Doing what you love to make money

[kamakiri]

This was on Seth's Blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/) today. If you aren't a fan or subscribed, you should be.

Publishing books to make money...

is a little like hanging out in a singles bar if you want to get married.
It might work, but there are way better ways to accomplish your goal.
If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you've got. Just don't plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living.
The only people who should plan on making money from writing a book are people who made money on their last book. Everyone else should either be in it for passion, trust, referrals, speaking, consulting, change-making, tenure, connections or joy.


I cut my comments and put them after the quote, so you can stop reading here if you aren't interested.

The, "I have a great idea that everyone would love" thought process is broken. Make your money and then do what you love. Mixing the two is a sure way of accomplishing nothing at best and at worst making what you love to do into something you hate.

[officer_dibble]

I have mixed feelings about this. While I've seen plenty of people attempt and fail at making a living from what they love - I've also seen a few people succeed (including myself).

A lot of the time it seems to comes down to market research and dare I say it luck and connections whether you succeed or not. Sometimes it comes down to redefining what you love too. Seth is right - there are no short cuts. Very very few people get discovered and make it overnight.

A few things that I think will help.

Volunteering. This'll tell you if it's really right for you, get you the contacts and probably the occasional bits of paid work. Sometimes the transition from volunteer to paid is enough to kill the dream of working in the field. If you volunteer - you still money to live. Where is going to come from?

Research. Is there really a market for your kind of thing? Does it pay money? Taking your pet goldfish out for walks maybe something you like to do - but few will pay you enough to walk theirs so you can make a living from it.

The road is long and winding. Did the film company lawyer I once met set out to be a lawyer or an actress? It doesn't matter - she is now working in the industry she loves and always wanted to work in. Perhaps your real talents lie elsewhere but can be of use in the workplace you want to work in.

Create your own market. People may not pay you to walk their goldfish - but maybe it's funny enough they'll pay to watch you do it. If you are young and in employment - work hard, research and have ideas that will help the organisation you work for. Give them away freely and try them out in your own time.

Ride - don't fight - the wave. Don't turn down opportunities because they don't exactly match the dream. If you are young you have plenty of time and may be not enough experience to tell the difference between what's useful and what's not. I've been a gardener, blacksmith, cycle repair, conservationist, programmer, designer, 3D animator, cameraman, script writer, internet marketer...etc in my time. And they all helped get me to what I wanted to do. Be prepared to move on when the time is right though (sometimes that's within six hours, sometimes it's six years). You will probably underestimate the move-on time though.

Keep learning. You never know enough.

Be nice. People will give you a lot - if you are friendly and grateful. I cannot stress this point enough. Read How to win friends and influence people.

[TimW]

Officer Dibble, I am sure you and others here can back me up on this:

When you make something you love doing into a business, it can quickly become something you dislike, or even hate.

* What was an enjoyable hobby or past-time, now becomes a job.
* What entertained you for hours for the sheer pleasure of doing suddenly becomes tedious because you HAVE to do it in order to succeed, not do it when the mood or fancy strikes.
* And, on a self-employment note of similar vein, you decide to branch out from the job you like doing (say...market research) to go on your own. Now, in addition to the work you liked doing, you're saddled with a bunch of work that you hate doing...billing, sales, customer service, etc., many of which can consume the time you have available to do the ACTUAL work.

[officer_dibble]

TimW - that can happen but it doesn't have to. There have been a few things I've done in the past that once I started getting paid for them were no longer enjoyable and i couldn't see a way to fix them. I stopped doing them.

Nowadays the money becomes the icing on the cake. One hobby of mine is programming and I'm fortunate enough that people occasionally want to pay me for it. In turn I only pick the jobs which I like the look of or think the client will be nice or interesting to work with. Equally I'm free to charge nothing for some programming jobs if they are interesting enough to me.

And even though I'm doing a job I love now - it definately has its moments of frustration and boredom. Not too many of those thankfully. Fortunately I'm in a position where I can delegate, automate or otherwise avoid many of the boring bits. I also like to think I've matured a little over the years and find things that were boring now interesting.

