What To Choose: Passion Or Money?

Have you ever asked your children, ‘Do you want the main dish or the dessert?’

What does eating have to do with the “ passion or money “ topic? The example serves well to illustrate the complete absurdity of asking people to choose between two such vastly different things as passion and money.

Going back to the eating example, at least some minor children would undoubtedly prefer the dessert. At the same time, adults understand that their diet must be based on something other than only unhealthy and sweet desserts.

The dessert is a kind of reward after finishing the complete meal. In the same manner, passion is driven by an inner conviction and a love for something, and you are prepared to make significant sacrifices to achieve the goal of your passion.

Doing all correctly, money will not seldom be an automatic result of a well-executed action based on passion.

Take a look at any of the most successful and famous entrepreneurs of today. For sure, they were not after the money, but their goal was something else. Once the project was initiated, the money started to flow in, much like dessert at the end of a dinner.

Steve Jobs was fired

Steve Jobs was even fired from the company he founded because the board of directors, representing the shareholders, was primarily concerned with the money. After Jobs left the company, Apple went through some dramatic and turbulent years.

It was not until the value of the Apple share was close to zero that the money chasers understood that the company was built on something else, something inexpressible in money. Jobs returned to continue his project, driven by a vision and passion. The passion-based mission continued, and today Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the world.

Will all people who follow their passion be rich? Of course not! But rarely a money focused activity will produce passionate actors. So, the question will then be:

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Passion induces action, and money can be one of the results

Will every passionate person succeed in the sense of earning money? No, it won’t happen automatically. The majority of passionate entrepreneurs fail several times on their way to achieving their goal, and those who can fall and rise again are part of a small group of people.

5 Steps to nurture your passion

The main reasons to never reach the target, fail, and never come back again are the following:

Lack of a genuine commitment – Even if you are passionate about doing something, you need a true and sincere commitment to do what it takes. Otherwise, it will be a high-risk project that will likely fail when encountering the first or second hurdle.
No specified concept – If you like running (as I do), it doesn’t mean that you are going to make a living on your running passion as a runner. At my age (64) it’s a physical impossibility to compete with the Africans on a marathon run. However, there are many other aspects of my running passion, such as coaching, promoting training manuals, selling running outfits, and more.
Lack of strategy – A real passion can easily let the emotions take over, and you’ll go ahead with pure motivation as the leading star. If your passion evolves into an activity that generates income, you must have a clear strategy, including a well-defined business plan.
Bad advice – A successful entrepreneur must have a network of professional people. The tricky thing, though, is knowing who is a good adviser and who is not. In the digital marketing business, which is another one of my passions, there is a lot of garbage on the web. As a newcomer to the industry, it’s easy to fall into the trap of advisers offering all these “shiny”, unrealistic services.
No efficient handling of money – All projects and businesses require an initial investment to get started. You must have a financial plan before starting. If you don’t like that work, consider outsourcing it to someone you trust who is knowledgeable in the subject.

A generation shift

We who belong to the baby boomer generation were indoctrinated from an early age to choose a career with a promising future, meaning a relatively high probability of a high income. The new generation views it differently, and there is an apparent shift in the tendency to choose a career.

Among passion and money, passion attracts the most and leads to the rest

Money is no longer equal to happiness, but rather a result of doing what you are passionate about correctly.

Why should you choose passion if money is essential to make a living?

You will do a better job if it is based on passion. If you ever go to sleep on Sunday night, being sad that it’s Monday tomorrow, it‘s probably a sign of a lack of passion.
There is a quote that goes like this: “Money comes, money goes,” meaning that it’s just a result of something. Your passion, whatever it may be, you can never truly extinguish. Happiness in life is about creating something sustainable you can be proud of.
With a passion-based work, you can easily relate to what you are doing and, as a consequence, come up with more and better ideas. It’s like a wheel; the more you push it, the faster it will go. People with a typical 9-5 job, checking the time every 5 minutes in the last hour of the working shift, do you think they are happy about what they are doing? Would you like to spend 2/3 of your life that way?
Time isn’t a significant factor in your work. Of course, you need to fulfill deadlines according to the plan, but with a passion-based approach, you can efficiently work 10 or 15 hours a day without noticing the time. It’s not about the time, but the passion for what you do, and that’s real happiness.
No obstacles will stop you from achieving success. Passion can move mountains.
The fulfillment when you reach your goal is priceless, and at this point in your life or career, it seems to be a ridiculous question if somebody asks you: