Do What You Love but Money Won’t Necessarily Follow
Let’s face it. There exists an old adage of “Do what you love and the money will follow” or “Success await those who follow their passion”.
Well, not necessarily.
Since young we were schooled to find a job we have passion for and make a living out of it. The fact is we barely make a living in today’s down economy when everything else goes up but our wages.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying passion and money doesn’t go together. Passion really plays an important role in creating money
but it isn’t the magic pill.
Lots of people, I’d dare to say millions, do what they love, but little in the way money will follow. There are far too many starving artists who “do what they love but….” struggle above the water.
In today’s economic situation, often the thing we love to do isn’t always the one that money will follow.
Sure Michael Jordan loves to play basketball and made millions “doing what he loves” yet there are thousands of aspiring college basketball superstars still awaiting for the next NBA draft.
For every successful sportsman, artist, actor or musician there are a thousand equally talented but unlucky ones.
They just don’t have the luxury to pursue their passion. Instead the love for it will ultimately be abandoned in favor of a regular paycheck.
And there are also plenty of people who are financially successful who “hate what they do“. I can vouch for it as I was one of them. Nothing to be ashamed of. Much to my own amusement, I made my first million “selling” some “boiler room” financial craps before I decided “enough is enough”.
Do What You Love but Money Won’t Necessarily Follow
Now the message I’m trying to put across today is simply this
Simply following your passion won’t help you build income. You need to create “value with your passion”. A value that will help others and not for self-indulgence.
Let me give you an example
Say you love pets. In good times, doing what you love and get yourself a regular job as pet groomer may seem to be “the right thing to do”.
But does it make any economic sense today when your wages is barely enough to survive?
What if it reaches below the subsistence level? What if you are no longer able to bring food to the table? What could possibly be your next best option?
Internet
Do What You Love but Be Smart
Here’s what you can do
Start a blog that focuses on a specific niche. A pet niche since there’s where you passion lies. Write and share useful pet-related materials with other pet owners
and be really good at it.
Or create an online store that sells pet products. You can either sell your own products or affiliate yourself as a reseller. With all the available online resources at your disposal, it’s fairly easy to get it off the ground and doesn’t really cost much either.
Do you know that icanhascheezburger.com is one of the top 10 blogs in the world? What started as a website to show captioned photo of cats has now grown into one of the most popular blogs in the world.
You see the internet is an ocean of opportunities. How much you can tap into it is very much limited by your own creativity and desire to make money. If you have both, the rest is cake.
Conclusion
In reality, success in the real world is more than just “doing what you love”. It comes with smart work, ability to create value, perseverance and a stroke of luck.
But it’s also safe to conclude that it’s much harder to be successful if you aren’t doing something you love.
Perhaps in times of down economy we need to embrace the new adage of “Do what you love “the smart way” and money will follow.”
Your say?
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Right Said, Follow your dreams! And you’ll surely succeed in life!
Thanks mate.
The web is a great way to pursue your interests and monetize it. You’re spending time writing about things you love and attracting others to build a community around it. It might not always be a guaranteed primary income but it works as a great secondary income source.
Yan, really nice article. I myself have been guilty of saying that but you are correct. It won’t automatically follow, but then again it might
I totally disagree Yan. I rather be happy in life than be a super-rich guy who’s miserable.
Passion is the MOTIVATION and DRIVE that pushes you to SUCCESS. Without passion, people will just give up when they are faced with obstacles. That’s how passion plays an important role in success.
Stanley Tang
Anirudh, it’s good to dream and follow it with concrete plans. Thanks for reading.
Xscape,
I say I’m a good example of someone who doesn’t make money from my blog pursuing what I love. At the very least, I don’t make enough to last me a generation.
Stephen,
You bet it won’t…..
Stanley,
Thanks for disagreeing. Passion really plays an important role in creating money but it isn’t the magic pill.
What happen when we struggle to stay above water? Are we still holding that passion blindly? or we should do what we love in a smart way. Perhaps you missed the ending paragraph, Stanley.
That’s exactly right, there’s money to be made in everything it’s just you must approach it in a smart manner. Look at Calvin Ayer for example, he’s been living his dream through a job he loves and he’s one of the richest men on earth.
I think there is money everywhere and whatever you love, you can make money from it. But that doesn’t mean that it will be easy money.
You should always do what you love, because if you don’t love it yet you are still making money, you won’t be happy because you won’t like what you are doing. Its always good to do what you love because than you will stick with it longer and won’t get tired of it.
I do believe in “do what you love and money will follow”. However, do it in a smart way. Don’t live above what you can afford. Live comfortably and if you do love your job you will have no problem living the way you do. You shouldn’t let your paycheck dictate your lifestyle. Only live for what you can afford.
You could have a 1,000 let’s say dental assistants succesfully graduate but only 10 jobs across the US. Demand will come to play, especially with our tough economy. They loved the notion of becoming a dental assistants but they all can not pursue it because the job is not there. And now they have another bill and still have to find a job to cover that cost as well.