In Dialogue: Annie Jean-Baptiste, Director Of Product Inclusion And Equity At Google, On Bridging Gaps, Building Inclusive Products, And Creating Your Own Career Path

Subjects of great success stories often credit their success to passion, and while it likely wasn’t Confucious who said it, the notion of finding a career you’re passionate about so that your days don’t actually feel like work has long persisted. I myself was fortunate enough to find my passion early in life and can attest to the value in loving what you do (and blazing your own trail to do it). However, I would be remiss if I said following your passion is easy. Work is still, well, work. And succeeding at anything requires a whole lot of it, especially when laying down new paths. There will always be challenges to overcome and roadblocks along the way, and this is even more true for marginalized communities facing systemic bias and barriers to advancement (when the modern American workplace came into existence, it was designed for a very specific kind of worker).