Passion First, Paycheck Second

June 2, 2011 in Finding Passion with 39 Comments

When it comes to careers, I see a lot of people get it backward.  They choose a career because they think they’ll make a lot of money in it.  Maybe they will; maybe they won’t.  But making money is never enough compensation for investing our time and energy.  There must be a sense of meaning, purpose and accomplishment.  I have seen countless dentists who just thought they could make a lot of money – and now are miserable at the life they have created.

Look first for a career that puts legs on your passion.  Do that and you’ll naturally excel because you love what you’re doing.  And in most cases, doing what you love with excellence, will cause money to show up in unexpected ways.   Ask my friends Scott Stearman why he moved into sculpting or Ron Baldwin why he left being a pastor to become a world-famous artist.

“Where the spirit does not works with the hand, there is no art.” — Da Vinci

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/StEnoch David L Henderson

    Really good thoughts, Dan. I’ve been thinking along those lines myself lately. I’ve been a health-care professional for nearly 41 years; it was a passion at first, but of course now I’m a relic of the past, a dinosaur. As a career, it fails to fulfill me either financially or in terms of passion. So I’m taking a difficult and painful step and moving into online information marketing (a good move for a “teacher”), and the passion is coming back! The goal is to “retire” from health-care in the next year or 18 months, move to Scotland, and work on-line from there!
    “Don’t believe what you hear; you CAN buy happiness, but not with money. You have to spend yourself!”
    Dave

    • Anonymous

      Thanks David.  Sounds like you’ve got your goals identified and a plan of action in place with a timeline.  That’s the exact sequence required for any of us to walk into the future we want.  Keep us posted.

  • http://profiles.google.com/irishturtle Shan Conner

    I like what you’re doing here, but please allow me to offer a different consideration.

    Which is more important, passion or purpose? Is it more important to reach self-fulfillment or to serve and sacrifice? Whether pursing a fat paycheck or one’s passion, both pursuits are in the name of Self. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, contentment and passion is found through serving others; not through serving self.

    • Anonymous

      Shan – I don’t know how to separate passion and purpose.  Trying to fulfill a “purpose” that is simply worthy but not aligned with one’s passion will never work.  I’ve seen lots of pastors, teachers, politicians, social workers and missionaries who have tried that plan and ended up frustrated and resentful.  I agree passion is best applied by serving others but passion should provide the direction and insight for where your purpose lies. 

      “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what
      makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the
      world needs is people who have come alive.”  – Attributed to Howard Thurman

      “Chase your passion, not your pension.” – Denis Waitley 

      • http://gainbusinessskills.com/ Darren

        Agreed. Maybe it’s difficult to rank the importance of passion and purpose? Perhaps we should have a passion for purpose?

        Passion provides the energy, and purpose is the inspiration for service.

        • Gzusrains

          I believe in what is being said, but the motto should be for us to have a “Purposeful Passion”. Dan hit the nail on the head when he said that what we are passionate about brings us alive and that is what we invest in others.

          A passionless life is a purposeless life no matter how you spin it. The two must coincide as we find our direction in life and as Dan also said, this may very well be the financial flow that God has been trying to bless you with so that you could continue to invest in others through your “Purposeful Passion”.

    • Deep Water

      You are correct. Purpose, passion, fulfillment can come through an act of charity that is not “fun.” Hence: the PASSION of Christ!

    • Reececup1

      Hi Shan,

      I believe God intends for your passion to be used for his purpose!  It’s done simultaneously! 

  • http://profiles.google.com/irishturtle Shan Conner

    I like what you’re doing here, but please allow me to offer a different consideration.

    Which is more important, passion or purpose? Is it more important to reach self-fulfillment or to serve and sacrifice? Whether pursing a fat paycheck or one’s passion, both pursuits are in the name of Self. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, contentment and passion is found through serving others; not through serving self.

  • http://profiles.google.com/irishturtle Shan Conner

    I like what you’re doing here, but please allow me to offer a different consideration.

    Which is more important, passion or purpose? Is it more important to reach self-fulfillment or to serve and sacrifice? Whether pursing a fat paycheck or one’s passion, both pursuits are in the name of Self. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, contentment and passion is found through serving others; not through serving self.

  • mtzerin

    This is so true.  Our oldest daughters have found their passions and are so happy.  I’m still working with my husband to find his true passion and his happiness. I’m the kind of person who would do anything if I thought God wanted me to. But to realize he wants me to have joy is an amazing revelation.

