Where my thoughts are coming from is the corporate world. IITians in their newly garnered belief of pursuing passions and interests have invariably have got themselves into a situation where they neither focus on their company's work nor their personal interests. In effect, you fail to perform in both areas. Most of the work in the corporate world is below par for them and not challenging and rewarding enough to put their complete energies in. Its then reflected in the results they come up with.
The other part is distractions are a direct result of always looking out for something better. Its pretty natural that academics and hardwork take a backseat and glamour attracts students in their teens. The short term attraction may make you believe what is not really the case. Just performing well in college dramatics and being appreciated for it doesn't make it a great career option. Once you figure out the practicalities at a wiser age things can turn out to be pretty different. Also for an average lower of middle class IITians distractions can be punishing. Passion no doubt rewards but always do remember odds are stacked against you. So before taking the plunge its necessary to evaluate one's psychology and assess whether you are ready to bear the risk of the difficult path ahead. Also its necessary to differentiate between distractions and passion.
Remember that when you get attracted by jazzy world of sportstars, actors and hedge fund managers your probability of getting there is very low and price of losing pretty high.
The reason that I write this post is not to discourage IITians from taking risk and pursuing different paths but give a lit bit of thought before taking the plunge. Not even asking to over-analyse because not many successful people do that but know your strengths and weaknesses before blindly following the trend.
And do remember the preparation time of JEE, when most of us shunned the distractions around us to pursue the greater goal of achieving something big at that stage. The key is focus and persistence. Don't get into something where you can hope to neglect those two things.
