Vivian GiangWhat Comes First: Passion Or Money?
Posted March 3rd, 2015 @ 8:30am in #passion career kevinoleary sharktank money
You’ve heard. I’ve heard it. We’ve all heard the cute, sound advice: Do what you love and the money will come. The first time you heard this, you were probably young, overtly optimistic, and blinded by love (your passion), so this advice sounded easy enough.
Then, you entered the world and quickly realized, sure, life’s too short to do what you hate, but doing what you love … that work needs to make money, too. What if the money takes years to come? It would be foolish to think that money doesn’t matter and that passion can feed you, keep you warm, pay your rent, and keep you energetic for the years of struggle and self-doubt.
Maybe the question shouldn’t be “to be or not to be,” as ABC’s Shark Tank Kevin O’Leary says. Maybe the question should be: What are you willing to do in order to be what you want to be?”
In other words, for the years before you’re “discovered” or “get your big break,” how will you support yourself? Are you willing to get a job you don’t necessarily love in order to pay for the love you’re working on? Do you love your passion enough to support it by doing other things?
O’Leary admits that he wasn’t willing to do all that extra work for his love of photography. That’s OK. There’s no shame in admitting that to yourself. He writes:
I simply wasn’t willing to take that risk, to perform all the tasks and jobs required to support my dream of becoming a full-time photographer. I wasn’t willing to work days as a bricklayer or at a mall, shooting and developing photos on weekends. I didn’t want to inch toward my twenties — maybe even my thirties — accumulating debt and rejection, just to build a portfolio of work or a string of shows where most or all of my photos would go unsold.
There was no shame in understanding that about myself. It was an important, life-changing discovery. It meant that I had to stay on the scholarly path, because getting off the path altogether wouldn’t take me anywhere good. I wasn’t willing to make artistic pursuits my full-time priority, and I really wouldn’t have fared well as a punk. I love money too much.
So, O’Leary made a lot of money and eventually, he hosted an exhibit of his own photography, sold his works, and donated the money to teen entrepreneurs. In the end, his passion wasn’t photography. Maybe he loved photography, sure, but O’Leary’s real passion is money.
And that’s OK, too.
A serial entrepreneur once told me that he was only passionate about what could make him money. He could have an idea, go with it, follow through, and if the market wasn’t ready, then his passion for that product dwindled. On the other hand, if the idea takes off and becomes a success, then his passion for it grew and he would become more excited about its possibilities.
Seth Godin says “I call the process of doing your art [following your passion] ‘the work.’ It’s possible to have a job and do the work, too.”
If you have a passion, which I define as something that you would do even if you had all the money in the world, then, by all means, you should follow it and hope the money will come. You have to hope it will come or your heart won’t be in it 100%. But also be realistic and know that you need to support yourself in the meantime (unless you’ve just got it like that) and if the money never comes, that it will affect the confidence that you have for yourself and it will affect the love that you have for your work. Always know that things can get ugly real fast and when they do, what are you prepared to do?
The bottom line: Know yourself. Know what you need to be happy. Know that talent isn’t everything. Know that you create your own luck. Know how money affects our lives. Know that money can come after passion, but that passion can also certainly come after money.
