Can you actually love your work and earn money doing it? This is a question Seth Godin ponders upon on his blog. Loving your work does not mean loving to earn money because if that is your passion than of course you can earn money while loving to do it. He talks about creative things like painting, poetry, creative writing, music etc. People love these arts, they love to consume them and be entertained by them but can you actually make money without compromising on your values vis-a-vis your artistic sense?
I think to an extent you can. This may sound clichéd but I love writing. A few years ago I wrapped up my web designing and web hosting business and started writing to make a living. It was a shaky decision but I knew that there was a great demand for writing services and for people who could provide quality content. Blogging was just beginning, and the search engines had just started ranking websites according to the quality of their content. Sure, the sort of writing I do, you cannot call it literary, but I definitely have to use my creativity. I am not ecstatic – I will be ecstatic if I start writing novels and can support my family through them – but I am not frustrated too. I am always dabbling with words; they are my tools. It is a lot better than creating websites and writing code as far as my passion goes. My current profession allows me to perpetually remain in the company of words and this doesn’t let my writing muscles rust. I would have totally lost the touch had I been doing something else and not writing.
You can surely do something that you love and also make money while doing it if you are ready to make some adjustments. Take for instance painting. There is lots of scope for creative arts and you don’t even have to create professional art all the time. Do commercial painting during the normal working hours and then afterwards you can do the sort of painting you love just for the sake of passion and love. The same you can do with other creative arts such as photography, creative writing, poetry, even pottery.
The whole point is trying to remain in the company of your art no matter what happens. Although some compare it to something like prostituting the most important part of your life but it doesn’t have to be like that. The problem arises when people get trapped in solely earning money.