“Chase your passions & money will come. Chase money & you may never find your passions.” I’m sure a lot of us have seen this quote, but is it true?
A lot of people are working in jobs which they hate or are not good at. So they want to leave it and do something they love. But the problem is that when you ask them, “What is your passion?” they either don’t know what their passion is or their passion is something they can’t make money from.
You need to clearly define what your passion is and see the potential. If you’re not sure, start something on the side of your money making job. You can slowly and smoothly transfer from “job making money” to “job making me happy”.
In the current employment environment where you’ll have a lot of different jobs, sometimes you’ll choose your passion and sometimes you won’t. And sometimes you shouldn’t. Because for some people, their passion does not make a good career choice.
In this essence, it depends on a number of things:
Financial Stability
If you have financial issues or owe a lot of debt, maybe following your passion isn’t viable if your passion is to work at an art gallery.
Ethnicity and Gender
The majority of women and minorities make less. It hurts to follow your passion and know that someone else following that same passion is making more simply because of qualities that you can’t control. I’ve seen people alter their career goals because it was such a constant struggle to negotiate equal wages.
Location
Your options may be limited if for example, you want to become a Hollywood star, but you live in Nigeria.
Do you have dependents?
If you’re taking care of an elderly parent, or you have children you necessarily have the energy to pursue your dream the way you want to? Sometimes it’s helpful to have a daily job that isn’t passion driven.
How old are you?
If you’re passionate about switching careers, that means going from a stable job to a gig economy where you’re competing with 20-somethings covered by their parent’s insurance who can undercut your bids? Ageism exists in the society, so you need to be careful.
I don’t think that pursuing your passion is always feasible for everyone all the time. Making it happen is doing it on your turf, like saving your money from a job that you don’t love in order to start your business on the side. Sometimes it’s keeping your passion a side hustle. Sometimes it’s keeping your passion a hobby so that you have a relief from work so you can pay for your kids medical bills.
