The debate over doing what you love

There seems to be endless debate over whether doing what you love is a Cinderella-level of fantasy or not.  The newly fledged entrepreneur’s story in a down economy like this one from CNN both laud those that take a chance and chant failure statistics like a bad Greek chorus in the background – 80% of new businesses don’t make it past the first year. It seems to be a popular topic with bloggers as well, probably because it’s something frequently on their minds as they try to see whether they can make it happen for themselves in a way that they can live with. How To Do What You Love Without Selling Your Soul doesn’t really answer the question it poses in the title and instead addresses how to market yourself without selling your soul which seems to boil down to finding a way to contribute – all well and good but I’d argue that you are in danger of making yourself more miserable by compromising the joy of your original inspiration as described in Maybe you can’t make money doing what you love. The caveat at the end of this last article though that sometimes if you just keep doing what you love the world shows up and decides to pay for it  is what seems to describe the nonconformist photographer, Michael Kenna, who simply took the pictures he wanted to take until the world caught on while managing to pay his bills working for other people. Although he still stands out for taking pictures that are unfashionably beautiful and peaceful, I don’t think he’s had to worry about the light bill recently. To quote him,  ” Life is about turning up. The more you get yourself out there, whether you wake up at 5:00 a.m. to pouring rain or not, the more you’re likely to experience the wonderful happenings that are going on all around you.” (read the Photographer’s Forum interview) Interestingly enough, I found his work when I was flipping through a magazine searching for pictures that I would wish I had taken (an exercise to find inspiration and learn from others.) While I respected many other’s work, his were the only ones that made me yearn for a higher level of skill.

I don’t believe that doing what you love for a living and for money is out of anyone’s reach, however the timeline is not altogether predictable. I think with people’s lack of confidence comes impatience, they show up once and when it doesn’t immediately work out they figure it was never meant to be and retreat to a safer but unhappy place.  Why are we so focused on happiness or a career as a destination instead of a journey?  Has anyone ever asked those 80% of out-of-business new businesses whether they regret starting it?  Did the experience give them knowledge or inspiration for the next stage of their lives? Did they try again and do something different?  Failure isn’t the end of the world, not showing up for life is.

Technorati Tags: career changes, doing what you love, gain self confidence, happiness in life, taking risks

What took so long?

A few years back I left a job in a company that I had come to regard as running a kind of legal shell game.  My former manager just looked at me and said he was surprised that it took me that long.  That’s kind of how I’m feeling now – what the heck has taken me so long to get to this point?  Yes, things take longer than I ever anticipate; I’m starting to see a pattern of what I think will happen in a week will actually happen in a month with diligence. That’s definitely a part of it.  But there’s also something to that nagging feeling of not being enough – not knowledgeable enough, not skilled enough, etc.

Now that entrepreneurship is suddenly fashionable again and in the news I’m starting to see that I’ve  unconsciously tried to play both sides of that fence and consequently ended up on top of it.  Nobody can really teach you how to be an explorer.  By it’s very nature, it’s heading into new territory. But those are the people that I’d really like to hang out with and I’ve come to the point where I would far rather fail from trying than waiting for something to happen.  So… rather than waiting I’m going to order the essential supplies I need to make my line of sea glass jewelry.  I emphasize essential because as soon as I sit down with the supply catalog I find things that would be extremely useful but when I really evaluate are not critical right this minute.  I don’t know why I think I can’t place a second order if it turns out I can’t get along with out it.

While I thought I’d be ready to start advertising my bread baking enterprise this week, I’m not – but I am ready to start next week.  My business cards came in and I’ve got the paper to print fliers. I’ve run a test run of multiple batches of dough so I feel more confident and I’ve started calling to find out when real-estate agents will be in the office.  Nothing more to do except do it!

Now I have to head off into the unknown territory of setting up online purchasing for jewelry and photography. I’ve put it off because I don’t know where to start.  Anywhere will do – time to learn and explore and ask questions.

Technorati Tags: career changes, entrepreneurship, Personal Growth, self confidence, solopreneur, taking risks, the way to happiness