Do you have to like something to be good at it?

I was recently in a conversation with an acquaintance. The person was saying that their child was doing poorly in one class because the child didn't like it. I blurted out, "the kid doesn't like it? Who cares if the kid doesn't like it?" This person looked at me like I had pulled out a gun or something.

That leads to me to my question for today? Can you be good at something and not like it?

I get the impression that most people feel that if you don't like to do something, you can't expect to be any good at it, let alone excel at it. That just boggles my mind. Our lives are filled with tasks and duties that we don't like or care for. Shoot, if you have children, you know there are plenty of distasteful things that you have to do because you're a parent. You don't automatically suck at cleaning up vomit just because you don't like to do it. It goes with the job and that's how most people deal with it.

How is it any different with work? I had a boss once ask me if I really liked one of the things I was working on. I told her, "no, I really don't care for it." She asked me, "would you like to do something else? Maybe you'd do better at that." I responded with "am I doing a poor job at this task?" She replied, "no, you're doing great, but I want you to be happy." I then responded, "happy? what does that have to do with anything? I like my job, but I don't like this. I'll deal with it." She said, "well, people do better when they like what they do." I came back with, "I'm a professional. I do my best at everything you give me to do. Whether I like it or not is immaterial."

So what do you think? Am I just a weirdo? Do you have to like what you do in order to be great or even good at it?