Mike Rowe Tells Students 'Don't Follow Your Passion'

Generations of American youth have been encouraged to follow their dreams, to never give up on what they’re passionate about, and to never settle. Reality television star and social commentator Mike Rowe calls that bunk.

“Who tells a stranger to never give up on their dreams without even knowing what it is they’re dreaming?” Rowe asks in this video produced for Prager University. “Year after year, thousands of aspiring American idols show up [to auditions] with great expectations, only to learn that they don’t possess the skills they thought they did. What’s really amazing though is not their lack of talent. There’s millions of people who can’t sing. [What’s amazing] is their genuine shock at being rejected, the incredible realization that their passion and their ability have nothing to do with each other.”

Rowe has made it his passion to confront students, and the broader culture, with the exhortation to follow opportunity. He started the Mike Rowe Works Foundation for that purpose.