I have been on both sides of this debate: I used to believe passion was key and “if you can dream it, you can do it.” I still regularly use passion to describe my work ethic and my personal projects, and I do believe in trying to monetize/careerify what you love. However, I recently have been writing articles about how following your dreams really isn’t a guarantee, nor is passion the key to success. Nor is hard work, really. So much of it is luck/circumstance. When we hang our hats on this notion of dreams and passion being all one needs, what happens when we don’t succeed? We blame ourselves. I like that you say, “Once I realized I could never feed them all, it was a huge relief.” YES. Assuming that we have a singular purpose or passion is counterproductive to finding a fulfilling life…hopefully one in which we can turn our dreams into reality, our passion into money, AND/OR find passion in what we already do.