I guess you'd try and turn it into a muse if you're self-employed (providing it makes enough money) and outsource/otherwise avoid the unpleasant bits.

The other missing element is to work towards financial independence. Once you have this any job becomes fun again because you don't have to do it. Six month's worth of outgoings in the bank or a regular source of other income to tide you over - means you can always walk when it stops being fun. You probably won't use it - but it's a real comfort.

[maxpr]

I think Kam is right (personally) on the make money then do what you love.

Some hobbies are more in tune with making money (i.e. OD's programming, something he loves but something that can easily make you money if you are good or even half-decent at it).

But OD is all-wise; I think the list above sums up what you should (or can if you like) do to become more in touch with more opportunities.

I did not realize you were such an old man OD :)

On a side note; I should be pulling the trigger, so to speak, here soon on the project we discussed 2 mo's back. I am still working on my requirements and I also want to finish Duct Tape Marketing (inspiration, if you can call it that) and make some easy designs and specs for the project.

I think the majority of problems happen upfront in the initial stages rather than later on, especially when you give the ones you are outsourcing work too vague notions of what you want and not the FULL picture.

Shoot me a message some time OD, I can get you up to speed if you'd like.

[officer_dibble]

I did not realize you were such an old man OD :)
...

Shoot me a message some time OD, I can get you up to speed if you'd like.

Gawd - did I really sound that old? My early middle-aged knees certainly felt old while I was out running my first half marathon of the year on Sunday - perhaps it is spreading to my brain.

I certainly can't claim to be all-wise - I've just worked in a few jobs where I've seen/meet people take these routes as well as experienced a bit of it myself.

And did say a hefty dollop of luck was needed (I think) - and I consider myself to have been very lucky. Lots of people have been kind enough to give me lots of chances to try out stuff. I'm very grateful to my first few bosses for hiring me too.

And sorry I hadn't realised the PMs were working again. Dropped you a line.

Finally there's a touch of devil's advocate about what I've written in response to Kam. I've never quit a job without being sure of my finances or more likely having another one lined up.

[kamakiri]

And did say a hefty dollop of luck was needed (I think) - and I consider myself to have been very lucky.

I laughed when I saw this. The only tried and true thing I have found about luck is: The harder I work, the luckier I get.

Both the connection between luck and hard work and doing what you love and making money from it are by no means black and white though. I think we all agree that it can and has been done.

Doing what you love for your first muse is usually a recipe for disaster though. Hard work tends to be a lot of work on the wrong things, which does not translate into luck at all. It only makes you tired and frustrated.

The other really detrimental thing about the idea of doing what you love is that you set yourself up to never fail or throw in the towel. You get stuck in that rut, paint yourself in a corner, and have too much emotional baggage wrapped up in the project to let it die.

[officer_dibble]

I laughed when I saw this. The only tried and true thing I have found about luck is: The harder I work, the luckier I get.

...

The other really detrimental thing about the idea of doing what you love is that you set yourself up to never fail or throw in the towel. You get stuck in that rut, paint yourself in a corner, and have too much emotional baggage wrapped up in the project to let it die.

Well I'm glad I made you laugh:D There's definitely a strong element of hard work in luck - but sometimes the universe just smiles on you for a time (the reverse can be true as well).

I'm not going to disagree with your comments on first muses. My first kind of muse was exactly this - based on something I loved. It never made more than $10/month - kinda encouraging but hardly worth pursuing. It took me 3 months to realise it wasn't going to do any better (but I was already onto muse 4 by then). It was a useful learning experience though.

You definitely need a sense of objective reality with muses - they are not necessarily there to provide fulfilment. A job or business might though.

[EditorDude]

Surely market research is the key again - if you have researched it well enough, you should know whether it is worth pursuing or not - or even modify the original business model or discover a new direction to go in.

[kamakiri]

Not in this case Dude.

Market Research has nothing to do with it. While we agree that having a successful muse absolutely requires market research, that is not the point I was trying to make.