When I recall back my childhood, I can not remember what I wanted to be when I grow up. But indeed, I do remember one thing, that when I graduated from high school with excellent grades and received a scholarship to study abroad, I started to think seriously about it, I do recall that very well. At that moment, I knew I needed to find out what I am passionate about, something that I might regret not doing in life, I needed to find out what will make me be happy.
What I did was very simple, it did not even take much time. I used the internet, and I typed the name of each profession in google. The top result was from Wikipedia, so I clicked on it and there it was. I started reading about each profession, and while doing so, I looked into two criteria that were later used to decide where my passion lays and what I really wanted to be.
The first thing was trying to imagine myself in each profession, and see how I am going to feel about it. I used the descriptions and images of each profession and its workplace to help me imagine how I will feel being there, doing whatever that job is. To be honest, among all the professions, the one and only that made me feel great was being a petroleum engineer.
I was extremely confident about what I felt, because non of my family member was a petroleum engineer and I never had a chance to meet a petroleum engineer before. Only now I know what made me feel that way, it was my passion for that profession.
The second thing that I used to find out what I wanted to be was a criterion that I found when I started to read about the first few professions. I found out that few professions are not challenging for me. At that time, I felt that I will never do something that does not challenge me. That was the time I knew that I am a person who is driven by challenges. You might be wondering now what challenges did this guy see in petroleum engineer profession at that time.
Well, not only me, I bet many of you who are reading this right now -especially if you are a petroleum engineer or working in the petroleum industry- know what it feels when you look at an offshore platform image for the first time. For me at that time, thinking about how to get on that structure was a challenge by itself. I strongly believe that there is a beauty in the O&G industry, but nobody sees it except those who are passionate about it.
So by the time I was done reading about all professions listed, I knew that petroleum industry is my passion, and petroleum engineer is my profession. And that was how I chose to study petroleum engineering course and how everything started.
Why It Is Important To Find Your Passion?
Truth be told, I didn’t know the answer to this question back then when I was choosing my course of study, I did not even ask myself that question. It was just a natural thing that I wanted to study something that deep inside, I feel satisfied about it. But what happened next, gave the answer to the above question.
The first test for how passionate I was about what I have chosen was at the early beginning when my government chose for me to study computer science course. So I checked the university where I was meant to study abroad, and I found they have petroleum engineering course, and I decided to change my course when I reach there. It was hard to do so, but fortunately, after one semester at the university I was able to change, and I started studying what I love. It was just an amazing feeling.
When I started to study petroleum engineering course at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia UTM, each and every day of the four years at the university was just a prove that I did choose the right path. I enjoyed what I was studying so much, and knowing that it was my passion made me strong enough to face all the pitfalls along the way.
Being passionate about what I was studying made me want to learn more about the O&G industry. And this is the best thing about passion, it makes you want to be the best at what you do, unlike when you do things for money or whatever reason is that.
Therefore, I joined the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and held many positions, conducted events, attended many workshops, and international conferences in few countries. Although, all those activities took a lot of my time, I performed well in my studies and graduated as a first class student, and the reason was obvious, I was passionate about what I wad doing.
Now I know, if it was not my passion for the oil and gas industry, I would never do that. I was going to give up at the first test. If it was not my passion, I would never care about knowing more, going deeper beyond what everyone was doing. If it was not my passion, I would never spend my own money attending international conferences where sometimes I was the only student attending from my university. For me, what I was doing was fueling my passion. And I was happy doing it all.
If I can give you one advice, it would be “Find Your Passion, Because It Makes All The Difference”. Passion makes you hungry for knowledge in your field, and knowledge fuels your confidence, which makes you unique in your field leading you to be successful.
Passion keeps your spirit up even at the worst situation you go through, it makes you stronger. And remember that Steve Jobs’ passion for what he was doing brought him back to Apple after he was fired, so the only thing that will keep you on the right path is your passion no matter what happens.