     Being a butcher is not all God want my husband to be, he’s a writer in his soul and his book-Confessions of a Butcher-eat steak on a hamburger budget and save$$$ is a blessing to others but it’s just one step.  I built a website for him and expected him to take it over so I could work on MY stuff.  I ended up with a fairly successful site we both hate but can’t dump cause it makes some money. 

  • tenmtogy

    What do you do if years of effort to turn passion into a career are largely fruitless?

    • Anonymous

      Come up with 5 new ways to apply your passion.  Stop doing what isn’t working.

  • http://twitter.com/KaiSpeaksHealth Kai

    I am in a struggle right now with all my ideas and passion figuring out how to turn into a career.

    • Anonymous

      Keep believing, planning and taking action.

  • Alleka1

    Help! I am stuck. I’ve worked at a church for 5+ years and it is a SUPER comfortable job. But lately, I have been dying inside as I think I’ve done what I was supposed to do there and now it’s done. But I do not want to be stupid and leave a very comfortable job for no job (I would freelance my graphic designs skills and try some other things I’m currently interested in…) but it seems REALLY stupid in this day & age to leave a job……………………

    • Anonymous

      Don’t “leave a job for no job.”  But if you are dying inside it would “be stupid” to continue doing what you’re doing.  Determine what you want to be doing, do a job search for that opportunity, create a timeline and an exit plan – and walk into the next chapter of your life with your head held high.

      • Dianna Beck

        Both my husband and I were in the same position – we hated our jobs and how they seemed to take hold of our very existence.  We weren’t working to live, we were living to work.  It was an unacceptable way of life (I realized this after reading “48 Days to the Work you Love”) so we created a plan. Any life change or transition into something different and more meaningful requires specific goals and a time-phased plan.  We created a five-year plan, which included step-by-step goals: 1) Get out of debt, 2) Save up six months of expenses 3) Quit our jobs and 4) Move to the beautiful Pacific Northwest to be near family and pursue our passions.  The only thing that got us through it was God and the constant reminder that it was a means to an end, or a new beginning I should say.  God seemed to have a different plan.  We fulfilled our goal in three years – two years earlier than originally planned!!  Last October, we quit our jobs and moved to Northern Idaho.  I have to pinch myself every day because I’m living in the dream my husband and I had imagined for so long.  I began spending all my time working on my art and now it’s hanging in a local gallery! My husband, the entreprenuer at heart, is making money left and right at anything that comes along. 

        My point is, MAKE A PLAN and STICK TO IT!!  You can do it – take it one day at a time, one minute at a time even.  Before you know it, you will finally be able to turn your dreams into reality.  God will guide you – put your faith in Him and He’ll make sure you find your way.

        • Anonymous

          Dianna – thanks for sharing that great personal story.  That’s a wonderful encouragement to others that if you can dream it, create a plan, and ACT – you can in fact see that dream come to reality.  Congratulations on adding action to your faith!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501007003 Caleb Simpson

    I loved reading this. It was a gentle reminder I’m heading in the right direction. Even though I’m not getting a paycheck right now, I’m creating something I’m passionate about and people love. The business is growing FAST, and it’s just a matter of time before I pay myself generously! 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501007003 Caleb Simpson

    I loved reading this. It was a gentle reminder I’m heading in the right direction. Even though I’m not getting a paycheck right now, I’m creating something I’m passionate about and people love. The business is growing FAST, and it’s just a matter of time before I pay myself generously! 

    • Cindy

      Hi Caleb,

      This is also the reminder I needed.  I opened a small bakery almost a year ago and although I’m still just as passionate about what I’m doing and all that I have accomplished, there are times when the hill seems so steep, I wonder if I will can take the next step. The reward is not necessarily the paycheck, but in the satisfaction of a job well done at something I love to do.  Unfortunately, finances are taking a toll and I’m not sure if I will be able to continue. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501007003 Caleb Simpson

    I loved reading this. It was a gentle reminder I’m heading in the right direction. Even though I’m not getting a paycheck right now, I’m creating something I’m passionate about and people love. The business is growing FAST, and it’s just a matter of time before I pay myself generously! 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501007003 Caleb Simpson

    I loved reading this. It was a gentle reminder I’m heading in the right direction. Even though I’m not getting a paycheck right now, I’m creating something I’m passionate about and people love. The business is growing FAST, and it’s just a matter of time before I pay myself generously! 

