without directly experiencing the connection between effort and reward, animals, whether they're rats or people, default to laziness. - Angela Duckworth

Follow your passion was not the message I heard growing up. Instead, I was told that the practical realities of surviving "in the real world" were far more important than any person living a "sheltered life" such as my own could imagine. I was warned that overly idealistic dreams of "finding something I loved" could in fact be a breadcrumb trail into poverty and disappointment.

Failure is not a permanent condition.

Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.