Someone once told me that in order to succeed, I have to be passionate. However, I have to disagree with this statement. I don’t believe passion necessarily leads to or guarantees success. Instead, I believe caring about success in your field is what leads to success.

Don’t get me wrong – having a passion is great. However, it isn’t necessary for your journey to success. Passion is a very aggressive and fleeting feeling – it is unreliable. You cannot always control your passion; It isn’t a tameable emotion.

This is where caring comes in. Forget about passion. All you have to do to succeed is to care about succeeding in whatever it is you wish to do. See, unlike what many might think, you can care about something without being passionate about it.

Being passionate about something means being extremely emotional about it. Caring, on the other hand, means attaching importance and interest to a matter. You can’t choose to be passionate about something – it just doesn’t work like that. You can, however, choose to care about something.

So, start with caring. Care is the essence of success – it’s in its core. Passion is just a bonus.