My performance is passable and my motivation is mediocre at work. I swear it was my dream job at some point, but I can’t help but feel like it’s become a slog. It makes my family proud and pays the bills comfortably though.
It’s only recently settled in me that laziness isn’t the word for it. I’ve found that I’ll work my ass off for something if I’m genuinely and deeply passionate about it. Like the hobbies that cut into my time for sleep.
This has lead me to frequently daydream about “following my passions” and becoming self-employed instead of sticking with the conventional, safe career I previously envisioned. Living a life that brings me more joy. I’ve fantasized about making and selling gadgets. Perhaps becoming a content creator to promote those gadgets. All the things that bring me joy, but I have little time to do alongside my current job.
But I only have so much saved up and I’m lacking connections with those who have more resources. And in this economy, I don’t know when I’ll have another chance at my current job if I end up realizing that it was better. Will monetizing my hobbies inevitably ruin them? The grass looks greener on the other side, but will I go back to thinking the same once I’m on the other side? Or have you or someone you know pursued a genuine passion, made it a career, and never looked back?
Have you considered meeting it ín the middle and changing to a more satisfying career?
It’s unwise to jump headfirst into a body of water unless you know what lies below. Start slow.
You talk about influencer stuff. I get that being an influencer doesn’t seem to be your sole desire, but I’ll use it as an example anyway. All of the YouTubers I follow didn’t start big. They did YouTube as a part time thing while still holding their main job. It was only to the point where they started really succeeding at YouTube that they dropped their original career.
I say go for it, but start small. Don’t quit your job for this until you start doing really well in it.
Your concerns are valid and there’s a risk such a move would be either economically unsuccessful or emotionally draining. Is there a way you can start experimenting with some monetization without leaving your job? This way you can test how feasible it is, and yoy have more informarion on how it could work for you.
Don’t drop your work before you build as much as you can from that hobby thing you want to transition into job. Closer you are to financial independence easier it gets to not act solely based on money incentive.
Where the is will there is a way, plan out, save up and invest. Be smart with your time. Try to prepare as much beforehand, and don’t wait your job before it’s really necessary and ya got resources to sustain yourself for 12+ months. Plan for rainy day scenarios. Most small business fail, so need to prepare and plan.
Good luck <3Personally, monetizing my hobbies has always killed them for me. It takes a good few years after moving onto a different job before I can find joy in the hobby again, if ever.
Will monetizing my hobbies inevitably ruin them?
Chances arw good, yes. Especially if the business doesn’t take off.
Precisely my concern. Front and center in my mind, in fact, because my current job stems directly from the dreams of my secondary school days. Might just be stuck between work-to-live and live-to-work modes when I ought to settle for a work-to-live approach.
When my daughter was a teen she was amazing at cooking and baking from many years of working in our kitchen. There was a culinary school opening so I prompted her to apply. She came back with, “I have thought about it, but I think of I did cooking as a job, I would come home and have no hobbies to pursue, and may even lose all enjoyment from it”
I have monetized all of my hobbies it is something I naturally do. I have been self employed my entire life aside from odd jobs.
Does it kill the passion? Somewhat but not in the way your thinking. That being said it opens a lot of doors to dive deeper into your passion and interest as well if you keep the flame alive. It’s all goal orientated.
What kills the hobbies are the pressure to perform even when your back is against the wall. Like when you have bills to pay and you rely on that money to survive that is what kills the drive for the hobbies. You start to do things for money, rather than pursuing things based on interest. This will taint your drive if you let it. But if you have strong enough passions it won’t kill them outright, more of burn you out on them until you grow in revenue passed the needs of life or give up and go back to a job. Once you make enough to survive fully at your own comfort level. Then that opens you up mentally again for the joy because the pressure is mostly gone and then you can utilize the monetary gains to reinvest in the hobby you love but on a grander scale, it opens your mind to options/dreams.
You shift from what you have to do, to what you can do.
I’m a software engineer. I also do programming as a hobby.
Programming as a job can be draining, but I find that autonomy makes it enjoyable. If I’m just checking off tickets that I don’t care about, I’d have very little motivation to so so. If I can plan the road map and start at the end where my work makes the most impact, then I’m a lot more passionate about doing so.
Is it something you can start to monetize while you are still in work? If it is possible to ease yourself into it more gently you can back out if it all goes tits up.
If I had to guess I would say that your hobbies have a lot of tangibility while your paying job does not.
To make something with your hands and to see the result of it in front of you is a very human experience that is ingrained in us.
Many jobs today rob you of this. There is often nothing tangible to be seen from your efforts, there is only ever more work.
In the world today as it is, there will always be some amount of this. Running your own business comes with a lot of paperwork and tasks that you do not initially expect or know how to do.
Some of the saddest people I have seen are those who succeed in their business doing such a thing. They may make a lot of money, but are again removed to a corporate position in some capacity in which they are supposed to be some kind of “visionary”. This again robs them of doing the thing that they love to do, to deal with it directly.
There is a middle ground where you can keep doing the thing and make good money, but if very successful, there is a point in which you would have to limit your business’s growth in order to stay in touch with it. This is one of the reasons why a lot of people will sell their business and then go do it all over again with their capital - because they don’t just want the money, they genuinely want to be involved.
Of course, this is all assuming success. If possible it is best to test the waters. See what you can do in your spare time to get something rolling, invest some off-time in it, read about how to establish a business plan and how to incorporate as well as the pertinent tax information you will need to know and the cost of fees etc. If you want content creation to be rolled in, try building something out as a proof of concept, get it patented/copyrighted and then make a video demonstrating it and share it around to get a general feeling for what people think, and then act on what you hear.
Risk is a cornerstone of business, and the thing about taking risks is that you do not know unless you try - but you can work to try to improve your chances.
Most of the best advice I’ve heard on this topic have been on Adam Savage’s Tested YouTube, he does a lot of Q&A’s and people ask about pursuing their passion and freelance work, I’d recommend you watch some of the more popular ones.
The thing is, it may be a horrible idea to risk so much for something you so strongly want to do.
Most people don’t.
But if you don’t, you will regret it forever. This is the fate of most people
