We’ve all heard the saying that if you chase your passion, the money will follow. In practice however, it’s not that simple: you can be passionate and great at something, but finding ways to monetise it – or at least get the most financial benefit out of it – is a whole different artform. For those of you committed to chasing your dreams, here are some practical ways you can convert “drive” to “dollars”:
A common problem with passion-driven enterprises is lack of scalability. For example, if your passion happens to be woodworking, your income is limited by how many pieces you can create. If your passion is graphic design, you’re also limited by how much you can draw in a certain amount of time.
To make your work scalable, consider a way to create one-off pieces, which continue to generate income without effort. The most common example of this is the creation of instructional videos – in the above example, you could create a series of videos or other instructional material on woodwork or drawing. These could then be sold as a downloadable guide, to a mass audience.
Another alternative to consider is licensing. For example, if your passion is music, you could create licensing agreements that allow your work to be used for a fee. This will allow you to monetise your music, without having to be present in person to perform, every time. This is, however, best reserved for later stages of development, when you can justify the legal fees to set up such arrangements.
In every case, the concept is simple: try and find a way for your passion-driven work to be sold or make money, without you having to be present.
Monetising your passion can, unfortunately, involve doing many things you’re not passionate about.
For example, a freelance photographer may not be very interested in creating online content to promote her work; and handling issues like marketing and SEO might actually eat into the available time for photography work.
This can be a serious hazard: if you get caught up trying to handle every single aspect of the business, you will ironically end up being worse at what you do. Even in a regular employed job, companies use different people in different departments – the bosses don’t try to run marketing, customer outreach, ad creation, accounts, etc. all by themselves.
You should do the same. Pick out your core competence (your central passion, which you’re good at), and allocate the most time of day towards this. For the other elements, such as putting up posts to sell your work, consider delegating as soon as you can (e.g., get a virtual assistant to help with bookkeeping, as soon as you have the budget).
Our passions and what we’re good at tend to be intertwined: anything you fully devote yourself to will eventually become an above-average skill. But if we keep it under wraps, or play it down, then no one is aware of it.
While being very skilled invariably draws attention, it could end up taking two or three times longer than if you were to actively announce what you do. But herein lies the problem:
When you’re truly passionate about something, you will rarely think you’re good enough,and will be shy to show your current work.
That’s because passionate people tend to set extremely high standards. When you love something and follow all the news and key figures, you have a keen sense of how high the bar is set. E.g. a passionate singer might define a legend like Diana Damrau as “good”, whereas a more lukewarm singer might define winning a local KTV contest as already being good.
On a practical level, you need to swallow the perfectionism and impossible standards. By all means, strive to be the best – but acknowledge that your work is already good enough to charge money for, and don’t be shy about announcing it. Put it on your Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc., and always encourage your friends to share the news.
The surest way to kill a passion, and disappoint yourself, is to over-commit from the very start. An example of this is taking large business loans, or spending huge sums to buy ad space and rent pricey offices, so you can “come in looking pro”.
This is actually a bad way to monetise your passions. First, you’re spending way more money than you’re making at the start; and you are depriving yourself of the capital and stamina you need. Monetising your passions is a marathon, not a spring.
Second, the smaller business opportunities have to be found first, as they constitute your fallback. For example, you may find, by starting small, that you can make money by selling free stock photos on the internet. Later on, when you try more ambitious photography projects, you won’t starve if they fail: you know you can go back to selling stock images for a time, while you save up for another attempt.
But if you charge straight in with ambitious, long-shot projects, a single failure might be all it takes to shut you down.
Within your given passion, there will be different customer demographics who will be drawn to you. For example, say your passion is diving, and you’re licensed as an instructor.
Even if you start teaching it for a living, you need to consider if your methods and interests work well with:
● Complete amateurs (you teach from scratch)
● Seasoned veterans (you teach more advanced levels, perhaps because beginners frustrate you!)
● Younger or older enthusiasts (there are different physical standards and maturity levels)
● Tourists or locals
Once you identify the niche you’re happiest working with, you’ll have some idea of who to market your services to, and what services to offer.
You may not identify the right niche from the very start – this is a process of trial and error. However, you need to be patient and try different demographics, until you find the one that works.
In the meantime, you might want to consider not quitting a regular job just yet. The above can all be done in baby steps, as a sideline while you have other work. Of course, it helps to have a job that offers flexible timing, or that offers a chance to develop the skills mentioned above.
At Exodus Capital, we help young, passionate people get a headstart in the finance industry. From there, they develop the confidence and skills needed to better pursue their dreams. Do reach out to us for help, if you want career opportunities that can match your wider goals.
