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All my life I've done several of personality test for career choosing and always scored highest in arts, so I ended up enrolling in Arts school and majored in Fashion design honestly best years of my live everyday was filled with an amount of passion and joy that money can never pay forward. Fast forward 3 years later I finally left school and worked as a free lance stylist and designer making mainly wedding dresses (made some good money) BUT the inconsistency of free lance and design work in terms of money was making it almost impossible for me to move out of home and start thinking of things like buying a car.
Naturally i'm also an extremely organized person so I started working for companies as their administrator, luckily now I am an administrator for a design company so I don't feel too far off what I love but daily I wish I could rather be home painting, drawing, designing. Nothing in all my life has ever been able to give me as much joy as I had when I was a free lance stylist and designer and my biggest dream is to live a life not dictated by money. I now get a consistent salary and live out of home but in all honesty nothing and no money can buy the feeling of doing what you love daily.
Another issue I find with working in cooperate companies as a creative is I mostly struggle to fit in which is not that bad but its almost like I always feel like im selling my soul for money and I know 100% I could not and cannot live my dream and deal with the inconsistency of pay in free lance work. So now I am trying to formulate a plan that will allow my passion to become my side hustle.
Just wondering if its me aloe who's had to choose money and stability over their passion?
I was lucky to have had two quite different "passions", each that could lead into a career. I suspected early on that I'd never be an outstanding rock star at either one...instead, a dutiful trustworthy plodder who accomplished things behind the scenes. After all, if I felt the effort was genuine, who else needs to be impressed? Don't need to be some performing clown for others.
Money didn't matter to me either way. Money was never the "other" choice. Making a modest living was fine. Took some of the performance pressure off at least.
One passion I finally decided to reserve as a beloved recreational pastime instead of my income earner. I felt that it might get degraded or diluted if it became routine, compromised, expedient day to day work. I wanted to protect the purity. Instead, I followed the other passion and made that into a career. This one "felt" like it could withstand expediency of a realistic long term profession a little better.
It was a good decision. I spent 36 years in that profession, but at the end, I was "finished" with it. There were many times when it seemed to lose momentum, but not the original intent. Looking back on it now, no major regrets. I'll never have a luxurious retirement but that still doesn't matter because I don't have those regrets. Because of a lifelong modest style of living there will hopefully be enough.
I have a friend who's in a band (bass player) and I occasionally go listen to them. He's pretty good and the band is fun. He's really enjoying his musical passion, playing gigs in bars and restaurants and the sheer fun of music and dancing people.
And when the gig is over, he climbs into his Porsche convertible, drives home to his 5BR house and lounges in the pool with his wife. I see him M-F at work since he's the engineering project manager at the Fortune 100 Co where we both work, enjoy great benefits, a retirement package and plenty of paid vacation.
Short answer: You don't have to choose money over your passion -- you can have both. The guy who "suffers" by busking on the sidewalk for years is no better an artist than the guy who practices in the custom studio attached to his suburban house.
What matters more will depend on one's own perspective.
There is no wrong or right answer. There is, however, accountability. In other words, if you choose to chase your passion and that isn't paying the bills, you need to realize that was your own choice. Same goes if you are making a bunch of money, but hate what you do.
While some are able to combine the two, I'd say most settle for somewhere in the middle. You do something you don't enjoy as much to support your passion.
I have a friend who's in a band (bass player) and I occasionally go listen to them. He's pretty good and the band is fun. He's really enjoying his musical passion, playing gigs in bars and restaurants and the sheer fun of music and dancing people.
And when the gig is over, he climbs into his Porsche convertible, drives home to his 5BR house and lounges in the pool with his wife. I see him M-F at work since he's the engineering project manager at the Fortune 100 Co where we both work, enjoy great benefits, a retirement package and plenty of paid vacation.
Short answer: You don't have to choose money over your passion -- you can have both. The guy who "suffers" by busking on the sidewalk for years is no better an artist than the guy who practices in the custom studio attached to his suburban house.
Uh...
The idea is to make your passion the thing that takes up your days. If you're going to slave away at a high pressure corporate job for 45-60 hours a week and play in a band on weekends and consider that 'the best of both worlds' well then everybody has the best of both worlds.
Because everybody has some time they spend away from their day job on whatever they like ... writing books, sitting on the couch, etc.
No money, no honey. No honey, no money. If you love someone with "passion" and if you don't have money, that someone will leave you eventually because talking a lone is cheap. People cannot live with romance alone, like holding hands, kissing, hugging, making love, walking on the beach, lying on the sand, looking at the moon or the stars, talking sweetly in your ears "I love you" alone without food to eat and shelter to live.
If you have passion in drawing, painting, music, ect., … but if you don't have money, you cannot buy materials and equipments to perform your work/passion. If you have passion and are not smart, someone will use you.
You can use your passion to make money, and use money to achieve your passion. Passions matters, but money matters more because without money you cannot pay bills and buy things you need or want in life.
Last edited by AnOrdinaryCitizen; 09-06-2019 at 08:16 AM..
All my life I've done several of personality test for career choosing and always scored highest in arts, so I ended up enrolling in Arts school and majored in Fashion design honestly best years of my live everyday was filled with an amount of passion and joy that money can never pay forward. Fast forward 3 years later I finally left school and worked as a free lance stylist and designer making mainly wedding dresses (made some good money) BUT the inconsistency of free lance and design work in terms of money was making it almost impossible for me to move out of home and start thinking of things like buying a car.
Naturally i'm also an extremely organized person so I started working for companies as their administrator, luckily now I am an administrator for a design company so I don't feel too far off what I love but daily I wish I could rather be home painting, drawing, designing. Nothing in all my life has ever been able to give me as much joy as I had when I was a free lance stylist and designer and my biggest dream is to live a life not dictated by money. I now get a consistent salary and live out of home but in all honesty nothing and no money can buy the feeling of doing what you love daily.
Another issue I find with working in cooperate companies as a creative is I mostly struggle to fit in which is not that bad but its almost like I always feel like im selling my soul for money and I know 100% I could not and cannot live my dream and deal with the inconsistency of pay in free lance work. So now I am trying to formulate a plan that will allow my passion to become my side hustle.
Just wondering if its me aloe who's had to choose money and stability over their passion?
I considered making a run at being a pro musician in my early 20s. Keep in mind though, I had only started getting serious about the instrument at that point.
I decided to keep doing day jobs and practicing on the side in all my free time. 20 years later, I'm pretty good. I could probably make a run at being a pro musician ... if I was 27 years old.
But really, your craft is going to be as good as the time you put into it.
What's more important to you? Spending your life designing fashion, or having $ to travel to wherever you want.
For me, if I could do it over, I'd have done it this way...
I'd have spent the entirety of my 20s working on my music and working day jobs as little as possible.
Then in my early 30s, I'd assess the situation. If at THAT POINT, I had to go back and get a job as an accountant or whatever, then that's fine. You can start a career at age 33, 34 and be totally fine. You can still have a nice car, buy a home, have a 401K. The only people think the truth is otherwise is $ hungry yuppies.
Keep in mind that at that point, of putting in 10 years of dirt, you've put in more time than 95+% of people are willing to put in. Everybody else has long given up at that point, so you'll be so much better at your craft than them, it won't even be funny.
I never understood why people feel compelled and obligated to turn their passions into a career.
I enjoy doing boxing, yoga, and reading biographies. Having a career haven't prevented me from doing any of these things. I highly doubt I would get any more pleasure from them if i were to do them during business hours.
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