{"id":1256,"date":"2019-06-19T20:13:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T20:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/?p=1256"},"modified":"2019-06-26T14:09:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T14:09:16","slug":"dont-follow-your-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/2019\/06\/19\/dont-follow-your-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"To Follow or Not To Follow Your Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Melissa Harkin, PLD Blog Editor<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, really. I mean it. Let me explain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the morning of May 14, I woke and did what I always do <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down to drink it while scrolling down my Facebook timeline. Among the sea of alerts, one stood out. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/james-kirchner-5259ab7\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Kirchner<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a translator based in Michigan, shared a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prageru.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PragerU<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> video presented by TV personality <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mikerowe.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mike Rowe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, star of &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discovery.com\/tv-shows\/dirty-jobs\/about-this-show\/dirty-jobs-about\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dirty Jobs<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; and &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tbn.org\/programs\/somebodys-gotta-do-it\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Somebody&#8217;s Gotta Do It<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,&#8221; in a group called \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/markepeers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marketing for Translators and Interpreters<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the title <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CVEuPmVAb8o&amp;fbclid=IwAR1RmDDvpliqEMvJ9_PRLt4iXdofiu3CWTVM_rWkV_d1Bc4Gc487XPQEM7k\"><b><i>Don\u2019t Follow Your Passion<\/i><\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the video was an immediate eye-catcher, and my first thought was \u201cwhaaat?\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CVEuPmVAb8o\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Should you follow your passion, wherever it may take you? Should you do only what you love\u2026 or learn to love what you do? How can you identify which path to take? How about which paths to avoid? TV personality Mike Rowe, star of &#8220;Dirty Jobs&#8221; and &#8220;Somebody&#8217;s Gotta Do It,&#8221; shares the dirty truth in PragerU&#8217;s 2016 commencement address.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether this is good or bad advice depends on one\u2019s point of view, but to me it seems worth giving some attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James\u2019 post sparked a very interesting discussion. So much so that he shared a second video on his own thread &#8211; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=42&amp;v=vZvwE5lk-7I\"><b><i>Mark Cuban &#8211; Don&#8217;t follow your passion &#8211; Insights for Entrepreneurs &#8211; Amazon<\/i><\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vZvwE5lk-7I\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lots of people have passions. Instead, says Mark Cuban, you should follow your effort. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mark_Cuban\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mark Cuban<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a serial entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and owner of the NBA&#8217;s Dallas Mavericks. Since season two in 2011, he&#8217;s been one of the &#8220;shark&#8221; investors on the ABC reality show &#8220;<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/abc.go.com\/shows\/shark-tank\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shark Tank<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&#8221;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In James\u2019 opinion, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It often turns out that the types of work that you don&#8217;t like are the ones that like you. And as you get deeper into them, you start liking them back. It&#8217;s vital to break loose of your limiting ego that says, &#8220;I&#8217;m bored,&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m better than this,&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m worthy of something else,&#8221; and to look outward at what benefit your work is providing to other people. Is talking someone into buying a certain brand of perfume really more exciting or important than preventing people from being injured or electrocuted? Is the perfume really more interesting than that boring recycled-plastic shipping contraption that annually prevents enough food from spoiling to feed Chicago? In my opinion, it&#8217;s not. When some seemingly mundane work comes courting, it pays to look deeper \u2014 and also to realize the offer may be coming to you because you&#8217;ve been recognized as good at the work.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When applied to the translation and interpreting industry, I see two different passions which often collide <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 on<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e is the passion for languages, culture, and even intellectualism, and the other is a passion for standing out in the crowd. It is the latter that worries me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wanting to stand out is not a bad thing. I\u2019ve had the chance to do several high-profile translation and interpreting jobs over the years and did not keep quiet about it (unless a non-disclosure agreement forced me to keep it confidential). The jobs help show my progress, different areas of specialization, and the type of client that trusts me professionally, so I used them for marketing purposes. But if standing out were my only focus, it would mean that I\u2019d be ignoring other work opportunities. Opportunities that are just as important and lucrative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to become a literary translator solely for fame (some translators become well-known after translating certain authors, and maybe that prominence motivates you), or if you dream about translating and subtitling blockbuster movies so you can take friends and family to the theater and point to your name in the credits (disregarding what it takes to work in that field), then you\u2019re not looking at all of the options in the market <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and there are many.