It depends - is what you love profitable?

What if you love smoking weed?

That works if I love being an investment banker. If, on the other hand, I love picking up trash from city parks for a living....not so much.

I suppose techically money will follow - just not very much of it.

@Brian James Schend: Or sitting on the couch eating Doritos, swilling beer, and watching Cubs games on TV?

I love to sit on the couch and eat chips...

I also love to run my business.

Which is more enjoyable and which one is profitable is key. Being able to have a mix of both is good but very very rarely will you get all of both. Even the gamer who wants to play video games all his life and starts a video game company still has a lot of crap to deal with.

I hope it is profitable for this guy: [consumerist.com]

My husband says that saying is a lie and I shouldn't believe it. He insists there are no jobs out there for me to pet cats and read books. I will prove him wrong yet.

Sure just ask all the art history, women's lib, music therapy, dance, religion, and philosophy majors. I'm sure they're just raking in that paper.

If you're in top percentile at doing what you love to do, maybe. The rest of us are working in retail and wishing we had majored in accounting rather than anthropology.

The money has followed me. Then again I love making money.

@col1999: Fact checking books about petting cats?

You might not be able to do what you love, but most people should be able to try and do what they "do not hate".

@Brian James Schend:

If you can find a job which pays you to do what your love then the money will follow you, but I sincerely doubt you will find a job which pays you to smoke weed.

Maybe a clinical study or two, but surely not a full time job. That is sort of the catch here....when they say "do what you love" they actually mean "get a JOB doing what you love".

@col1999: catsitter

I think "love" is the wrong word to use here. You may love to paint, and you may even be good at it, but it doesn't mean you'll make money off it. Likewise, you may love to play golf, but it doesn't mean you are actually good enough to be a professional.

I think the more appropriate phrasing of this is, "do what you are best at, and the money will follow." Not to say that this is an absolute, because I'm really good at cooking, but am still not good enough to be a professional chef. But it's more reasonable to suggest that if you do something very well and monetize the effort, you will see the money follow. I couldn't be a professional chef and run a restaurant, no, but I could potentially take my skills and make a little money on the side cooking for a busy family down the street who can't afford a personal chef, but doesn't have time to make their own meals, or I can bake cookies and sell them as gifts to friends who are terrible bakers or don't have the time.

Those are just examples...I mean, I do make awesome chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, but I don't think I could leave behind my job to pursue cookie-baking business full time (but the snacks would be fantastic). But on a larger scale, with something generally more marketable, you can make a profit off what you're best at doing. And generally, if you're good at something, you like doing it.

@Scuba Steve: Yes and often times doing what you love makes you love it just a little less. Work for your living, don't live for your work.

@Flavia Martens: ding ding ding!

@col1999: You could be Vicki Myron, the librarian who took care of Dewey.

The answer is, of course, "sometimes."

Several of my college friends and one of my parents all have training in music ed. They love music, and they love teaching. And not one of them has a job teaching music. One's a church choir director, which at least is close, one works for the Apple Store, one works at the Limited, and one's unemployed. Why? Because even the paltry sums that pass for teaching money can't necessarily follow at all times.

But it is true that if you're doing something you really, really hate, the money will end up not being worth it.

[www.paintyourdreamjob.com]

I love graphic design and photography. Always have, always will. Does the money follow? I guess it depends not so much on your definition of "love" as it does "money"- there aren't many creative jobs where I am, so I'm in a not-so-creative marketing job making substantially less (like 40 percent) than the national average for my education level.

I used to have a more design-oriented job that paid even less... however, If I WERE doing what I truly love (design /photography) I feel that yes, the money would follow, but you really have to know someone and be in the right place at the right time to be privileged to get paid to do what you love.

@HIV 2 Elway: Well, in certain areas, you go into it for the enjoyment you derive from the subject and money is not your primary motivation. That said, anyone who doesn't factor cost of living and sustainable living into their future goals isn't equipped to handle the expenses that come with life.