  • Earl Miller

    Everything would be SO much easier if we all would just Follow Our Passion.  That may be true, but the process of finding that passion can be agonizing, lengthy, and ultimately frustrating. 

    If there were something I loved doing so much that I’d forego other activities/leave a job/change my life for it, I’d be all over it.  I love deer hunting.  I love cooking and baking.  I love woodworking.  So what?  If I had to do these things EVERY day, they’d cease to be so enjoyable.  I don’t WANT, nor am I CALLED to be a leader, a trendsetter, or an entrepreneur.  I’ve always been too busy getting things done to seek those roles.  I suppose that must mean I’m to be relegated to an unsatisfying life of lowered expectations.  Horse Puckey.  I don’t have a passion (and believe me, brother, I’ve sought one!), but I’m OK with that condition.  Purpose I can find at work.

    Why don’t people who espouse this theory (and I’m sorry, but that includes you, Dan) ever seem to admit the possibility that there’s a segment of the population who are more than drones on a treadmill, but not interested in soaring like eagles?  Why doesn’t anyone writing sage advice focus on us for awhile?  I for one would appreciate the input.

    • Anonymous

      Earl,

      My writing, beliefs and principles will resonate with maybe 5% of the people out there. I’m fine with that and am more than busy dealing with those individuals.  I do think it’s sad that you don’t have a passion.  Personally, I can’t imagine living a passionless life.  But if you’re content, I’m totally supportive of you continuing to live the life you have.

      As for “soaring with eagles” – that’s a very personalized issue.  It may mean being the next president of the United States, driving a delivery truck, starting the next Microsoft, sitting in a cubicle doing great accounting work, or faithfully parenting a special needs child.  You alone must decide what a passionate and purposeful life entails.

  • BKoosh

    2 Tim. 5:8 says “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  So providing for our family always has to be a higher priority than finding work that we are passionate about.  If I can find a job that I love doing, and still provide for my family, then fine.  However, I can joyfully work at any number of jobs that I frankly hate, if it means that my family has food on the table and a roof over our head.  This is because “the joy of the Lord is my strength”, not passion for my particular job.

    It strikes me that finding a job that we are passionate about is a strictly Western way of approaching work.  The Ethiopian man who does not know where his next meal will come from does not have the luxury of looking for work he is passionate about.  However, if he is a believer, then he can do his work in the strength and joy which God supplies, even if it is the most disgusting drudgery imaginable.

    Our passion must come from serving Christ, which allows us to work at any job with passion, regardless of whether it is our preferred mode of employment.

    • Anonymous

      Well put – and I agree totally.

    • Emaxcity

      I think when you put 100% of yourself into something then you see the fruits of your labor.  I have worked for years doing blue collar jobs to provide for my family.  Back in 1984 I was a factory worker in Georgia for Lily Tulip.  My first job was for $6.00 dollars an hour putting plastic bottle holders in boxes, it was a very mundane, mindless, job  but it paid the bills.  After a few months an opening became available as a  bailer operator.  It was the most disliked job in the plant.  It was messy hot and humid.  The job involved getting waste grade paper from paper cup cuttings would be vacuumed off of the floor from hundreds of paper cup cutters and sent to my area in the plant.  I don’t know why I wanted that job but I thought “oh well at least there’s a little more variety”.  I was the only employee back in my section.  It was noisy, no air conditioning and dangerous. (the reason there was an opening was because the last employee injured himself in one of the bailer pits). The attraction for me was that  but some areas were quiet and I was pretty much my own boss.  If I got behind I had to deal with it.  I would drip sweat and be coated with white paper dust and by the end of my shift I looked like a ghost.  It was miserable at first so I decided I would set goals for myself and try to beat the clock to see how much I could get done by the end of the hour.  That clock became my boss.  By the end of the shift I had more 2000 lb bails of paper than the last shift.  It became a game.  By the time the next guy came to the shift the floors had been swept and the place was spic and span. After a few months of this it became apparent that the other shifts started to work just as hard as I did.   I never talked much to the guys that followed my shift. They just were so happy to see the place clean that they wanted to do the same for me.  

      Putting love into what we are doing is what God expects.  A friend of mine has a catering business.  He does what he does to pay the bills and get by but you can tell that he hates his job because the food is marginal at best.  You can look at his face and see he doesn’t like what he’s doing but he does it because he has to.  What’s missing? Passion.  I think when Joseph was thrown into the dungeon he didn’t just lie in his murky prison and bemoan his fate he got up and became a servant.  He worked hard and in time he became a leader in Egypt.  

