“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius
Let’s start with the general understanding about hobbies and careers. A hobby is an activity done regularly in your leisure time for pleasure. A career is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress and income growth.
We have this question in hand: Can you turn your hobby into a career?
It depends.
It is important that you first understand the reasons why you love your hobby. Turning it into a career isn’t always the answer. Sometimes we love our hobbies purely because there is no 9-5 pressure attached to them. With that reasoning, only a select few will continue to love their hobby when it’s turned into a successful career.
If you think that what you love to do is something you can do for a long time with the work pressure attached to it, that’s great. But don’t rush. You need to first create personal goals you would wish to achieve when approaching your hobby from a career standpoint. Then develop a business plan. Seek advice from others who have succeeded as entrepreneurs. Seek advice from professionals in the industry. The key here is to plan around the hobby, then try it out – don’t take hasty actions, like quitting your current job. Spontaneous decisions related to career plans are more reckless than proactive in the long-run. I have always used a decision-making framework, which in some cases was a simple table of pros and cons or was more involved market research, trends, skills and personal readiness analysis.
Your personal passions don’t always have to be turned into a career. You may use the personal passion to motivate you and get the right energy and drive to become successful in your regular job or study. That’s why hobbies exist! Rather, you can add some creative thinking into your current job. Take action: bring ideas to the table and flesh them out with your family, friends, colleagues and management. Ask to be a part of a project you heard about that peaks your interest. This will make you feel inspired and show the people in your work environment that you really do care about the work you’re doing. Either way, being passionate about what you do is what will lead you to your definition of success.