If "what you love" is teaching art to the children of impoverished lepers, then the WYL factor is going to have to actually BE part of your salary. Your expectations of monetary gain will be necessarily be diminished in that capacity. In much the same way that the opportunity to dance with mixing machines, is the price one pays for not owning a lab coat festooned with Faberge eggs.

If I could do it (if I wasn't such a pussy) I would be an artist. I did photography in high school and loved every minute of it. I have my artwork hanging in my apartment and every single person who's ever come over has offered to buy a couple of them. I had a garage sale once and had some furniture in the house to sell, so some people went in the house to browse and every one of them offered to buy my work. I bet if I bought all the gear I needed, made more photographs, and sold them at festivals... I could make a decent living. The hardest part is taking that first jump. You have to leave what's comfortable, which is currently my steady paycheck as an IT Manager and the possibility of advancements/promotions/raises.

@Andrew Mitcham: You can always do that on the side to start off with...that way the risk isn't as high.

@Scuba Steve: Precisely. I don't _love_ my job, but it's stress-free, pays well, and doesn't require much overtime. I could do a lot worse. Or, to paraphrase Penny Arcade: "Why are you doing this? You don't love dogs!" "Yes, but I love MONEY!" (Then Tycho got his testicles chomped on, so maybe that was a bad example.)

My dad always told me as a kid that if I hated my job so much I took sick days because I couldn't stand going into it, that was when it was time to quit. Pretty solid advice.

Well, no. If you do what you love the money will not necessarily follow. It's more a question of how much misery and meaningless drudgery you're willing to tolerate in order to make money doing something you don't enjoy that much.

Obviously, maximizing one's income and minimizing misery is ideal. Barring that, I've settled into a median-pay, low-misery career and I'm totally fine with that. I know I could easily make $20K-$30K more per year doing other things with my skills but I know enough about those jobs to know the tradeoff isn't worth it.

You have to be very good at what you love to get paid well for it.

Otherwise, you will at least be happy/satisfied with what you're doing. Not necessarily wealthy, though.

I don't do what I love, but I love what I do. Lucky for me, because I kind of just fell into this job through a series of mildly whacky coincidences.

I am also really good at my job, so I guess that counts as the money following. It isn't just about money, though. I wake up in the morning and kinda look forward to work. After a series of seriously horrific and soul searing jobs, that's almost as important as the money.

For a high school droout like myself, a middle class existance while doing a job I like is more than I thought I could hope for.

Depends. If you love painting you're going to have to live very frugally.

If you love screenwriting/acting/directing you're playing the odds, hoping you can make it.

The money will not always follow.

There are way you can increase your chances of "making it rain" depending on how you go about your chosen profession. But life is still a crap shoot. You're playing against the odds. There are safe bets. There are big gambles. There are ways you tilt the odds in your favor.

But you've got to take the reality of what you're doing into consideration, as well as what "the money will follow" means to you.

If you're doing what you love, the money becomes a non-issue.

Money, essentially, is the universal pain reliever. So is doing what you love. They effect each other inversely.

Love what you're doing? You don't have as much pain to relieve, and therefore, you don't need as much money. Hate what you're doing? You need more money to relieve the pain.

@Erwos: if I hated my job so much I took sick days because I couldn't stand going into it, that was when it was time to quit. Pretty solid advice.

Hm. I guess i should be quitting my job. I actually feel bad about myself when i go home.

That question reminds me of this (found on Evil HR Lady's blog):

Fair warnings:

1) The Dirty Jobs guy starts off with a story where he has to castrate a sheep. Believe it or not it's actually worse than that sounds. You will freak out your co-workers if you're at work and don't have headphones; I recommend either having headphones or skipping to about 8:22.

2) It's 20 minutes long. The part about challenging the idea of following your bliss starts at 10:50 but the whole thing is good.

I think that what it really means is that if you're doing what you love, the money doesn't really matter. Whatever money you'd be making is enough. Even if it's next to nothing, you'll adapt to it because YOU'RE HAPPY.

"Do what you love" is a myth. My advice is "really like what you do" and the money will follow. the reason the money follows is that when you put passion and energy into what you do (work, love, friends, sports, play) you're more likely to get a good result.

