What If Your Passion Doesn't Pay Enough?

In a perfect world, you'd spend your career at the intersection of four circles:

  • What you love

  • What you do well

  • What others will pay for

  • What the world needs

But what if the thing you love to do doesn't bring in enough money to pay your bills?

Before answering this, I'd like to mention that no one is paying me to write this article. I'm writing it in between assignments for paying clients; I would have made more money this morning by ignoring my instinct to help others and simply focusing on putting some more money in my own bank account.

But money alone does not make me happy. Perhaps the same is true for you?

If you are in this situation, you have three choices:

  1. Add a "second job" doing what you love, while working the first to pay the bills

  2. Be poor

  3. Be unhappy

Personally, I choose #1. Writing under my own name, I don't worry at all about money. It's a voluntary choice on my part to find the intersection between what makes both myself and others happy.

Writing for clients, the reverse is true. I don't worry about my goals or what interests me. My only focus is to make my clients look good and to fulfill their goals.

Although I came to this balance almost by accident, it works beautifully.

It's possible that - perhaps by default - you've chosen #2 or #3. if so, please reconsider! There's no reason to be unhappy or destitute or both. By adding a second "job" doing what you love, you can earn money and pursue your passion.

In fact, the people who seem to struggle the most are those who confuse the need for income with their passionate interests. Just because you are a genius, say, at composing electronic music, does not mean the world has to value that work as highly as that of a McKinsey consultant. But just because no one pays you to compose does not mean you have to ignore your talent and passion.

Personally, I relish the time to pursue my passion without the extra burden of getting paid for it. Money can distort something you love into something that feels like a burden. It can be freeing to differentiate clearly: that I do for money, and this I do for me.

By the way, it can also be profitable to differentiate clearly.

Many professionals project a muddled image publicly because they are torn between what they love and how they make money. This confuses potential employers and/or clients. When you're looking for work, focus on what someone is going to pay you to do, not what you're going to do the rest of the time.