Follow your passion …

It’s been said that if you find a job doing what you love you’ll never work a day in your life.

That may be true. But you may not be able to pay your bills either. 

Unless you find a way to monetize what you love you can starve. You certainly won’t be able to live in a nice place, have nice things, or afford a luxury every now and then. Psychic income only goes so far; for everything else you need money.  

If you love doing something that doesn’t make you enough money to live on, it’s a hobby. You’ll eventually need a real job to help support your hobby.  

Sadly, that real job may have absolutely nothing to do with your passion.  If you’re really lucky, that job may have some elements of what you’d love to do.

If you like to write but can’t make a living writing novels or short stories, you could do what some other famous writers started out doing – work at a newspaper or write ads. Some now well-known songwriters started out by writing jingles. Some screenwriters and directors did commercials. It may not always be your long-term goal, but it can pay the bills until you get there.   

When I hear parents tell their kids to follow their passion as the be all and end all to life I think they are doing their kids a great disservice. This advice is what leads to kids getting unmarketable degrees in stuff they like rather than what has value to potential employers. 

Don’t get me wrong – all education has value. The question is whether anyone else thinks that value is worth paying you enough money to live on.  Most employers pay for skills, not degrees.  The more an employer values your skills the more you’re worth on the open market. 

You certainly can get a degree in Gender Studies, Philosophy, Feminist Dance Therapy, Puppetry or some other subject you personally find fascinating. Just don’t expect the normal working world to open its wallet for you. If you’re a trust-fund baby it may not matter. But if you aren’t it’s a different matter.  

If you doubt that, think of all the people with degrees in Philosophy working at fast food joints. When they applied for that job would knowing the world views of Kant and Kierkegaard have gotten them more than minimum wage and a snappy paper hat?    

I don’t think so.

Just because you love something also doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll end up doing. That’s the sad – but true – part of reality.

A lot of people who love animals want to become veterinarians. They can easily spend over $100,000 getting their degree in veterinary medicine. Unfortunately, starting salaries suck for vets who want to work with pets. Even owning a pet-centric practice isn’t that lucrative. The big money is in research:  testing products on animals and then cutting them up to see the results. 

Then there’s the issue of talent. If you don’t have a lot of talent at what you love all the passion in the world won’t make a difference.  Passion can’t overcome lack of talent or ability, regardless of what self-help books, parents or motivational speakers claim.  

This will sound extraordinarily mean, but there’s nothing sadder than seeing someone who really, really wants to be something they have neither the talent nor aptitude for.  Nobody wants to hurt their feelings but at some point someone needs to have a heart to heart with them about rethinking their goals, before they waste perhaps the best years of their lives pushing a rope.      

Not everyone is going to be a great chef, a great novelist, a great speaker, a great musician, a great comedian, or a great painter.  Fewer still are going to be able to make a living at any of those. It may be your passion to be the next James Patterson, Art Buchwald, Jerry Seinfeld or Julia Child.  Or to develop the next great app or social media site.

Or maybe be the best bass fisherman in the world, for that matter. 

But you’ll need more than your passion to make any of that happen.  You’ll need talent and ability, and luck as well. Even then that may not be enough. That’s something the self-help books and motivational speakers gloss over. Setting your goals high, staying focused on your goals, and seeing problems and roadblocks merely as opportunities is all fine and good in theory. 

You’ll still have to eat and pay your bills no matter what. While it’s fine to follow your passion, just be certain that you find a way to make enough money at it.

Otherwise, it’s a hobby. Maybe a very enjoyable one, but a hobby nonetheless.