in

today's society the richest people are unsatisfied and are very unhappy. That lead many other to

believe that being passionate about something not only achieves happiness but it also boosts

performance and because of this performance gain more income; “mood can impact our

cognitive functioning” (Beilock, 2011).

As it was stated before its is becoming more difficult to achieve happiness especially

living in a society that runs on money and social media telling the world that you can get
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anywhere with money. The big problem with this, is that it leads many people to believe that

they should take or consider a job that pays an enormous paycheck even though the person is not

passionate about the job. (Anderson, 2012). Doing a job that one is passionate about is more

beneficial financially and mentally then working for a job only to seek wealth.

Review of The Literature

The Negative Effects of Believing That Money Is The Key to Happiness

Although money is the main resource that humans use for survival to buy goods, there are

negative and positives ways to obtain it. One way is to choose a job with high pay but the job

does not appeal to the passion of the person. This can be a very stressful situation but one has to

remember that it is possible to do the job you are doing for the rest of one's life. Doing a job for

the rest of one's life just for the money will leave them unhappy, unhealthy, and there

performance will drop. “Work requires exertion and effort in order to pay the bills and put food

on the table” (Boogaard, 2015). The effort that is put in when one is working should be out of

passion and wanting to put in the work, not because they are forced to work so they can put food

on the table. If someone is asked to do a job and they do it because of their own motives and

passion they will get the task done quick and do it well. In which if someone is told and forced to

do a task they would be downcast and do it slowly because they are not passionate about it.

Basically, doing a job just because of the high pay is not worth it because one will be doing it for

the rest of their lives and will be very unhappy, this will be affecting their performance

physically and mentally for the rest of their lives, which will be very unhealthy. The persons

only motive to work is for the money in which they will be stressed out for days to come.

The path of wealth will lead people towards a unhappy and stressed life because when

they worry, all the person is thinking about is they will be able to afford the next brand new
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phone and still be able to put food on the table. Many will ask themselves “why are you doing,

what you’re doing?” (Toms, 1999). Now, if the person is doing a job that they are passionate

about they can” at least remember they loved it when they started doing it” (Toms, 1999).

To gain true happiness one cannot surround themselves and only think about money. Once the

person decides to find and follow their passion and start following their dreams they will soon

realize that the quantity of money is not related to happiness at all (Toms, 1999).

The focus on money will also lead to very bad habits such as being obsessed with money

and also being very selfish. Also the stress would make the person really moody and be very

rude to people. The person also starts to live a life of grees. Leaving all the talents and abilities

that God gave that person in the dust. Instead of using their talents to do what they love and

make a vocation out of it, they are just throwing it all away for the sake of money. Sooner or ate

they will find out that money is the root of all evil.

One of the biggest reason why people end up with a job that they do not like or that they

are not passionate about is because of the influence that people have around them. It starts at a

very young age teachers, friends, and parents all start molding and crafting the child's brain and

change the way the perceive things. Throughout the kids future they will start seeing social

influence such as rich people getting sweet cars and houses that everyone needs. This starts to

change the value of many kids from a very early start. It is also possible in which the parents

would want their child to follow the footsteps of the father or mother, but as soon as the child

changes direction into his or her path they would already have been “discouraged by friends and

family who threw boulders of criticism at their paths”.( Anderson, 2012 ). Even if the child lands

at their dream job for example as an artist, they will still be discouraged by the parents who are

still holding a grudge saying statements such as “why don't you settle down for a real job?”
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(Anderson, 2012 ). This results in many of the students to study for something that they are not

passionate about. Following in the parents footsteps would lead them away from their dream job

and towards a life that i surrounded by money and would lead to continue the same cycle with

their kids when they get married.

The Positives of Working for Passion

Although there is a lot of benefits of doing what one loves, one has to remember that

“You may adore what you do 98% of the time. But, there are bound to be a few related duties

that you simply dread.”(Boogaard, 2015). Although this sometimes might be the case, choosing

a job over passion and not focusing about money actually boost the workers performance helping

them gain more income and actually more money because of how efficient they have become of

getting the job done. It can also lead to promotions and this would lead to a better attitude also

living a better and healthier life. One way to put it is “would you rather do business with,

someone who is happy, energetic, upbeat and enthusiastic, or someone who is gloomy, negative,

downtrodden and boring?” ”(Boogaard, 2015).

Doing a job that one is passionate about also helps with being positive and this helps the

environment and a higher chance for a promotion. Especially since a lot of people like to be

around someone who is very positive. “Oftentimes, it’s not just the work that we love. It’s the

reward and satisfaction we get after doing it well” (Boogaard, 2015).

Application/Problem
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The chart above shows that 87.1% students (seniors, juniors, and teachers) agree that

working for passion is more important than money when it comes to happiness. That there is

12.9% of students that believe that money is the key to happiness. Surprisingly there is a lot

more of students that agree that passion is the key to happiness when it comes to working.

