For some of us it’s Guitars, for other it’s Star Trek, the more sensible ones prefer a walk in the country or relaxing on beaches. Yes folks, we are talking about Passion. I would urge you (especially males) to brace yourself for use of the L word more than once in the following.
Before I started the journey of freelancing and self employment I worked for several years in a UK Government department, believe me - you don’t want to know the details, there is no point us both being bored. During my time there I learned a lot, how to prepare budgets, project management, staff management, high level communication and diplomacy…. and much much more. The one thing that I didn’t learn was how to give it 110% of my energy, how to get excited about getting up in the morning and commuting, how to pass my infectious enthusiasm onto others about my work. And the reason? My passion slept in a different bed!
So after several years, several very nice pay rises and promotions I walked away. I took probably the most foolish step in my life to date and gave up my families financial security to find Love. I wanted to wake up in the morning excited about my day, I wanted to be able to work late into the night and smile about doing it. I took a giant leap and didn’t look back, it hasn’t been a fairytale whirlwind romance and it hasn’t been easy, but the reason I can weather all storms is that I love what I am doing and my passion to do it is stronger than my desire to quit!
More Powerful Than A Teenagers Hormones - Passion
I am pretty sure that at least one person reading this will know that their passion in life is to create a gingerbread house and spend their last days eating the roof. Sadly, that passion will not translate well into a freelance environment. The main reason is one I mentioned earlier, to succeed in working out your passion you must be able to enthuse others about your passion. Your infectious love of ‘whatever’ will spread to those around you, nothing creates a culture of excitement and anticipation like a ‘genuinely’ passionate person. Take careful note of the word genuine, that is important!
A factor that always features highly in ‘Working for Love’ is the issue of actually making a wage from it. Many a successful artist has died penniless and in these financially uncertain times our head often rules our hearts, and to a certain extent we have to be realistic. But I urge you to not let the love of your lives get sidelined for the sake of fear, which by the way, is the only thing that can truly quench your passion.
If you didn’t see it, take a look at THIS BLOG POST by Mark Sherrick which gives thought to stepping into the world of freelance while still earning a wage. I would lay odds on this being the most practical method of making the switch from Employee to Freelancer, not the path I took but I did say I was foolish!
There are a few things which I have deliberately not discussed here, such as ‘finding your passion’ and ‘making sure you’ll love it in the morning syndrome’ which are very real issues if you’re thinking of taking the leap. But these are probably book worthy as opposed to bloggable topics. In my next blog post I am going to be looking at how to apply your passion in a practical way and how to creatively implement what others will tell you is a hobby or infeasible idea.
To round up this post I will share a little story.
I have a friend who used to be an air host(not ess…), he loved the travelling aspect of his job, and loved the world, seeing new places, finding hidden gems in far flung corners, but he hated the actual air hosting side of his work which pretty much confined him to the interior of either planes or hotel rooms at airports. While he carried on his work he started a small blog, writing about the places he would discover on his travels. Within a year he had a large following (mainly from people in the same line of work) and he created a membership site with access to more in depth reviews and discoveries. He contacted me a few months ago to tell me he had quit his job and had been offered a permanent role doing exactly the same thing for a large well known website. By unleashing his passion, and a small amount of business acumen, my friend is now living his Passion, and loving every minute of it.
Lenny Kravitz says it best…. “Let Love Rule”.
I’ve had a lot of conversations with freelancers and self employed types over the years, one of the discussions that always pops up is “why do you do it?”, “what’s your motivation?”. When you’re talking about a shared experience, this question will always occur because people are not just interested in the What (sales pitch time) but the Why (who the heck are ya!).