Few things are more frustrating than showing up to a job you hate.
Everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day, and, generally speaking, we sleep for eight hours, work for eight hours, and have eight hours left over.
That means you spend roughly a third of your life at work.
If you hate it, that’s a third of your life spent in misery. If you love it, that’s a third of your life spent being happy.
And we all have a choice.
What’s interesting, though, is that the people who tend to be the most successful at work are also the ones who seem to enjoy it the most.
Why?
Because success stems from enjoying the process.
Use your unfair advantage
I think it’s safe to say a lot of people want to go full-time into what they enjoy so they can leave a career that no longer serves them.
I’ve certainly been there.
What most of us run into when pursuing this change is clarity. We don’t know exactly what to pursue.
Maybe we want to make music, but will anybody listen?
We want to create a product, but will anybody buy it?
It’s easy to feel like what you want to do and what will make money are two different things, but that’s a lie.
More often than not, they are one and the same.
Because joy is contagious.
The trick isn’t to figure out what sort of side hustle or entrepreneurial pursuit will make money. It’s to figure out how to build a business around the confluence of what you enjoy and what you’re good at.
Because if you enjoy it, you’ll do it when no one else is watching. That means you will develop your skills faster than someone who hates it.
And when you’re good at something that actually brings value to others, they will pay you for it.
That’s the whole game.
Match your skills to the market
Now, there are plenty of things you could pursue that don’t have less value in the market than others.
The market for kitten mittens is certainly smaller than the market for athletic gear.
So you do need to exercise discernment when choosing what you want to create and talk about online.
Yes, you could pursue a traditional business with slightly higher odds of success like selling insurance or roofing houses, but my guess is that’s not why you’re here.
It’s certainly not why I’m here.
My dream was always to figure out how to make a living doing what I love. And it still is.
When I was younger, I wanted to earn my living from music, and I did.
Then, I wanted to build a business of my own, and I did.
The common thread is that I learned and deployed a valuable skill that people would pay me for—drumming, then marketing.
That’s what it takes to actually monetize your passion.
Start with what you love. Get good at it. Turn it into value for others.
Repeat.
Putting it all together
I still believe there has never been a better time to go all in on internet-native entrepreneurship, be it music, art, photography, cinematography, writing—whatever.
And I’ll probably keep saying it.
If you love something, talk about it online, share what you’re learning, and help others who are behind you on the path.
There is plenty of room for everyone to make what they love and turn it into an income.
You can earn money, buy back your time, and spend your days doing things that give you life instead of draining you.
But you have to start somewhere. When in doubt, my recommendation is to just start with what you like.
Anything is fair game. Literally anything.
Because if you love it, odds are someone else will too.