There’s the old adage of ‘do what you love and the money will follow’. Of course that’s not always true. If your passion is to run an animal sanctuary or homeless shelter, it’s likely you won’t become a millionaire.
But you’re probably be a lot happier than an burned-out trader in the city who is making a lot of money, but would rather help out at a soup kitchen. And if you have no talent to sing or paint, accept that nobody is going to pay you!
But if you’re stuck in a job you hate (or have a talent going to waste), you could free up time to earn decent income, doing what you love.
If you intend to cook or grow/sell plants/flowers, read our posts on food safety for people and pets and pet-friendly gardens.
Just Making is a guidebook for writers and artists. Work that fits your interests lifts your mood and your stamina. You show up more, you learn faster, you stick through the hard times. This means better mental health, and more creativity with steady motivation. Passion does not remove effort, but it makes that effort feel useful, and keeps you going, when results take time.
Don’t Waste 80,000 Hours of Your Life!
80,000 Hours is a guide based on over 10 years of research alongside academics at Oxford, on finding a job that you like, and does good. Working until retirement age (full-time) means 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year for 40 years. That’s 80,000 hours, so choose to do something you love, to leave a legacy.
Make the right choices, and not only have a more rewarding and interesting life, but help to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. Rather than work long hours to contribute to problems we already face ((climate change, animal abuse, war, unhappiness, stress, consumerism).
Most career advice focuses on how to write CV and to ‘follow your passion’. This is not always possible (your passion may be teaching elderly people to navigate the subway, but it won’t make you a living).
Likewise, if you passion is building big online stores to put indie shops out of business, your passion then negatively affects the lives of others. Those people then become unemployed, and are unable to serve their community (say running an independent bookshop).
Author Benjamin Todd is co-founder and president of 80,000 Hours, an indie non-profit founded in Oxford which offers online and in-person advice.
