What's Your "Obsession"?

Published: Jan 20, 2012

Topics: Job Search

Think you could find a job you love as much as coffee?

Yesterday we wrote about tapping into the things you're passionate about for finding a job you love--but of course, that's not excluding those who already have a job they like.

Not that he needed the money or anything, but filmmaker David Lynch turned his passion for coffee shaped itself into a new, very different career—which he writes about in this morning's Huffington Post "Obsessed" essay:

"Coffee became tied to what I called "The Art Life," he writes. "I loved to go to diners and drink coffee and try to catch ideas for the work. Coffee has always seemed to facilitate thinking and catching ideas."

Not only did it fuel his ideas, but coffee bled into the backdrop of Lynch's films too, and with many of the characters in classics like Twin Peaks and Mullholland Dr. written as confirmed bean-junkies. Lynch also admits a life-long desire to film a special "vibration effect" he gets from sliding a Styrofoam cup of joe across a table. Clearly, the man loves his coffee.

But for someone who's had up to 20 cups of instant coffee a day, Lynch thought surprisingly little of his obsession. It was a friend who suggested he harness his interest and develop a line of roasts.

"I thought it would be a good idea and I began to test many different types of coffee. I finally found a coffee that I loved more than all the rest. And during blind tests I would always pick that one coffee."

David Lynch Signature Cup Coffee was born.

Though it's unlikely Lynch will ever give up a film career for a full-time job in coffee, the process has been satisfying. His organic grinds are only available in three roasts, but you can imagine how many Lynch tested while making his way to those selections—and how many flavors he revisits with his reported seven daily large cups.

Lots of people love coffee, but fewer are as intimately aware of it as Lynch, which is what makes him uniquely suited to developing his own roasts.

So what's your fix? A good place to start is with your obsessions—what would you care about doing without any outside rewards?

Maybe you make time to gather groups of friends every week, or pride yourself on organizing housekeeping schedules with your roommates. Maybe you love to keep up a blog, or make funny video clips to post on YouTube.

You might consider it silly or too much fun to take seriously, but creative activities, or ones you do just for pleasure often have a seeds of a bigger purpose: talent, experience, and best of all, passion.

--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com

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