Here’s an ideal example: Oprah Winfrey. She loves doing what she does and she makes a ton of money doing it.
So here’s the next question. Will you be able to make money if you follow what you love doing?
My personal opinion is that, yes, yes you can totally get by doing what you love and be so much happier for it. You spend almost a third of your life working so I’m guessing that you better damn well enjoy it.
Chances are if you love doing something, you’re good at it too. Things have a way of working themselves out. And if you’re trying to force yourself into something you don’t like just because there’s money in it, you’re not gonna be good at it, you’ll be depressed, and you’ll have wasted your time.
I remember the first accounting class I ever took in business school. Every student in business school at some point goes, “Maybe I’ll do accounting. The money’s decent, the job’s stable, and it’s risk free.” But on the last day of classes, my professor looked at us (wearing extremely tight leather pants, he was a weird one) and said, “Don’t go into accounting just because you want a job after graduation. You’re gonna wake up 30 years later and realize you’ve spent the better part of your life doing something just for the sake of a job after graduation.”
So I did not go into accounting, thank God. I went into finance instead. Not much better, I know, but like I said, things have a way of working themselves out. After what seemed like hundreds of applications and interviews, I received, what seemed like thousands of rejection letters.
I didn’t get any jobs in finance, I sure as hell wasn’t going to work for an oil company, and I put no effort into my cover letters or interviews.
Feeling slightly rejected (or more like really rejected), I went traveling for a while and finally tried for a job in finance again. After several applications, I was on the waiting list for a financial position in Cairo.
And lo and behold, I did not get the job.
So now I’m sitting here writing a blog for a living and guess what. I wake up every morning thinking to myself, “I am so glad I never got a job in finance.”
The thing is, just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you love it. I was good at finance. I graduated with honours and I excelled in my internship program. But in the end I didn’t like it and my heart wasn’t into it.
So like I said, things have a way of working themselves out. Do what you love and the rest will come to you.
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Girl you are 100% right
After graduating with the highest grade and Masters in Marketing and B.A. in Management as everybody else I applied to the prestigious Accenture. I got a job in Finance and after 6 months I realized how much I don’t like it and that this is not what I want from life, or what will make me happy.
So I left the 500 Fortune company and moved to another part of the world to join a small but a very ambitious group of people that nobody even heard of at that time. Everybody was asking me — what the hell are you doing?
And you know what, it was the best decision I have ever made in my life. I love my job, I love the challenges that I face every day, I love the trust and responsibility I’m given and I would never come back to my 9 to 5 life.
The personal and professional transformation I’m going through right now is amazing, and I’m so much happier
Awesome post Gabrielle, and guess what?
SAME STORY!
Erm, well… not exactly the same, but very similar and I can totally relate.
I mean I ditched a job offer from a Fortune 500 company based in one of the world’s tallest buildings, and gave up a killer view from my desk, to where I am instead.
Onwards with passion baby, Yeeehaaaw!
You are touching on such an important point: To love what we do, or to do what we love.
There are times, and I have experienced that myself, where I ended up loving what I do, even if at times it seemed difficult and not worth it.
When I had to choose, a long time ago, I did not not what I loved. I knew what I didn’t want, and as you know, I got a lot of that.
We are not all blessed with knowing what we love. But we can learn to love what we do.
I totally agree that once you know what you love, it’s the best path to take. There will be no regrets after 30 years. Doing what you love is not work, it is fun.
Ditto here.
I studied Dental Technician, hated it. Only studied it because I heard my entire life, you can’t make money from art.
I finally started painting signs, got so much work, I quit the dental lab. Absolutely love painting signs because I incorporate a lot of art in it, and I started way before computer signs. I’m probably the last brush sign artist.
I’ve also made more money than I ever would have made as a dental tech.
