Haven’t found your niche? This might be why. | Adam Davidson | Big Think

Haven’t found your niche? This might be why.
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A niche, in terms of the economy and what you do for a living, is often considered a special talent or service that speaks to you on a different, secondary level. Adam Davidson, co-founder of NPR's "Planet Money" argues that when a niche finds an audience and becomes a successful business, it evolves into its own primary economy.

For most people, finding something you're passionate about can take a long time. The search should happen concurrently with your current job and life, not in place of them.

It won't be easy and there will have to be sacrifices, Davidson says. But when it's something that you can't live without doing, then it is worth investing the time and effort.
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ADAM DAVIDSON:

ADAM DAVIDSON is the cofounder of NPR's Planet Money podcast and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he covers economics and business. Previously he was an economics writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has won many of journalism's most prestigious awards, including a Peabody for his coverage of the financial crisis.

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TRANSCRIPT:

ADAM DAVIDSON: There's a lot of thought, a lot of people talk about having your right niche or nitch. I was raised to say niche but some people say nitch. Which I think is absolutely right. I sometimes feel like it's thought of as this cute little add on to our economy like an indulgence. Like yeah, most people have to do the main thing. They have to get a big job at a big company but maybe you could get your cute little nitch. A proper niche, when you are actually producing a unique product or service and you're finding an audience that particularly loves that thing and is able to pay the value that it brings to them in a way that allows you to have a successful business, that's not a cute little add on to the economy. That is a much better functioning economy. That's an economy where the vast majority of people are able to get things that add more value to them in more real ways. And that the people producing goods and services are able to have more satisfying lives. They're able to not only make more money but live more authentic and real lives.

Finding your niche to me is a profound, profound thing and so profound that it's worth an investment of time. Sometimes I talk to younger people or it also could be older people but who say I don't know what my thing is. I don't know what my passion is. I don't know what my niche is. And most of us don't know certainly when you enter the workforce. I mean I don't think I fully figured out mine until I was well into my thirties. I think that you should think of it as this like really important precious thing that's worth investing years into finding. That doesn't mean you sit in a room thinking about it. You get a job, you do work and you pay attention to those things that speak to you, those things you seem to be particularly good at, those things other people are telling you hey, you're pretty good at this. And you associate yourself with people who are doing things you find appealing and you study them and try and figure out what you could copy from them, what you could learn from them. But yes, I think having a niche is, or having a passion is sort of the central responsibility of being a fully, a full member of this economy.

I think people sort of realize they've had their passion a bit after they've already found it often. But yes, I think that, I think people, we're not yet trained. We don't yet have a language to recognize that how you feel is not some irrelevant thing you have to shove aside when you enter a workplace. It actually is the key to figuring out your place in the work world. And people my age, people in their fifties like to make fun of millennials and these young kids who are demanding that work be satisfying and we kind of make fun of them. But I think they do get it in a way that my generation is still struggling to see. It's not that work should be giddily fun all the time. I often when someone's thinking about taking on a challenge I often say what do you want to wake up at three in the morning worried about. Because if you're really going to take on a challenging job that means a lot to you where the stakes are high because you really want to do it successfully, it's not going to be giddily fun.

You're going to be worried...

[bigthink]

Have you found your niche yet? If so, how did you manage to find it?

[EpherosAldor]

46 years old here, still haven't found it... not sure how long it's really supposed to take but unless I'm immortal this is getting ridiculous.

[AGFuzzyPancake]

Very valuable and insightful talk here. Passion is not skill. Passion is the will to fail, be frustrated, unhappy, and lose sleep in the development of skill.

And enjoying your work (unintuitively) doesn't mean you are happy to wake up at 5am and do the it five days a week. Work is still work. Enjoying your work is taking pride in *having done* things right and to the best of your ability.

[crazyprayingmantis]

I found my niche, it was between the cusions of my couch.

[BlxckJesvs]

I was lucky enough to find my niche at a very young age, took me a while before I realized that I can actually work in the field of my niche & im taking steps to it! Never been happier lol

[Eric_D_]

I'm reminded of something I saw a long time ago, don't remember where, might have been some fictional TV show or might have been real life, not sure but it was some clearly elderly woman who was talking to some kids, maybe her grandkids or great grandkids, about still not knowing what she wanted to do when she was older. The real lesson is just realizing that no one knows what they want to do until they find it, it's not about time, it's about luck and trying different things until you do find what suits you.

