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"Do what you love, and money will follow"

rav3n

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No matter how much you try to stretch it, money doesn't follow a skill at basket weaving. There are many career paths where it's possible to follow your dream AND not be starving.
 

OrangeAppled

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I think this view comes from people who love making money. That in itself is their art & what they love to do. It's not really the type of business they choose, it's business in general that they love & are good at.

Loving something & being good at it doesn't translate it into a money-making business, and that is always the main hurdle.

My personal thinking now is:
A career is not your identity, and most of us will have jobs in life anyway, not a career. Making what you love into a job can actually spoil it for you. Jobs are about survival, not self-fulfillment, and even careers rarely bring that. Accept that you have to have a job, minimize how much money you need/want, and maximize your free time to do what you really want.
 

Tiger Owl

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The saying comes from the poisonous mentality so many educators and politicians have in this country where everybody gets a gold star or a trophy, there are no losers, no incompetents and no one can get offended or left behind. They don't promise enough money to live on or achieve any personal goals. Only that if you follow your dreams (do what you love) than you can't possibly fail (the money will follow). Twisted, irresponsible logic from misguided utopians. The fact is many, many people are competing in the same marketplace for the same money with the same variety of skills and training. You must decide if you plan to work for others as a career or make a career working for yourself. If you work for yourself you must find a niche where you can be better than the competition and then stay better in the long run. Having good business sense and a level of comfort taking risks is important as well. If those are lacking then you must budget for a business manager to handle those aspects of the work for you. There is money to be made in just about anything you can imagine. It is up to you to do the hard work to go out and make it. That is the hard truth that well-meaning but dangerous guidance counselors won't tell you.
 

Synapse

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Act on what you love and the laws of cause and effect will create supply and demand. The statement "Do What you Love, Money will Follow" applies the minute you change placing conditions on both loving what you do and expecting money to follow. When loving what you do is unconditional then money becomes unconditional, the passion to do what you love changes, and so too the energy associated with money changes too.
 

entropie

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Act on what you love and the laws of cause and effect will create supply and demand. The statement "Do What you Love, Money will Follow" applies the minute you change placing conditions on both loving what you do and expecting money to follow. When loving what you do is unconditional then money becomes unconditional, the passion to do what you love changes, and so too the energy associated with money changes too.

Except for the energy part, I think you are the first one in this thread, who understood the quote. I now do too :)
 

wolfy

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If you love painting, money will not follow.

It is all a matter of how you use your skill. Counterfeit and forgery can be lucrative careers.

No matter how much you try to stretch it, money doesn't follow a skill at basket weaving. There are many career paths where it's possible to follow your dream AND not be starving.

This too, I might really stretch it and make two baskets out of the material for one. There really are no limits when you put your mind to it. Well... perhaps there are but it is still fun to think about.
 

rav3n

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This too, I might really stretch it and make two baskets out of the material for one. There really are no limits when you put your mind to it. Well... perhaps there are but it is still fun to think about.
There's some truth to this, IF you possess the business acumen to transform this skill from one person weaving baskets to some mechanised means to mass produce whereby there's sufficient demand for your unique product. Even with sufficient demand, how do you brand within your target demographics?
 

wolfy

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There's some truth to this, IF you possess the business acumen to transform this skill from one person weaving baskets to some mechanised means to mass produce whereby there's sufficient demand for your unique product. Even with sufficient demand, how do you brand within your target demographics?

I was being a bit of a smart ass before... I think if you were really into baskets it'd be better to move into a niche basket area. Not that you'd make a million, but you might make a living.
 

rav3n

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I was being a bit of a smart ass before... I think if you were really into baskets it'd be better to move into a niche basket area. Not that you'd make a million, but you might make a living.
Yes, I knew you were being a smart ass but why not leverage off your smart-assedness!

Was the niche basket area an intended play on words? As in niche = nuances of limited/containment and basket = limited container.
 

wolfy

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Yes, I knew you were being a smart ass but why not leverage off your smart-assedness!

Was the niche basket area an intended play on words? As in niche = nuances of limited/containment and basket = limited container.

No, I didn't notice that. Leverage my smart- assedness, I've been doing that and notice how well it works. I think that people get caught considering an area above a function. Say I love basket weaving and money, so I turn my attention to mass producing woven basket items. Before you know it I am a manager/business owner that does little to no basket weaving. What if I turn around and realise I like using my hands? A lot more options there. Building up like that seems a better way of deciding what you love.
 

rav3n

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No, I didn't notice that. Leverage my smart- assedness, I've been doing that and notice how well it works. I think that people get caught considering an area above a function. Say I love basket weaving and money, so I turn my attention to mass producing woven basket items. Before you know it I am a manager/business owner that does little to no basket weaving. What if I turn around and realise I like using my hands? A lot more options there. Building up like that seems a better way of deciding what you love.
True but there's another option. Why not basket weave spectacular objet d'art baskets while managing?
 

TenebrousReflection

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I've been unemployed for over half a year now, so you might want to take anything i have to say with more than a few grains of salt...

When I was young, I had the double edged blessing/curse of knowing what was truely important to me. That was to find a romantic relationship that would bring me happiness. I made the conscious decision to delay finding a career until I had achieved that (I did not want a career to tie me down to a specific city/region). In hindsight what seemed like wisdom at the time (focus on whats important to you first) backfired on me. Having a reliable income is something I underrated to my detriment.

Most of my jobs have been "cog in the system" type jobs. In the brief times where everythign else in my life was good, having a meaningless job was fine with me - it paid the bills, and I wasnt shackled to the job with obligations of overtime. When I was unable to find fulfillment in the other aspects of my life, working a dead end job was a very draining experience.

So here is my cynical advice.

Make a list of the things you like.
Make a list of the things you hate.
If something on your like list can translate into a job, then great!
Else just find something you can make a living at that you don't hate.
And last but not least, try to make a conscious effort to create a work/life balance you are happy with.

Despite my cynacism, I do think a person can find a way to make a living in a field they are pasionate about. Natural talent is a big advantage, but unless you are horrible at it, dedication and practice should be able to compensate for a lot of that (but don't expect to be the best of the best without natural aptitude). If you don't have natural aptitude to fill a specific role you want but are pasionate about the field/profession in general, look to see if there are supporting roles that you might have an aptitude for. What people neglect to mention in the "do what you love" philosophy is that its gonna require a lot of sacrifices for an average person to turn what they love into a success. If you are not gifted, you may need to sacrifice your social life for education or practice (for jobs not involving formal education). And if you are not willing to re-locate to wherever you can find a job to get a starting point, you will probably find yourself as highly skilled in one area but unemployed. And one more thing, "the money will follow" does not mean you will strike it rich, it just means that you should be able to make enough for a reasonably comfortable living doing it.

The book "Do what you are" is in my opinion worth reading. It will offer you a list of jobs that each type has found job satisfaction in, which is a good starting point. You can probably find it at most libraries (and if not, gettign it for cheap used on amazon is worth considering). If you are on this message board, you probably already know enough about type in general that you can just skip to the chapter for your type and read that.

I have not read the book "Outliers" but I've heard enough about it to know that it discusses in much more depth what has made the best of the best as successfull as they are (its on my long list of books I'll get to reading eventually).

In my oppinion, the sacrifices to succeed at doing what you love are too great for me and probably for most people. It requires a drive and committment that generaly shows up in youth and those people know what they want to be and take every step to become that.
 

Undeclared

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....seems like good advice to me....:unsure:


There's opportunity in sitting on your ass. You could be a bus driver or taxi cab driver :3

or perhaps a online gamer professionally?
 
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