Hobby As A Profession, Is It Possible?

[bazera]

Hey,

I've been wondering lately, why most of the people in today's society don't have jobs that they love and enjoy doing. At the same time, most of them have hobbies, that they love doing on the contrary. Is it possible to make your hobbie into your profession? And if so, why don't most of us do that? 

[nbolt]

Almost always possible. Just need a bit of creativity and business sense. Leo talks about various aspects of this in the life purpose course.

[Frankie]

13 hours ago, bazera said:

Is it possible to make your hobbie into your profession?

Depends on the hobby I think. If you're making music it will be hard to pay your monthly rent for your appartment and so on unless you are extraordinary talented and/or have no qualmy to make commercial stuff. If you're programming software as a hobby it will be quite easy to make a living from that ....

[ALGUIMAR]

It is exactly what you have to do!! Alan Watts explains this very clearly, how society has divided our day into 2, work time and play time. When we work we earn the money and then go home to enjoy the money we earned. What if we enjoyed the way we earned money? Sounds cool, so definitely we should all try to have full play time haha

[Jesper]

Ofcourse it's possible. I used to have a colleague who told me long ago, "Isn't it great? We get to play with computers all day and we even get paid for it!". (I'm a software developer).

Ofcourse, to make it your profession, you have to think about how you can make an income with your hobby.

One thing to watch out for though is that when it becomes your profession, it's not just playing all day anymore. There will be deadlines and demands from your customers (or whoever pays you for your work). That might make it less enjoyable than when you are doing it purely for your own enjoyment, when nobody is expecting results from you.

Computers and programming have been my hobby since I got my first computer when I was 13, but there are certainly days when it's boring or when I feel frustrated because I'm not making progress. I think that you will have good days and bad days with any job, even if you make your profession from whatever you love to do most.

[Jesper]

17 hours ago, Frankie said:

Depends on the hobby I think. If you're making music it will be hard to pay your monthly rent for your appartment and so on unless you are extraordinary talented and/or have no qualmy to make commercial stuff. If you're programming software as a hobby it will be quite easy to make a living from that ....

I have a friend who is a professional jazz guitar player. He's doing great, much better than most musicians. I don't think being extraordinarly talented is a guarantee that you will make a good living with music. My friend goes on tour through Europe each summer, playing on jazz festivals. He spends a lot of time networking and organizing concerts. If you want to make money with music you have to have business sense as well as musical talent.

[OlgaMack]

Depends of your hobby, but I know people who loves their jobs and they even wake up with a smile for work  They do what they love to do.. so, yea, your hobby can be your profession. It depends how good are you with your hobby activities... and how much you can earn from it. 

[ZenBlue]

It's definitely possible. There are thousands of ways to make money in this life. It's up to you to figure out how to do it. Just model after the people doing what you want to do successfully.

[Truth]

As every one says, YES! but I want to throw in my two cents, the reason most people don't is they don't even BELIEVE its possible. Most of the time the thought doesn't even occur to them! and this completely cuts off going forward with your dreams, in a split second your shooting yourself in the foot if you don't believe you can, And they just let life take them away. Another reason is because it's emotionally difficult, society is built on comfort and quick fixes. No one wants to do the hard stuff, NO ONE. More importantly YOU don't want to do the hard stuff, "why not jerk off and get the quick pleasure now instead of waiting a whole year when I can get that right now?!" Leo put it best---->

 “If you can’t delay gratification then you’re always just chasing for pleasure for the most immediate gain, and then what strategy can you have? There can not be a strategy if your strategy is immediate gain.”

Always do what's emotionally most difficult, and you can achieve anything.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Truth

[Frankie]

On 23.3.2016 at 5:08 AM, Truth said:

 “If you can’t delay gratification then you’re always just chasing for pleasure for the most immediate gain, and then what strategy can you have? There can not be a strategy if your strategy is immediate gain.”

BTW: Can you tell me the source (yt video) of this statement? Can't remember it yet but it could be an interesting video ....

[Truth]

1 hour ago, Frankie said:

BTW: Can you tell me the source (yt video) of this statement? Can't remember it yet but it could be an interesting video ....

It's actually in one of his newest videos haha, "How To Be A Strategic Mother Fucker"

[JohnOldman]

I think, it's possible to mix profession and hobby)

as for me, I like computer games)

So, I have found one interesting site - http://www.ratatype.com/#typing-tutor

I think it's useful for my work)

As my job is an online writer! So, I improved my typing speed and got bigger productivity..

It's very interesting and useful you also can check it here - http://www.ratatype.com/typing-test/test/

[DizIzMikey]

Anyone have resources or lead me in the direction of making a one man game, or how to be an supreme rapper.

Besides looking at the greats, higher powers that are benevolent/good are an option for me.

Thanks 

Edited March 31, 2016 by DizIzMikey

[Falk]

You can achieve everything in this life if you REALY want it.

BUT! : It is kind of a new myth that EVERYONE HAS TO!! live their lifes with their "dream"career , beeing an actor, writer, designer etc... and making millions out of it ...OR alternatively : be a looser and unhappy and better kill yourself for failing!!   *this might sound funny, but this exegerated statement exists in our unconciuous minds, it is a new lifestyle-phenomenon!* 

So, you better check if you try to "achieve" your dream-career because beeing driven by this myth or because you realy LOVE doing a certain thing...because if you realy do love something... (acting, music, designe, writer, gamer, carpenter, whatever) noone can stop you from doing so anyways ... and if you are realy good at it then you will eventaully transition in that working-field and make a living out of it!...so it is all very natural if you realy LOVE it...if you only fall for the myth and wanna be a millionair or famous or want that people say about you : "oh look he achieved somehting!" you will only create pain on your journey to failure.

[Leo Gura]

Hobbies serve an important function of their own. They don't necessarily all need to be turned into careers.

Often turning a simple hobby into a career will destroy your love for it. Because sometimes you just want to engage in an activity casually.

For example, if you enjoy fishing, it doesn't necessarily mean you should become a professional fisherman.

Selecting a career is a lot more involved than simply converting a hobby. Although you could draw inspiration from your hobbies, and some people really do need to take their hobby and "go pro" with it.

To sort all this out, it really helps to understand yourself on a much deeper level. Which is what the life purpose course help you do. Then it becomes very clear which direction to go and which hobbies should be kept recreational vs made professional.

[GregoriLo]

Discussion of this issue can be very interesting. I think some hobby options (playing musical instruments, singing, drawing) can bring great earnings and become a profession. With the rest of the hobby you need to be brave and cunning. Even buying rare coins can be quite a profitable business. If you find rare options and resell them at a better price. It all depends on your courage and purpose.