How do people approach their work?

There is a surprising range of drivers for that, which I want to explore now.

An often made distinction is between amateurs and professionals, where amateurs are bad, and professionals are good. However, there is more nuance to it than that, and it matters to your career.

Amateurs

The label ‘amateur’ has a negative connotation, it refers to unskilled workers, hobbyists, and poor results. But the word actually derives from the Latin ‘amare’, meaning to love. So an amateur is somebody who is doing it for the love of it.

They are approaching their work for play, their own fun, and for their own discovery. When it comes to the quality of their work, they are setting the bar for themselves only.

Professionals

A professional, on the other hand, is commonly seen as somebody who knows what they are doing. They are competent, they deliver quality, and they have a price.

There are many commonly used quotes that illustrate these beliefs:

“You think professionals are expensive? Try working with amateurs.”

“Amateurs hope. Professionals work.”

These quotes assume professional deliver better results than amateurs. But where does that reputation come from?

The word professional derives from Latin ‘profiteri’, which originally meant to declare openly, acknowledge publicly. This is therefore more about adhering to a public standard of what constitutes good work, and it has come to also mean being accountable for that.

Good historical examples are doctors, priests, and lawyers. They are held to a standard that is agreed upon by a societal group, and are often publicly sworn into that role.

True professionals are loyal to that standard, to the extent that they completely internalize it. As a result, professionals are often more loyal to their peer group than to their employer, if they even have one.

In contrast, an amateur is loyal to no one, though they may feel part of a group that has similar interests. Nassim Taleb draws a sharp distinction in his book “Skin in the Game”: the professional is accountable, they bear consequences for failure; the amateur does not. That asymmetry, to Taleb, is the real difference — not skill.

Passion

Both amateurs and professionals often talk about being passionate. Passion is often thought to mean to love or like, but originally it meant pain or suffering. Not just any suffering, but suffering or sacrifice for a higher goal. This is different from loving certain activities, or love being part of a certain group.

In Christianity, the passion of Christ refers to the sacrifice of Jesus so that the world can be saved. No lack of ambition there… The Easter story of his Via Dolorosa and crucifixion goes into great and painful details there.

You don’t have to look that far. Think of caring for a family member. Is that always fun? No. Is it fulfilling? Yes.

Amateurs feel rewarded when they have fun, for example when they have discovered a new fact or skill. Professionals feel rewarded when they have delivered work that is up to the professional standard. Passionate people feel rewarded when they do something that needs to be done for the world.

An amateur says: I think it is important to me. A professional says: I think it is important to the profession. A passionate person says: I think it is important to others.

Synthesis

These three dimensions of meaningful activity are not mutually exclusive. Professionals can have fun doing their work. Amateurs can deliver outstanding work. And both can be passionate.

Whether you are starting out, or already mid career, you want to search for opportunities that combine all three.

I think those opportunities are there, and I have turned to the Ikigai framework to help people with that. Ikigai combines what you love (amateur), what you’re good at and paid for (professional), and what the world needs (passionate).