We’ve all heard the saying that if you chase your passion, the money will follow. In practice however, it’s not that simple: you can be passionate and great at something, but finding ways to monetise it – or at least get the most financial benefit out of it – is a whole different artform. For those of you committed to chasing your dreams, here are some practical ways you can convert “drive” to “dollars”:
A common problem with passion-driven enterprises is lack of scalability. For example, if your passion happens to be woodworking, your income is limited by how many pieces you can create. If your passion is graphic design, you’re also limited by how much you can draw in a certain amount of time.
To make your work scalable, consider a way to create one-off pieces, which continue to generate income without effort. The most common example of this is the creation of instructional videos – in the above example, you could create a series of videos or other instructional material on woodwork or drawing. These could then be sold as a downloadable guide, to a mass audience.
Another alternative to consider is licensing. For example, if your passion is music, you could create licensing agreements that allow your work to be used for a fee. This will allow you to monetise your music, without having to be present in person to perform, every time. This is, however, best reserved for later stages of development, when you can justify the legal fees to set up such arrangements.
In every case, the concept is simple: try and find a way for your passion-driven work to be sold or make money, without you having to be present.
Monetising your passion can, unfortunately, involve doing many things you’re not passionate about.
For example, a freelance photographer may not be very interested in creating online content to promote her work; and handling issues like marketing and SEO might actually eat into the available time for photography work.
This can be a serious hazard: if you get caught up trying to handle every single aspect of the business, you will ironically end up being worse at what you do. Even in a regular employed job, companies use different people in different departments – the bosses don’t try to run marketing, customer outreach, ad creation, accounts, etc. all by themselves.
You should do the same. Pick out your core competence (your central passion, which you’re good at), and allocate the most time of day towards this. For the other elements, such as putting up posts to sell your work, consider delegating as soon as you can (e.g., get a virtual assistant to help with bookkeeping, as soon as you have the budget).
Our passions and what we’re good at tend to be intertwined: anything you fully devote yourself to will eventually become an above-average skill. But if we keep it under wraps, or play it down, then no one is aware of it.
While being very skilled invariably draws attention, it could end up taking two or three times longer than if you were to actively announce what you do. But herein lies the problem:
When you’re truly passionate about something, you will rarely think you’re good enough,and will be shy to show your current work.
That’s because passionate people tend to set extremely high standards. When you love something and follow all the news and key figures, you have a keen sense of how high the bar is set. E.g. a passionate singer might define a legend like Diana Damrau as “good”, whereas a more lukewarm singer might define winning a local KTV contest as already being good.
On a practical level, you need to swallow the perfectionism and impossible standards. By all means, strive to be the best – but acknowledge that your work is already good enough to charge money for, and don’t be shy about announcing it. Put it on your Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc., and always encourage your friends to share the news.
The surest way to kill a passion, and disappoint yourself, is to over-commit from the very start. An example of this is taking large business loans, or spending huge sums to buy ad space and rent pricey offices, so you can “come in looking pro”.
This is actually a bad way to monetise your passions. First, you’re spending way more money than you’re making at the start; and you are depriving yourself of the capital and stamina you need. Monetising your passions is a marathon, not a spring.
Second, the smaller business opportunities have to be found first, as they constitute your fallback. For example, you may find, by starting small, that you can make money by selling free stock photos on the internet. Later on, when you try more ambitious photography projects, you won’t starve if they fail: you know you can go back to selling stock images for a time, while you save up for another attempt.
But if you charge straight in with ambitious, long-shot projects, a single failure might be all it takes to shut you down.
Within your given passion, there will be different customer demographics who will be drawn to you. For example, say your passion is diving, and you’re licensed as an instructor.
Even if you start teaching it for a living, you need to consider if your methods and interests work well with:
● Complete amateurs (you teach from scratch)
● Seasoned veterans (you teach more advanced levels, perhaps because beginners frustrate you!)
● Younger or older enthusiasts (there are different physical standards and maturity levels)
● Tourists or locals
Once you identify the niche you’re happiest working with, you’ll have some idea of who to market your services to, and what services to offer.
You may not identify the right niche from the very start – this is a process of trial and error. However, you need to be patient and try different demographics, until you find the one that works.
In the meantime, you might want to consider not quitting a regular job just yet. The above can all be done in baby steps, as a sideline while you have other work. Of course, it helps to have a job that offers flexible timing, or that offers a chance to develop the skills mentioned above.
At Exodus Capital, we help young, passionate people get a headstart in the finance industry. From there, they develop the confidence and skills needed to better pursue their dreams. Do reach out to us for help, if you want career opportunities that can match your wider goals.
