How To Decide Whether You Should Turn Your Passion Into Money

Not everything deserves to be compensated.

Even your passion.

You may have incredible skills and an undying fire for something, if you approach your passion in the wrong way, you’re bound to regret it. I know I did.

If you really want to create a life around your passion, be careful of how you approach it.

Tip Your Toe

Diving headfirst into anything is a surefire way to burnout. What’s worse than a “simple” burnout? A burnout about your passion. If your passion’s gone how do you expect to be happy?

I’ve been a language addict for more than a decade. If I don’t study languages for some time, I become irritated and will find a way to create conflict with anybody. As a result, I thought it’d be a great idea to spend more time in languages and looked for a job in translation.

I loved exchanging with people of other cultures and even did a bit of translation in my time but I knew I was still far from the level needed to make real money from it. And so, I went for the “next best thing”.

I started working for a translation company as a project manager. My job consisted of handling translations in dozens of languages, day after day. I was surrounded by languages. You could say it was a dream come true, but it was only on paper. In reality, I had no time to even look at the files.

Languages went from being an enjoyable activity to my whole life. What happened? Seeing languages was the last thing I wanted to do at the end of the day.

Take your time. If you really want to dive into your passion, remember the adage from Confucius:

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

But what should you concentrate on then? Is anything related to your passion good enough to try?

Use the Funnel Technique

The funnel technique is a common interview method. It consists of asking general questions and going more in-depth as you proceed.

Applying this technique to your passion, you can interview yourself to avoid major errors. You will discover what you could do without ruining your passion.

I love languages but it doesn’t mean I should do anything related to languages. I could become a teacher, a coach, a translator (of which there are many subtypes), an interpreter, or one of many other choices. It doesn’t mean any of those would fit me.

By diving into the world of translation project management, I lost my passion for a while. This happened because I didn’t take into account all the factors.

I thought I liked project management as I had positive previous experiences but the world of translation is full of tiny projects handled in a day or week. All my previous projects had been long-term projects spanning a few months at least and often more than a year. Not taking that aspect into consideration caused me many headaches.

Ask yourself the hard questions. Do your research so you don’t have to make the same mistake I did.

How to Make a Decision

Start by writing down what you like in your passion. What excites you? Why does the simple thought of it make you smile?

From there, list possible jobs that use your passion. Add to those results you find after googling a bit. For languages, you could search for “language-related jobs”.

Cross the ones you already know you aren’t interested in. For me, being an interpreter was a no-go because I already knew I didn’t like taking notes on the spot. Simultaneous interpreting was attractive but required a level of expertise out of my league.

Underline the ones you could be interested in and research them online. Check comments about the job itself on Glassdoor and other platforms. Be careful not to generalize comments about one company to all of them.

For jobs you can’t try on the side, find people who have this job on Linkedin, and send them a short message to ask a few questions. We all love to talk about ourselves so you can be sure some people will answer your questions.

For jobs you could “give a go” on the side, try a few hours a week for a while, like translation or tour guide for languages for example. This will allow you to notice what you like and dislike. Potentially avoiding to commit to an endeavor you’d regret later.

Make a few bucks

If you can start a job related to your passion on the side, start making a few bucks. Be amazed at the possibilities and keep at it for a while.

Be consistent, keep getting better, and make more connections as time passes by. See opportunities arise all around. Discover more possibilities related to your passion that you ever thought of in the past.

Find a niche you like. Create. Develop. Become a reference. Have people reach out to you now to ask you questions. Wonder if you could actually make a living out of this without killing your passion. Dig deeper than you ever thought possible. Find more opportunities. Reach out to even more people. Learn more about your craft. Keep adding “more”.

Until you reach the day it would be stupid for you not to dive in.

You dive in, excited, and feel complete now that you don’t have to survive for your passion.

Your passion is in the center of your life.