Practicality or Passion?

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last weekend about how realistic it is to merge what you do for a living with what you do for fun. We both agreed, whatever path is chosen, it’s important to not be of a divided mind about it and not harbor feelings of guilt or being a “sell out” if you do work that’s not also your hobby.
Everyone has different preferences. I personally have always placed a higher value on doing work that’s really interesting to me than I have on doing work that’s highly lucrative or allows a lot of free time. Sure, I’ve had jobs at golf courses and grocery stores and construction sites that weren’t my passion, but I always viewed those as transitional while I moved closer and closer to work that expressed what I’m all about. I’m very happy with my choices, but I do know people who’ve pursued their passion and never made enough money for a decent life. They do work they love, but they’re a little bitter about their relative poverty.
I have friends who chose a different route – getting highly remunerative work that they could tolerate but don’t love so they could spend more time/money on what they do. Some have succeeded marvelously and have nice lake houses and recording studios and do a lot of traveling and cooking fancy meals. They don’t like work much, but they work so they won’t have to work much. I also know some who’ve taken this path and never done well enough to pursue what they love, and they are probably the most bitter of all, feeling both like sellouts and serfs at the same time.
The point is, I can’t tell you what’s the best approach for you. No one can but you. But it will benefit you to examine your preferences. What do you love doing most of all? Would that be better or worse if it was also how you earned your living? (I probably love playing music more than anything, but I think I would like it a lot less if I had to earn a living doing it). Why do you work? To create free space to do other things, or because it’s what you want to be doing?
Whatever you decide, be at peace with it. Be conscious of the trade-offs and why you chose what you did. The worst is to just sort of float downstream and end up doing something by happenstance, never feeling like you made a choice, and always bitter that you aren’t doing something else, or aren’t making more money, etc.
If you have a high tolerance for failure, stints of poverty, hard work, and rejection, why not go for what you love? If these things tend to be catastrophic for you, you should probably take a more staid path. Either way, the key is always to be honest with yourself about your own true preferences, and don’t feel bad about them. You don’t have to do what you love. You don’t have to do the sensible, practical thing either. But you do have to live with yourself, whichever you choose. Make it a conscious, unapologetic choice.
This isn’t a one time decision. It’s something to be thinking and rethinking throughout your life.
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Scire May 31, 2014 , 8:06 pm Vote0
It gets harder when there are people depending on , say as in a family. but i agree, being of a divided mind is not helpful toward either end. the hard part is if you have been going on autopilot, or living tactically as i would put it and you realize you’ve ended up where you do not want to be, the transition out of that place is very difficult, much more so with a family.
Roger Browne May 31, 2014 , 8:49 pm Vote0
What’s wrong with having more than one passion? For your day job, you pursue a passion that is commercially valuable to others.
Having earned some money, in your spare time you pursue a less-easily-commercialized passion.
Stephan Kinsella June 1, 2014 , 2:55 am Vote0
For most people, vocation and avocation are different. Nothing wrong with this. Or as Gary North calls it, calling versus career. http://www.stephankinsella.com/2009/08/career-advice-by-north/
As Francis Ford Coppola wrote:
“You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.
This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?”
http://c4sif.org/2011/01/francis-ford-coppola-copyfighter/
I myself have found that my legal background and career has dovetailed and overlapped somewhat with my interest in libertarian scholarship–lawyers can publish in law reviews etc., if they want, and this is even encouraged and can be part of their career. So there is some overlap. I’ve enjoyed that. I’m a thick lawyer, I guess. 😉
Wesley Mathieu June 1, 2014 , 4:03 am Vote0
The key for me seems to be having *control* over myself and my time as much as possible.
I’m fully willing to commit to mindless, monotonous tasks that I do not enjoy IF I know that I cannot be forced to stay late and miss family dinner or be forced to come in on weekends or holidays when I have a trip planned with friends. When I’m at work I’m fully on-point and devoted, and when I get out of work, I don’t want to be pulled back in against my will.
The ideal model from what I’ve seen are small to medium-size business owners. They put in endless hours on the front end, but once a successful enterprise exists, they have the ability to take a week off if they want, or leave early if they need to, or, hell, sell the business when they’re done with it and move on to something else. Of course that dream seems to be getting more distant these days.
Justin Nelson June 1, 2014 , 4:26 am
I have to say that in my position I would be shooting for practicality. I will graduate high school soon and the economy is absolutely wretched in the sense that I cannot just go find work randomly and expect it to be lasting or stable. So my plan is to go into horticulture which puts most of the means of production at MY disposal, not at the disposal of a corporation, bureaucracy, or some boss. I do love plants, however, and I currently am gardening as an amateur, but if I could I would like to choose a career that has a really high paying income to pursue writing or music later on in my life. I see the practical approach in employment as a means to express oneself creatively and be comfortable later rather than sooner; imagine coming out of college with some sort of arts degree and a disgustingly large debt, but then you want to write epic ballads of the modern libertarian struggle! Well that sounds dandy but if you’re down and out then I can’t imagine how such art could be executed with the best composition or even with the best message.
Isaac Morehouse June 1, 2014 , 2:26 pm Vote0
Justin – you should apply to Praxis! http://Www.discoverpraxis.com
We have business partners in agriculture.
Isaac Morehouse June 1, 2014 , 1:59 pm Vote0
Justin – you should consider http://www.discoverpraxis.com!
Isaac Morehouse June 1, 2014 , 2:27 pm Vote0
Oops. Double comment. Sorry. Mobile devices!