I would love to be ski instructor/river guide, but even if I was great at it, I'd be extremely lucky to make what I make now.

If you're doing what you love, the money becomes a non-issue.

@opticnrv: The only time money becomes a non-issue is when you have a lot of it.

Doing what you love may ease your pain and it may even mean you're healthier overall but it doesn't prevent your car from getting totaled or prevent your parents from needing to go into a living assistance facility.

@Costner: Well, depends. You could make an enterprise out of it and sign contracts with local governments. As an executive/owner, you could set your own schedule and go out into the field.

So, even a passion that isn't particularly glamourous or profitable in itself could lead to riches. It has more to do having the passion and drive to "take it to the next level."

But it is true that if you're doing something you really, really hate, the money will end up not being worth it.

@Etoiles: I'd like to make a motion that we replace the "Do what you love" advice with this line.

I think there's also an issue of being very broad in your definition of doing the thing that you love.

For example, the person who loves golf probably isn't good enough to make it as a professional golfer, but that person could work at golf course or a golf resort and be around golf all the time.

You can get paid for petting cats if you work at an animal shelter, pet store, or veterinary clinic. And you can get paid to be around books (though not to read them) if you work at a bookstore or library. And the aspiring artists might be able to make a stable living as art teachers or working in art galleries or art supply stores. The pot smokers could even move to a state with medical marijuana and work in one of the dispensaries.

@col1999: Animal groomer?

As many have said, it's kind of a give and take situation. I make decent money and work in a low-stress environment that generally challenges me to do good work, but doesn't require an awful lot of it. I was pretty complacent here, although a little bored by the corporate "save/cut/cheap" mentality of the last several months. In March, we were informed that by roughly this time next year our plant will be closed. I basically have a few (2-12) months to work here doing even less than usual and then will be forced to find something better.

My real struggle now is, do I find something that I love that requires a lot of work, 60 hr weeks, etc. for good money, or go with a decent money job working only 40hr weeks, still have my weekends and time with my wife, less stress,etc. This is a tough call...

@Brian James Schend: Move to a state with medical marijuana and work for a dispensary. I'm sure you wouldn't get to smoke on the job, but you would probably enjoy the work environment and get to do a bit of good for sick people at the same time.

@Brian James Schend: Drug dealers make a lot of money...

If you love something generically, say "doing art" or "sports", then the saying is generally useless. But when you love something very specific and put a lot of focus into it, IME, it's proven true. I know a number of people who earn comfortable livings doing very very specific things, such as being an expert bowling ball driller, being an insect expert, or being an author who specializes in covering a very specific historical topic.

Now, are they rich? Well, a couple of them are, but I'm sure the majority could have made more money if they'd chosen a different field. But they all are comfortably successful financially, and they are all extremely satisfied with their careers. Additionally, they enjoy the prestige of being considered one of the experts in their respective fields.

@Coelacanth: Can you groom while reading?

@Andrew Mitcham:

Do it.
Now.
Start with weekends. Plenty of arts and crafts shows to display and sell your work.
Do it.
Now.

You will be glad you did. And so will your very happy customers.

Id say thats a false statement-doing what you love wont be any fun if you cant afford to eat.

If doing what you love isnt profitable, dont crap a brick. Acknowledge that what you love wont pay the bills, and do something that does pay the bills until you have enough money to AFFORD to do what you wanna do.

It is true. Most times, with a little creativity and a lot of effort, you can get paid for doing something you love.

But there is a caveat: getting paid for something you would do anyway sometimes has the effect of sucking all the natural enjoyment out of it. Sometimes things are fun or rewarding only so long as we have a choice whether to do it or not. As soon as a mortgage or bills come into the picture, that research job that you originally did because you were genuinely interested in the science no longer is a choice but an obligation. It is liable to suck the fun right out of it.

The solution? Always have a plan B. Mine is that I could always quit and go work at baskin robbins and be totally happy with life. You can live pretty well in America off a low income, as long as you are not too materialistic. It frees you to do what you love simply because you love it, NOT because the money will follow.

@HIV 2 Elway: Music therapists can make serious bank. Same for art therapists.