[tts]

I think this fellow is himself catering to a very small "niche" in his monologue. Most jobs out there have nothing to do with finding a passion. They have to do with getting up, going to work, and getting it done.

Because it has to get done. Because somebody has to do it. Because if nobody did it, it would negatively impact the lives of everyone that this guy is talking to. The lockdown shows this pretty darned clearly as so many services that we take for granted have been limited if not altogether shuttered.

One's passion doesn't necessarily have to be about work. Your passion may be to play music, to write, to draw, to tend your garden. But it doesn't mean other people need you to do it or that you could make a living doing it. Or that you even want to do it for a living which may require a great deal of sacrifice in other areas of your life.

And some of us don't want to wake up a 3AM, stressed out, obsessing over something. To suggest that is how you know your passion is a ridiculous and detrimental bit of advice.

There's nothing wrong with living a quiet life. There's nothing wrong with wanting to go home at the end of the day, to your family, and separate yourself from your job. In fact, it would be good if more people did just that considering the health impact of excess stress in our lives.

Also consider how many of all those who we recognize as finding and following their passion, for all their accomplishments and contributions, they often lived hard and often impoverished lives.

You don't have to be passionate about your work to do it well and take pride in it. It's how you do it, not what you do that makes the difference.

I don't care if the gaspump jockey or checkout clerk or garbage hauler is passionate about the work they do. But I'm sure glad they're doing it just the same.

[thomaschen]

FInding you niche is not finding what you enjoy; it's to find what you WANT, although it may not be enjoyable most of the time. You do it because you WANT it, despite all the pressures and challenges.

[nokoolaid]

30's? I am 58 and I still haven't found it.

[chrisdealemania]

I am well into my thirties and I am at the brink of freaking out about not knowing what I wanna do.

[HowToWebWork]

Absolutely true, I agree 💯% . It is about bringing a plus to someone's life and feeling the pleasure of being useful

[figthorn]

I was very confused about the title of this video. I thought he meant finding your niche as a business, not as an individual professional. In that case, I would never speak of a “niche”. I don’t see my profession as a niche, I find a niche within my business so I can focus my marketing efforts on that particular audience. Also, people in my generation and the generation after got sold on this idea of being passionate about our work. And that can only be found in certain professions.

[ajellis]

"Finding your passion is a passion all on its own"

[wisdom-for-all]

The purpose of our lives is to be happy. Doing what makes us happy is important because the “purpose of life” is “a life of purpose”. Hope you find that purpose my friends 🖖

[healingvsion]

My passion is healthcare but the American healthcare system is terrible and covid19 is out here putting healthcare workers in imminent danger. I wanted to work in another country but the citizens of other countries deserve to get medical help from their own people; not some American 🙄 but I haven't given up on my passion

[flowwiththeuniverse]

In the western society, we're so lucky to have the luxury to discover our niche. Ninety percent of the world's population's niche is to put bread on the table. Your niche should be anything that is of service to anyone else!

[reachsuccessredlyrics]

BIG THINK IS SUCH AN AWESOME CHANNEL, BIG THINK have both inspired me and helped me in my own personal development. I would really want to thank this channel for everything it has given me. This channel has actually inspired me so much so that I have even started my own channel. I see my channel as my way of making the world a better place and to give back for everyone who have given me things and inspiration in life, I’m grateful for all the support I can get in growing my channel

[r.t.aegean]

What I have discovered, is that the world of work / the work environment, etc, required negotiation skills - that need to be Learned - more than anything else ; regardless of one's particular vocational skills. Anyone else‽

[AJM-timecop]

I'm a lucky guy. As a kid I was fascinated by maps. Got a degree in geography & have been making maps for 40 years. A weird job, I guess but I'm as passionate about it as I ever was & I'm always learning.

[miroslavhoudek]

"Search for passion is a passion of its own."

I.e. if you don't come out of your youth primed for looking for it, it's probably already over for you.