Well I started out studying engineering.in college Just seemed like a sensible choice. I played the piano rather badly but by a fluke got into an Army band in WW 2. Later on the GI bill I studied music and became a fairly good piano player. I am now 82 years old and so far have never had a “day job”. I never got rich or famous but I eat good food, drink good wine, have a good wife and live in a house on the beach in Puerto Rico and cruise the BVIs every summer in my homemade catamarran. Best of all, I’ve had (and am still having) a lot of fun.
Baaska
Well, I have read lots of self improvement books, and may be if I did it academically I would have 2 or 3 PhDs by now.
Do what you love, love what you do and do not worry about money, money will come later.
All my life I have been doing what I love, and I really enjoy and love what I am doing, but money never shows up.
I have to admit I always had a job, no complaints, but the jobs I am getting are not the kind of wow jobs. The least I could say that I have friends that went with me to the very same school, hate their jobs and they are making at least twice as much as I do.
I am really puzzled, I am open for suggestions here, I an open minded person, very much into positive thinking, NLP, affirmations, low of attraction, low of resonance, low of abundance, manifestation, energy you name it.
My question is how to attract more of the green stuff?
I wish that the statement “Do what you love and the money will follow” was true but in many cases it is not. When I was younger and had the responsibility of raising a family, putting food on the table and paying college tuition, I had to take many jobs that I did not enjoy but it was big money and while I did not derive happiness from my work, my family lived well and we had a happy close knit family and that is where I derived my enjoyment. Now that I no longer have those commitments, I am free to do what I love and although I do not make much money at it, I totally enjoy my work-it is a thing of passion. If you can do what you love and have the money follow, that is wonderful. But, understand that sometimes this may not be possible. Just remember that once you have taken care of your responsibilities, you can always change horses in midstream.
I’ve pretty much always done the same thing and I am looking for a change. Interestingly, it seems to be happening slowly — like a take over. This suits me as the idea of making money by doing what you love can be a bit scary.
Yes what you say is ideal — making money at doing what you love. However, I tried that, (working musician) and could not survive as a musician let alone support a family and mortgage. So keep in mind — as long as what you love doing pays the bills you’re all set. But beware, if what you love doing is not paying the bills, then as in my case, it turns into a hobby, not a livelihood.
when I was in college in the early hippie days (1970s) I had the GI Bill so I went to college for free. First year, Psychology, lots of BS. 2nd year, Switched to Anthropology. More BS. 3rd year, Switched to Sociology. Interesting, but couldn’t see spending a lifetime in it. Meanwhile, to earn extra money, I was sewing for a hippie clothing store and LOVING it. Opened my own alterations shop in the same complex, quit school, never looked back. Have had my own clothing line and one point had 8 employees, mostly Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees. Learned so much from them. Now I’m 56, designing and making organic bedding & baby stuff, and still LOVING it!
Doing what you love in hopes of finding a way to earn a living isn’t always a quick and sure thing. For ten years, I’ve volunteered in the area of my interest but haven’t learned to make money to live on while doing this. After determining just what it is you love it a job searching and actually finding the space to do it, thrive and survive.
To continue my story, what I really love and I hope that one day I will just quite the job and do it full time is creative writing. I wrote 3 books till now, writing my 4th book and making the plot for the 5th. I managed to print my first book at my own expense. I gave it to friends and even to critiques, that saw a real writer in me, obviously I had few comments on flaws in the text and the content, some I do agree with, some I do not agree with.
From this exercise I came to the conclusion that it takes more than getting the book printed, like any other product (good or lousy) need good marketing, marketing needs money. For the time being cannot spare money needed for the marketing. This is something that I have to do on my own, since publishers are not interested to publish for someone that has no name ion the market regardless of how good or bad he/she is.
However the lack of money does not discourage me from writing. The way I see it, I do really write for my own enjoyment, sometimes when I read back what I have wrote I do not believe it was me who wrote this.
The big question now, how to get more of the green stuff so that I can pursue a writing carrier, any ideas.