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I once did an English to Portuguese translation on water flow. Back then, there weren\u2019t many references in Portuguese in that particular area and the client knew that. They were looking for someone who would know where to look and research in order to deliver a good translation. I knew immediately that a per-word rate was not going to cut it, because the project would involve more research than translating hours. We agreed on a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtsontranslation.com\/2019\/04\/24\/billing-by-the-word-by-the-hour-or-by-the-project-what-to-do\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">per-project rate<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that was substantially higher than my per-word rate and, three weeks later, I delivered a stellar translation, glossary, \u00a0and list of references, and got a big, fat check for a job well done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certain fields may not bring you the \u201cfame and glory\u201d of literary or movie translations, being a UN interpreter, or interpreting for celebrities, but they may offer you higher-than-average pay precisely due to the need for specialized translators and interpreters, that is, professionals that have a working or theoretical knowledge of the subject and know where and how to research. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/karentkaczyk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karen Tkaczyk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Ph.D., is a French to English technical translator and editor who is currently serving as Secretary of the American Translators Association. She often speaks about the need for specialized translators, how and why translators should pick a specialization, and has offered insights into lucrative areas. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karen says that \u201cSpecialization \u2014 and by that I mean true subject-matter expertise that comes from years of hard work, not just choosing a field to market yourself for \u2014 has so many benefits. You can solve thorny problems, so you add value for your customers and they come to rely on you. You know more so you spend less time researching, so you make more money per job. You can answer 90% of your colleagues\u2019 term queries off the top of your head, so you gain their respect. Narrow, deep specialization is an excellent way to stand out in our crowded markets. Think beyond the obvious specializations too \u2014 if your passion is diving equipment or horses, go for it! You only need enough work for you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, you see, many lucrative areas of expertise need translation services. Are you sure you are exploring the market as well as you should?<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b>About the author and fellow translators quoted in this article<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1261 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/1-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/1-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/1-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/1.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/melissaharkintranslator\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Melissa Harkin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/harkintranslations.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harkin Translations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) is a technical translator working in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, and specializing in journalistic, legal, energy, and sustainable development content. She transitioned full-time to translation from her career in legal\/sustainable development in 2012 \u2014 before that, she translated part-time from 1997 to 2011. She is a member of the American Translators Association (ATA), Brazilian Translators Association (Abrates), New England Translators Association (NETA), former administrator of the New York Circle of Translators (NYCT) \u2014 a chapter of the ATA, and editor of the ATA\u2019s Portuguese Language Division blog. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/harkintranslate\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1262 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/james-kirchner-5259ab7\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Kirchner<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a translator working from German, Czech, French and Slovak into English. Because he works in two \u201csmall languages,\u201d he has had to develop a larger-than-normal number of specializations, but mainly does technical, marketing and fine arts translations. James is a past president of the Michigan Translators\/Interpreters Network (MiTiN), which is the Michigan chapter of the ATA. He has a BFA in Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies and an MA in Linguistics from Wayne State University, as well as a Czech Proficiency Certificate from the St\u00e1tn\u00ed Jazykov\u00e1 \u0161kola in Prague. He has a black belt in Aikido, which he has been involved in for 40 years, and is an avid beginner at Karate and Iaido. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1263 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/karentkaczyk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karen McMillan Tkaczyk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcmillantranslation.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McMillan Translations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) first trained as a chemist, then after having children changed course and became a freelance technical translator and editor. She has been translating and editing since 2005 and credits her success to narrow, deep specialization. She is certified in French to English by ATA and is a Fellow of ITI. Karen is originally from the UK and has lived in the US since 1999. She can speak extensively about English dialects and how to localize them, but she can only speak with a lilting Scottish accent. Karen is currently the Secretary of the American Translators Association. She tweets as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChemXlator\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ChemXlator<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Melissa Harkin, PLD Blog Editor No, really. I mean it. Let me explain. On the morning of May 14, I woke and did what I always do \u2014 poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down to drink it while scrolling down my Facebook timeline. Among the sea of alerts, one stood out. James [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,27],"tags":[47],"class_list":{"0":"post-1256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-specialization","8":"category-translation-interpreting","9":"tag-specialization","10":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/TO-FOLLOW-OR-NOT-TO-FOLLOW-YOUR-PASSION.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1256"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1267,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions\/1267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}