Which is the right path to follow?

I was reading Gregory Mankiw's blog this evening about his advice to economics student and he came up with this passage from a book.

'when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don't love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don't want to do things they aren't 'good' at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don't possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better'

Freakonomics by S. Levitt and S. Dubner

The point should be qualified though... Someone may love playing rugby, or rowing, but if they lack the physical cababilities associated with these sports such as aggression, or stamina or height, then they are unlikely to be able to make a decent career of it, especially with the immense competition of modern day sport. And then there is the important, but often neglected element of randomness, or 'luck' which comes with life. Taleb (Fooled by Randomness) touches on this, and I think it is very relevant. Think of a team manager, who everyone thinks is going to be dismal, but who ends up being really good-is this skill or chance? The Springbok rugby coach comes to mind.... I feel all to often it is chance.

I was deciding whether to do econometrics or not as a module, but dropped the idea because I felt my maths wasn't good enough.. According to Levitt et al, if I really wanted to do it, then I should have done it, and then I would have practiced a lot and eventually got a good grade for it. But, it involved a tradeoff between losing out on time on other stuff which I could have done and spending hours doing econometrics. Besides, did I really want to go into a career of academia and coming up with great theories that never get implemented by politicians? Probably not... although it really is too early to tell.