Doing What You Love — Letting The $$ Find You Later

I'll start this by saying I don't know this to be true, only that I've heard it can be true, and that I really want it to be true. I actually had the unique opportunity today to chat with another musician via online video, and we flirted with this idea, which has been also pervasive in all the Gary Vee content I've been consuming lately. In our specific conversation, he shared that while in college he studied animation, though all he thought about was music. His professor noticed that gap of interest over time and asked this young student what he was actually interested in. The musician replied, "music, but that won't make money," to which the professor replied, "well do you think half-assed animation is going to make money either?" I thought that to be very profound and satisfyingly straightforward. You're going to have to work hard to make money no matter what, so might as well pick something you'd be willing to work hard on. This is much easier said than done. Often societal pressures and lack of clear career path make it much harder to make that leap, especially for creative pursuits. It's especially hard if your loved ones really sacrificed to give you the "ideal path to success" that society has agreed upon, but which is not the path you'd like to take. Choosing something different, that maybe doesn't live up to that "potential," can feel like awaking on Christmas Day and telling your family that despite the efforts they've put into the gifts they are giving you, you're not going to open them and instead are going to go to the store and pay for something yourself. Many people never make that U-turn. It doesn't mean they are wrong, either. But you can make that turn. You can do it, if you want.