Do What You Love but Money Won't Necessarily Follow

Aren't we always be told that if we "Do what you love and the money will follow" or "Success awaits those who follow their passion"? Well, not necessarily. Since young we were told to get a job we have passion for and make a living out of it. The fact is we barely make a living in today's down economy when everything else goes up but our wages. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying passion and money doesn't go together. Passion really plays an important role in creating money but it isn't the magic pill. Lots of people, I'd dare to say millions, do what they love, but little in the way money will follow. There are far too many starving artists who "do what you love but...." struggle above the water.

Do What You Love but Money Won't Necessarily Follow

In today's economic situation, often the thing we love to do isn't always the one that money will follow and as a result, we might choose to do something we don't love to do just to stay above the water. Sad but true.

Sure, Michael Jordan loves to play basketball and made millions "doing what he loves" yet there are thousands of aspiring college basketball superstars still awaiting for the next NBA draft.

For every successful sportsman, artist, actor or musician there are a thousand equally talented but unlucky ones. They just don't have the luxury to pursue their passion. Instead the love for it will ultimately be abandoned in favor of a regular paycheck.

And there are also plenty of people who are financially successful who hate what they do.

Now the message I'm trying to put across today is simply this:

Simply following your passion won't help you build income. You need to create value with your passion. A value that will help others and not for self-indulgence.

Let me give you an example:

Say you love pets. In good times, doing what you love and get yourself a regular job as pet groomer may seem to be "the right thing to do". But does it make any economic sense today when your wages is barely enough to survive?

What if it reaches below the subsistence level? What if you are no longer able to bring food to the table? What could possibly be your next best option? Internet

Here's what you can possibly do:

Do What You Love but Be Smart

Start a blog that focuses on a specific niche. A pet niche since there's where you passion lies. Write and share useful pet-related materials with other pet owners and be really good at it.

Create an online store that sells pet products. You can either sell your own products or affiliate yourself as a reseller. With all the available online resources at your disposal, it's fairly easy to get it off the ground and doesn't really cost much either.

Don't you know that icanhascheezburger is one of the top 10 blogs in the world? What started as a website to show captioned photo of cats has now grown into one of the 50 most popular blogs in the world.

You see the internet is an ocean of opportunities. How much you can tap into it is very much limited by your own creativity and desire to make money.

Conclusion

In reality, success in the real world is more than just "doing what you love". It comes with hard smart work, ability to create value, perseverance and a stroke of luck.

But on the other hands it's also safe to conclude that it's much harder to be successful if you aren't doing something you love.

Perhaps in times of down economy we need to embrace the new adage of "Do what you love "the smart way" and money will follow."