      Now after years of doing back breaking labor and a roofing accident my back has given out and now I’m dealing with a disability.  I wondered” why me God?”  I needed my back to provide for my family. I discovered this site to get inspiration to see where I can go from here.  I think some of the quotes here diminish the whole purpose of what this site is about. I don’t think that people come here to be made to feel guilty about developing passion (love).  The passion they seek has to do with providing for their families, not sitting back and being an infidel.   For those of you who have jobs that you hate you can change your attitude and make your real employer, God.  He’ll show you what to do.  Some of us with limited options  come here to be lifted up and encouraged we don’t seek to be “unbelievers” quite the contrary.

    • Anon in Georgia

      BKoosh, very good post with many good points.

  • joe

    Idealistic thoughts like these are fine if your life just revolves around you and all your focus is where you are going and what you want. But what is not considered here is the circumstances and other people that are included in ones life that may not allow one to purse such passions. Ones passions may be a reality in ones heart but may very well be suppressed because of the urgency of the needs to be attended to. Therefore regardless of ones passion the urgency and necessity of the need is what drives action. Whether one is miserable at what he does is irrelevant. The question is: is he fulfilling his responsibilities to the benefit of others.   

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K332DX6DMUQQPCCMC3AAXHLGZQ Jonathan

      Joe, this is true that responsibilities do come first over passion, but it is possible for people to take care of their responsibilities and then pursue their passions whether it’s at night or on the weekends or if a person knows that they need additional credentials to achieve their dreams, there is possibilities to engage in these pursuits at night. If you have a talent and you pursue that part-time, maybe one day your talent is in demand to a point that you do get to leave your full-time job and pursue your passion full-time.

  • joe

    Idealistic thoughts like these are fine if your life just revolves around you and all your focus is where you are going and what you want. But what is not considered here is the circumstances and other people that are included in ones life that may not allow one to purse such passions. Ones passions may be a reality in ones heart but may very well be suppressed because of the urgency of the needs to be attended to. Therefore regardless of ones passion the urgency and necessity of the need is what drives action. Whether one is miserable at what he does is irrelevant. The question is: is he fulfilling his responsibilities to the benefit of others.   

  • Rei

    so what does the Bible say about passion and purpose?

    • Anonymous

      Psalm 37:4New King James VersionDelight yourself also in the LORD (Purpose),And He shall give you the desires (Passion) of your heart.

  • Violinmalo

    Please Lord, help me to quit craving the money from the nursing career that I had for thirty (frustrated) years, and help me find the passion in something that I can do to help others in a different way.  I need to feel ‘competent’ and ‘talented’ at something!

  • Anon in Georgia

    I enrolled in a 2nd masters program — Master of Social Work — because I wanted to help people.  I mentioned that God comes before social work in my life, so I was wormed out of the program by the faculty.  I made As in an MBA program, but Cs on simple social work assignments.   I was told by my advisor that she “has a responsibility to the social work profession to keep people like me out.”  I was expected to support the gay agenda and never mention I am a saved Christian.  I thought a career in social work would allow me to be in service to others while providing me with a regular paycheck and medical insurance which I desperately need. 

    One job I had with a national retailer required me to talk elderly persons out of their money and con them into buying worthless junk.  They sat me down and said to do it (follow their “sales model”) or I would be fired, so I quit.

    Another job I had tried to force me to work against corporate policy.  Corporate didn’t support me, so I left because I didn’t want to be sued by a patient.

    I was self-employed for a time, but couldn’t handle the losses from chargebacks — almost overnight, people were claiming they did not receive their packages in the mail and their card company was taking hundreds of dollars a week back from me.  This after 7 years of never having a lost package.  I suspected foul play from a competitor, but cannot prove it.

    I could go on and on.  This is an evil world.  I don’t feel I’m cut from a dirty enough cloth to be manipulative and deceiving enough to keep a job in today’s cut-throat workplace.  All I want to do is go to work, earn a paycheck, and not have to sell my soul or sacrifice my personal values to do so.

    • Anonymous

      Anon in Georgia,

      I am in the same position you are and have no desire to continue as a subjugant/employee to be manipulated within someone else’s context for their deceitful, destructive purposes. Yet I need to have shelter, food and clothing. Moses had a solution: run away and go farming.

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