Welcome back to our series on careers and why they can be both fun and successful! Right up next is another reason why our careers can be enjoyable parts of our lives. In particular, it deals with a common counter-argument to pursuing our passions and interests.
WE LOVE DOING MANY THINGS. SO, WE HAVE CHOICES.
What we often hear from people who want to discourage us from building careers out of our passions is that the decision will not be profitable. This is not always a logical argument, but we have to accept it as one of the misconceptions we have to deal with.
While it’s true that certain hobbies and interests will not help us pay the bills, the fact is that we are not one-dimensional people. We are interested in and passionate about a lot of different things. And depending on how we engage in those interests, some or even all of them can be leveraged into solid career choices.
For example, a person might have graduated with a degree in Fine Arts, which was a personal choice. In general, courses in the Arts and Humanities are considered to be dead-end courses; that is, they are not expected to translate into successful or high-paying jobs as much as courses in Law, Engineering, Business, Finance and Medicine are.
This person, however, has a passion for cooking besides genuine interest in art. They apply their finished course to their hobbies, and use their passion for cooking to open a restaurant with a fresh concept that catches the public’s attention. This setup has the potential to be very profitable, especially if the quality of the cuisine is high and diners are willing to adjust to gradual increases in menu prices.
This passionate cook, who may already be a chef at this point, can also use skills in Fine Arts to supplement the restaurant’s marketing strategy or decorate its premises.
This is just one example of many possible ways people can select and even combine the fields of interest that they can leverage into a stable career. There are lots of other ideas out there, since talent can be expressed in countless different ways.
Now, who says doing what we enjoy can’t be financially rewarding?