Pursuing Your Passion vs Working Minimum Wage

I see a lot of people leap into a creative pursuit with the subconscious dollar signs over their eyes. They watch successful Youtube stars, musicians and social media giants rake in the cash and they think ‘I can do this’. Which I would never discourage, but wanted to pose some qualifying questions to those that want to make the leap.

What if I told you that it’s more likely that you’ll make more money over six years at a minimum wage service job than pursuing your passion, would you still make the leap? I had my first paycheck from playing guitar six years after first picking the instrument up. I practiced roughly 1-2 hours a day in that period totaling roughly 2,000-3,000 hours spent on the craft. If minimum wage was roughly 7.00 an hour, then I would have had 21,000.00 bucks if I just worked more instead of played guitar. It should be noted that my first paycheck after six years of playing guitar was a whopping 20.00 bucks.

“Blessed are those who swoon at the thought of tax accounting or petroleum engineering, for they will be well-compensated for their love. If, however, the activity that makes your heart swell is less practical and economically in-demand, there’s a very real chance that you won’t be able to make a viable living from it.” –J. Maureen Henderson (3 Reasons Following Your Passions Will Send You To The Poorhouse)

The second question I would pose is ‘have you considered creating a runway before you take off?’ There’s a social media gold-rush in our culture that tends to make us all think that if we can create a personal brand, we can become an overnight success and monetize our persona. We also have it engrained in our heads that we have to strike while the iron is hot or we may lose our one shot at cashing in on said gold-rush. This causes many young people to drop everything and dive headfirst into their new career as Facebook Click-Bait Content Creators. But what happens after that didn’t work out and you already quit your job effectively burning a bridge to employment?

I had the chance to interview author and speaker, Todd Henry about this topic. His advice would be to build up a runway of steady income  from your passion before you take off. Set healthy checkpoints along the way in your first year as well to gauge how you are doing: “By six months my income should be at X or I will seek employment elsewhere”.

The goal in all of this isn’t to discourage you from pursuing your passions, but to give a healthy dose of reality before you make the decision to leap. Healthy, long-lasting careers in passionate pursuits are built on strong foundations of wise planning and long hours perfecting your craft.