29.4% people will do a job that they are not passionate about which just goes to show

that ⅓ of people will live very unhappy or at least very stressful lives. Although the data does
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come from the students directly their could be a drastic change for when these student enter

college and their perspective might change.

Although most students would pick passion over money over 50% which was 57.6% said

that money still brings happiness. That even though some students agreed that money is not the

most important thing it is also a factor to some to acquire happiness. It just goes to show that one

way or another money is still important although some still agree that passion is still important

The problem with the data is that it was really confusing to understand it because a lot of

the students that answered the question picked passion over money but the results still showed

that money has a great importance. The data shows that there needs to be a fine balance between

money and passion. In today's society the view is slowly changing more that passion has a

greater importance than money.

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That more than 80% would agree that doing something they love is more important than

acquiring money and not enjoying the work to acquire that money

Conclusion

In the end of the research doing a job for the love it and doing it for the passion is

more beneficial because it improve performance, health, income and happiness. Instead doing a

job only for the money makes the person depressed, stressed, and unhealthy. The passion that

one has for the job also promotes learning new skills and opens a gateway to many opturnuity

such as promotions and learning skill like social skills in which people are more attracted to

people who are more positive. That doing a job that one is passionate about is more beneficial

financially and mentally then working for a job only to seek wealth.
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Annotated Bib

Boogaard, K. (2015, September 17). You can love what you do for a living, but still think

it feels like work. retrieved from https://www.themuse.com/advice/you-can-love-what-you-do-

for-a-living-but-still-think-it-feels-like-work

The article talks about how doing what you love is more important than money, but that you

also have to keep in mind that you probably won't make as much as one would like too. It also

explains how the more you love your job the more work you will put into your job. The article

also explains that there won't be a job that one completely loves because one will most likely not

find a job that perfectly matches what they want to do with their lives or a job that matches one's

hobby completely.

Deborah P Bloch, Lee Richmond ( July 17, 2015) SoulWork. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=auovCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=doing

%2Bwhat%2Byou%2Blove&ots=0QfvKM5luF&sig=zTY6WYxHXAp-

Hj53fUYPoPog8a4#v=onepage&q=doing%20what%20you%20love&f=false

The small book basically talks about the all of the past sources that passion equals

money.This would most likely lead to a raise because of the hard work one has put in into their

job. That even though some people's passion isn't a realistic career it still benefits them more if

they do a job that they enjoy more especially since it is a part of your whole life.
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Marsha Sinetar (1989) Do what You Love, the Money Will Follow. (n.d.). Retrieved

from https:/

books.google.combookshl=en&lr=&id=wfBaqpffvzgC&oi=fnd&pg=PT5&dq=doing%2

Bwhat%2Byou%2Blove&ots=PBbJ47VhGn&sig=knTcmtlPDqSWTdG8Tk8qjczgpFQ#v

=onepage&q=doing%20what%20you%20love&f=false

The small book talks about how one should care more about doing what they love and to

no worry about money because if you do what you love the money will follow. It talks about

how people are so compassionate on what they do, they don't even realize that they are working

that in the end they gain a lot of money and happiness. In which most people are stuck with a job

that is really hard and time consuming and they feel like it would never end because they are

unhappy with their job. This small book taught me that there is no point of doing a hard job that

makes you a lot of money but at the same time makes you unhappy. In the other hand I also

learned that if you do a job that makes you happy you will enjoy and have a fun time everyday

that it doesn't even feel like work it feels like you getting paid to do something you like for the

rest of your life. That is exactly why doing something that you love is more important than

money. What is the point of making money if you are unhappy.

Nancy Anderson ( Aug 22, 2012 ) Work with Passion. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6vpas-

uO_wAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=doing%2Bwhat%2Byou%2Blove&ots=Nech3E2Mr1&sig=T
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Ovhw7WMyZTtxGBGZBcHoFXB950#v=onepage&q=doing%20what%20you%20love&f=fals

“Treat it like a job and work twice as hard as you ever have before. You'll need to, but

you also won't mind because you really believe in what you're doing. I've seen too many people

branch out to pursue a passion without realizing they are now entrepreneurs and will be wearing

several new hats that might not fit quite so well at first”

Michael Toms Mar 23, 1999 True Work. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=asIIg0gA6tUC&oi=fnd&pg=PT4&dq=doing%2

Bwhat%2Byou%2Blove&ots=DwYsn1PMm3&sig=BCY5nLxWqfd9xgaTKEaIWVSeeHU#v=o

nepage&q=doing%20what%20you%20love&f=false

This applies to my topic because it explains that if you do what you like the harder you will

work at your job. This would most likely lead to a raise because of the hard work one has put in

into their job. That there is a lot more than just money when it comes to working. That the

correct way of making money is by doing something that the person likes to do. By being good

at the job of what the person is doing he or she will be able to make enough money to satisfy

their need.
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