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I get so many people who react to my baked goods with “Wow, you should sell these!” I bake to unwind from work - what would I do to unwind if baking was my work? I already ruined thrift stores for myself by working at one for my first job - I know not to do it again.
They also forget that there are things not required when it comes to doing things as a hobby; it’s not just doing the hobby more and getting paid.
Like, I do all the work on my own car, help my friends with stuff so they can save money, and enjoy modifications(when I can afford them which is basically never). People say “oh maybe you should have been/should try out being a mechanic. Yea, and now I gotta deal with the 99.9% of drivers who are painfully ignorant about the thing they spent tens of thousands of dollars on, do endless and boring oil and brake changes, and when I have an interesting job I gotta do it quick enough to not destroy my entire reputation or lose money on the quoted time. And then there’s all the paperwork!
No thanks, I’ll stick to my own driveway and taking teaching my friends new skills as payment.
The difference between a hobby and a job is that you are forced to do a job even when you don’t want to.
I don’t really understand the point behind this. True, a hobby can become your main income but it’s the individuals own choice to pursue it over whatever work they’ve been doing before?
It’s true that it’s their choice, but a lot of people grew up hearing the phrase “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!” so when they enter the workforce and find that they hate it, they look for a hobby they’re passionate about, and plan their career around it. But when they make it their job, they find that instead of the hobby making work more bearable, the work instead makes the hobby unbearable, and now they’ve got a job they hate and have lost one of their passions.
I’m sure there are some people who can love their hobby even as they are forced to wake up every day and do it regardless of whether or not they want to, but for me, anything I have to do every day becomes something I hate. The best career option for me is to work with something I was already indifferent toward, so it doesn’t matter if I start hating it.
This is spot on.
I like making leather goods for friends and family. As soon as I made my first few things, my parents and (now ex) wife starting making comments about making it my side hustle, selling at fairs/farmer markets, etc.
I took a few steps down that road, but the business side of figuring out costs, meeting deadlines, etc., absolutely killed my passion for my hobby and I basically quit doing it for almost two years.
I’ve only just gotten back into it over the past few months, making some things for my friends and “charging” them something like a homemade painting or a six-pack of good beer and letting them know their wallet/purse/whatever will be done when it’s done.
I’m happy, they’re happy, and my day job continues to be my source of income, while my hobby is my escape and still feels good.
I think the only time “doing what you love and you’ll never work” would actually work is if you ONLY do that task. If all you did was make leather items and have other people do the business side of things, then you might be able to focus on passion WHEN you want to focus on it.
compliments to my music that leads to some talk about monetizing.
I know professional musicians, I don’t want to do that and they’re the lucky ones.
there, I ruined it for you
monopoly man doenst have a monocle
Its his brother who didn’t turn their hobby of buying property into their job.
what monopoly man?
This is one thing that had held me back from building/working with computers for a living. I would be a natural fit for the job, but I don’t want to ruin one of the only technical things I enjoy doing in my freetime.
Maybe, but why not do one hobby for work then have other hobbies that you do for fun? I would much rather grow to kind of hate pottery at my pottery business and still play an instrument and bake pastries in my free time than despair in an IT job and bake pastries and do pottery in my free time and figure that instrument dream will just never happen.
