Can You Really Make a Living Doing What You Love?
Life’s too short to be working dead-end jobs that you don’t like, but can you really be picky about your career? Let’s face it, we usually take what we’re given even if we have studied at university and obtained our degrees. Finding a job can be fairly simple if you know where to look, but our jobs don’t always relate to our degrees. If you’re lucky, you could make a career out of your very first job, but if it’s completely unrelated to your passions then should you bother?
Do you need to choose between security and your personal interests?
One of the reasons why we work dead-end jobs and careers that we have no interest in is because we want to have job security. The problem with finding a job related to our interests is that it’s difficult. You’re essentially restricting the types of jobs you can apply to. For example, if you studied programming at university and you love video games, then you’re probably looking for opportunities to work at a video game development study. These jobs are more common than they were in the past, but you’re also restricting yourself because there are far more general programming and software development jobs that don’t involve video games.
As a result, you need to make the decision of picking job security or following your passions and dreams. It’s a difficult decision to make once you’ve already started a family or relationship because it’s not just your own welfare that you need to keep in mind. The moment you start a family or begin to build a relationship, you have more responsibilities to think about and you need to understand that your decisions will have an impact on others too.
Fortunately, there are ways to follow your passions without sacrificing anything. It’s difficult to build a career out of something you love, but with enough dedication and hard work, it’s easier to attain than you think. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of ways that you can make a living doing something you love instead of forcing yourself to work a job that you have no interest in.
Do lots of research and look for opportunities related to your interests
The first thing to do is to research opportunities related to your interests. Let’s say you’re passionate about sports and want to do something related to fitness. A simple search on Google will reveal plenty of career opportunities that you could reach for. From there, it’s important to look for job openings and study relevant materials that are related to your chosen field. As another example, if you want to look for a career in medicine, then it’s possible to start lower by searching for ways to get into the medical industry. You could take a look at this article titled “The Best Places to Work if You’re a Nurse” if you want some great ideas on how to get started with a career in medicine or healthcare. In short, you need to actively search for ways to utilise your skills and interests, and this can easily be done by searching.
Outside of researching on the internet, you could also speak to people that are in careers or industries that are related to yours. This could be family members, friends, distant relatives or even industry figureheads on the internet. Some people will ignore your questions or requests, but in the event that you do receive some useful information, it’s vital that you act on it. Start by looking around on Twitter or other social media platforms to find and network with people relevant to your career interests. The goal here is to utilise networking to your advantage. As the saying goes, it’s the people you know that will get you far in life and your career is no exception.
If you’re able to find a mentor or become someone’s apprentice, then you’ve already taken a huge leap forward in terms of opportunities. It’s a good idea to stick to your mentor for as long as possible and learn as much as you can from them. They will be your entry into an industry and the skills and advice you pick up from a seasoned industry veteran will be the foundation of your own career.
Consider working from home or starting up your own company
If you can’t find a job relevant to your interests or if there aren’t many opportunities to begin with, then there’s nothing wrong with starting up your own company and chasing your dreams that way. Whether it’s starting up a company at home or starting a business with a group of friends, there are plenty of opportunities to be had and the world is always welcoming of new startups.
It’s important to remember that startups have a very high failure rate due to the nature of how they work. You need to remember that there is fierce competition in virtually every industry, and you need to work feverishly to reach the success needed to make a lucrative career from it. Networking is a great boon if you want to start up your own business. Again, the people you know will help you grow your business and expand your knowledge, so don’t neglect the importance of building up a social media presence and attending trade shows and events to expose your brand.
One of the best ways to build up interest for an idea that you have is to turn to crowdfunding. There are plenty of services that allow you to post ideas to the internet in an attempt to drum up interest that will be used to fund your startup ideas. Many entrepreneurs are turning to crowdfunding as a way to knock out two birds with one stone. You’ll be able to see how much interest your idea has and also receive funding at the same time.
Final words
Although it’s possible to make a living doing something you love, you need to also understand the limitations of what you’re capable of and also be realistic. It’s a long and difficult path, but it can be attained.
