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Do What You Love and You'll Probably
Starve
We’ve been sold a bill of goods when
we’re told to “Follow your passion,
“ or “Do what you love and the money will
follow.” Fact is, if you do what you love,
you'll probably starve.
Yes, some people do what they love and the money
follows. Others make less money but still are
happy, but millions of people have followed their
passion and still haven’t earned enough money
to even pay back their student loans, let alone
make a middle-class living doing what they’re
passionate about.
The problem is that too many people crave the
same few careers, for example, the arts and
non-profit work. Because employers in these fields
get dozens if not hundreds of applications for each
job, you have to be a superstar or extremely well
connected to get the job. In other cases, salaries
tend to be low or non-existent. Do what you love
and volunteer work will probably follow.
The irony is that the small percentage of people
who do make a living in
“do-what-you-love,”
“follow-your-passion” careers, are, on
average, no happier than people in less sexy
jobs.
Here’s why. Not only do salaries in
“cool” careers tend to be low, employers
in those fields know they needn’t treat their
employees with kid gloves because zillions of other
capable people are panting for the opportunity to
work 60 hours a week for $27,521 (with no benefits)
for the good feeling of knowing they’re
playing an infinitesimal role in saving the spotted
owl or whatever, even though they may never get
closer to a spotted owl than a pile of accounts
receivable statements.
So there are plenty of unhappy people in
so-called cool careers. That’s true even in
unarguably cool careers. Think of how many stars
have big-time problems with drugs or depression.
Kurt Cobain, John Belushi, and Janis Joplin loved
their cool career so much they killed
themselves.
Other people’s passion is status. So, for
example, they endure years of boring law school and
accumulate boatloads of student debt for the
privilege of slaving under a 2,200-billable-hour
quota for the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and
Howe, with a futon in their office so they can
sneak in a few zzzs in the middle of the
all-nighters they pull to boost the chances of
another lawyer’s corporate client giving money
to their corporate client.
Other status seekers prostitute themselves to
climb the corporate ladder. They work 60+-hour
workweeks and kiss up to their bosses, smilingly
willing to uproot themselves and their families for
a few years in Dubuque, Tuscaloosa, and/or any
goddamn place the Company wants to dump them. They
endure years of theoretical crap in an MBA program
so they can put those three letters, M,B,A, on
their resume. And for what? So they may finally get
a title of director or vice president, and after
their 12-hour cover-their-butt workday, collapse on
their sofa, get blitzed, and stare at their
oversized living room in their oversized
neighborhood wondering, “Is that all there
is?”
In contrast, if your job is mundane, for
example, marketing manager for the Ace Soybean
Processing Company, the employer knows there
aren’t hundreds of competent people champing
at the bit for your job. So, to keep you, the
employer is more likely to offer decent working
conditions, reasonable work hours, kind treatment,
opportunities for learning, and pay you well. Those
are the things that—much more than being in a
“cool” career-- lead to career
contentment.
You say you want status? Unless you’re a
true superstar (brilliant, driven, great
personality, or have great connections), give it
up. Status is often the enemy of success.
You’re more likely to find career contentment
in a not-high-status career. In my mind, someone
who’s an honorable assistant manager for the
Ace Soybean Processing Co. is more worthy of
respect than many lawyers, investment bankers, and
business development VPs I know. If someone thinks
less of you because you’re job isn’t
high-status, they don’t deserve to be your
friend.
Advice I’d Give My Child
If you’re at all entrepreneurial, I
recommend starting your own business. Yes, I know,
only 20 percent of new businesses are still in
business after five years, but you can beat the
odds. Just remember is this one rule: Do not
innovate. Copy a successful simple business.
Innovations are risky: Your whiz-bang new product
might not work or be popular with the public. Or a
competitor could beat you to market. Why be a
guinea pig? Drive around to find a simple business
at which customers are lined up out the door. For
example, see a successful burrito shop or espresso
cart? Open a similar one in a similar neighborhood.
Your chances of success will be a helluva lot
higher than 20%. Confine your urge to innovate to
your hobbie.
Another approach to finding a good business is
to pick a grungy one, for example, automatic
transmission repair or mobile home park
maintenance. Few top-notch people go into such
businesses, so if you do a decent job, you’ll
probably make good maybe great money. And
you’ll feel better about your work, having
people coming to you and thanking you, and owning
your own operation rather than slaving away for
some non-profit ever fearing your job will be
downsized or shipped to India.
You say you don’t have the knowledge to run
such a business? No problem. For example, I
don’t know squat about transmissions, but if I
wanted to open a transmission shop, I’d find
the best transmission mechanic, pay him well and
hire a consultant who is the owner a successful
transmission shop far enough from my store that he
wouldn’t fear my competition. The two of them
would teach me how to set up my business. Then,
I’d spend my time building relationships with
car repair shop owners so I’d get their
referral business.
If starting a business from scratch seems too
scary, consider a franchise. According to Robert
Bond, author of Bond’s Franchise Guide 2004,
some of the best include Jani-King commercial
cleaning, Merry Maids residential cleaning, and
Aussie Pet Mobile, a grooming service. When you
find a franchise that sounds appealing, be sure to
speak with at least 10 of the franchise’s
franchisees at random before signing on the dotted
line.
If you’re not at all entrepreneurial and
want to be well employed, go far from the madding
crowd. Here are some areas where the job market is
not hypercompetitive: Court reporting, car finance
& insurance, accounting, insurance, sales of
little known commercial products, health care,
health care administration, fundraising, financial
services, anything serving Latinos (entertainment,
schools, hospitals, criminal justice system),
anti-terrorism, and biotech regulatory affairs.
Remember, you’re more likely to find career
contentment by going far from the madding
crowd.
© 2007, Marty
Nemko
* * *
Marty
Nemko holds a PhD from the University of
California, Berkeley, and subsequently taught in
Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. He is
the worklife columnist in the Sunday San Francisco
Chronicle and is the producer and host of Work With
Marty Nemko, heard Sundays at 11 on 91.7 FM in
(NPR, San Francisco), and worldwide on
www.martynemko.com
 .
400+ of his published writings are available free
on that website and is a co-editor of
Cool
Careers for Dummies.
and author of The All-in-One College Guide.
E-Mail.
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