Making a living off your passion, is it possible?
Is it even possible for ALL of US to have our passions be our main source of income? Can you make a living off of your passion and build an empire of you?
Sure, we’ve been hearing a lot of stories about how a few lucky people struck their pots of gold. Sometimes, it makes us bright-red with pangs of bitterness. But is it really possible for the average person like you and me? Or are those who made it to their promised land really have the grand scheme of the universe going for them?
Well, after years of doing business unusual, I have good news for you…
Following your passion vs staying at a stable job
I’m sure that there’s something that you love doing, or even business ideas you’d been developing that someone else would be happy to pay top dollar for, right at this moment. But if that’s the case then why do 80% of the workforce don’t resign from jobs they can barely swallow?
Why?
The simple truth is that it’s not that easy. And most people aren’t really prepared to give up their salary…
Yeah, rockers, following your passions, and trying to make a living out of it means not working for those stable employers (though it’s possible) and getting your regular paycheck every two weeks. Instead, you got to figure out how to make money on your own. That’s the hard part. This is why most people would just grudgingly settle for the paycheck.
The secret behind the success of every successful passionate people
Of course, I know the why’s of it all still remain unanswered. Why some people seem to attract enviable success. A fortunate few jumps seamlessly from one passionate venture to another acquiring achievements one after the other. On the other hand, there is the unfortunate majority. Those that can’t even take the first step in finding their passions and building the same profitable careers out of it. Is there some voodoo or mystical mantras behind it all?
As it turns out, passionate people live not by their passions alone. They seem to possess the uncanny ability to know what’s actually possible. They have an open, wide view of the steps they need to take. And then they just dive headfirst to whatever creative idea that excites them in any given moment.
But the rest of the world seems too absorbed with bills to pay that the most spectacular ideas are often smothered inside the creative minds of the average Joe without ever seeing the light of day. It’s sad, and it doesn’t have to be this way.
Do you agree?
Let me start by telling you that you don’t have to give up your day jobs just so you can pursue your passions. By all means, keep your jobs to pay the bills but delegate enough time to tinker around. After all, if an idea or product evokes so much emotion, then you won’t even notice the amount of time you spent perfecting whatever it is that inspires you.
Remove the barriers in your mind
The next step lies in removing the barriers within your mind. One of the most common hurdles stopping people from living off their passions is a wrong sided belief. Believing that you don’t know something well enough to get paid to teach it to somebody else. That’s a lot of bulls—t, you know more than you think. Expertise is largely based on perceptions, and it is always relative.
To my mind, the last and greatest burden is purely cultural. We grew up in a society conditioned to believe that it’s not possible and downright impractical to build a career around your passion. I think the only way to get around this negative, collective mentality is to hang out with people already living comfortably by creating value out of their passions. If you spend enough time with people living squarely off their dreams and insanely proud of doing it, then the impossible becomes possible.
Try this; the shift in psychology will rock your world….
Start by doing one small thing to build the empire of you. I started out by booking a lot of unpaid speaking gigs about blogging. It made me aware that I was too geeky in my approach to the audience. But because of that, I became known as the Danish blog girl.
Then I hit upon this (great) idea of turning companies into rock bands, which I spent 14 nights writing an ebook about that I gave away for free. And later, people could purchase it by opting-in to my newsletter.
An empire of you is built on baby steps. Take the first one now. If you should do one tiny step in the direction of having an empire of you in a couple of years, what would that be?