How to Do What You love and Make Good Money

One of my favourite blog posts from Derek Sivers is, “How to Do What You Love and Make Good Money”. Before, I thought I needed to go all in with my art. Which means going all in now or working hard first, getting the bag, then using my new leisure time to pursue my art.

Sivers provided a different path, a path inspired by the happiest people he knows:

• Have a well-paying job.
• Seriously pursue your art for love, not money.

He expands in the blog post:

Let’s look at the ingredients of this plan. First: balance. You’ve heard about balancing heart and mind, or right-brain left-brain, or whatever you want to call it. We all have a need for stability and adventure, certainty and uncertainty, money and expression.

If you have too much stability, you get bored. If you don’t have enough stability, you panic. So keep the balance.

Do something for love and something for money. Don’t try to make one thing satisfy your entire life.

Each half of your life becomes a remedy for the other. You get paid stability for part of your day, but then need creative time for expression. So you push yourself creatively, expose your vulnerable art to the public, feel the frustration of rejection and apathy, and then long for some stability again. Each half is a remedy for the other.

By design, this describes my current lifestyle. I work in construction technology as a product manager or my day job and I spend my nights and weekends writing. Both are complimentary. My job provides stability, structure, and money. My art provides creativity, pleasure, and meaning.