Are you proud of your work?

[Butters]

I'm going to make a case that you should be proud of the work you do. After running a successful Etsy shop for the past 3.5 years it all came crashing down and I realized: I should just focus on what I'm passionate about, period. 

Why is that? Because let's say you work on your business 8 hours a day. Every thought, feeling, emotion, every Youtube video, every article you read, it all goes into your subconscious mind. When you do something you're passionate about, those 8 hours will turn into positive energy and feeling good about yourself. Else, those 8 hours turn into stress and discomfort. 

The worst thing that can happen is you actually become successful in something you're not passionate about, because now you have cords tying you to this business (income, staff, social pressure). Then it can be like you're living someone else's passion. So it's almost worst being a miserable lawyer working 80 hours a week than being a slightly dissatisfied toilet cleaner working 40. At least there you have more spare time. 

You can actually never be actually successful doing something you're not passionate about, here's why: 

Most people are employed. ChatGPT 4 says 85% - 90%, that means that around 10% are business owners, a very small percentage. Of those people, most aren't creatives. Most self-employed people are painting houses, running a corner store, finance, health, very useful contributions to society, their economic value is easily measured and you could say represents their value. So of this 10%, perhaps 1% are creatives. From that tiny tiny pool, the only way to stand out and create art / value is to create with passion. 

So the only thing to do is the thing you want to do. 

Don't give any thought to where the money is going to come from. The highest paid skill in our society for any creative is the ability to focus on one thing for an extended period of time. True creativity is highly valuable. 

And if you are currently not proud of your work that's fine, I was never proud of my dayjob work, this advice is meant for those starting a business. Don't go where the money is, do what you're passionate about. 

[Thought Art]

Yes