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Do what you Love and the Money will Follow?

OK, first off let me say that I have never read the well-known self-help book of the same name.  It may very well be a great resource for helping people find ways to build successful careers doing something they really enjoy (or it may not).  So, this post isn't any sort of review of the book or what it proposes.  Instead I want to talk about the general idea that the title suggests.  The message seems to get tossed around a lot as a life philosophy in and of itself.  (Just do what you love and the money will follow.)  It comes off (to me at least) that there aren't any real steps beyond just doing something that you are truly passionate about and then expecting the money to start rolling in.  I honestly can't think of a single example of this happening to anyone in real life.

I suppose if you love playing the lottery and actually end up being the one in a billion players who hit the jackpot that might count.  But, lots of people may love playing the lottery and only the most miniscule percentage of them ever make a living from it. It might apply to some professional athletes, who likely love playing basketball or baseball and certainly make a ton of money doing something they enjoy.  But, There is a lot more to their success than just loving to play the game.  Making it to the NFL or any other major sports league requires a mixture of passion for the game, work ethic, and most importantly – talent.  I loved playing baseball when I was a kid and daydreamed about pitching for my beloved Chicago Cubs one day.  But, loving the game didn't give me a 95 mph fastball or pinpoint control on my pitches.  Basically, I was a good ballplayer as a kid, but never had the physical tools to get closer to a major league game than buying a ticket and sitting in the stands.

Building a successful career in any field requires a lot more than just doing what you love and expecting the universe to take care of the rest for you.  I'm not knocking the idea of discovering what you love to do and then figuring out a way to turn it into a real career.  In fact, I think this is a fantastic idea.  But, too many self-help books (just like many of the make money online programs) make it sound as easy as falling out of bed.  While this may help sell a lot of books, I'm not sure that it really helps a lot of people make a comfortable living from their passion.

I think a better process might go something like this.

1. Discover your passion.
The various self help books likely do a good job of helping people find out what they really love to do (if people need help with it in the first place), so I'm not going to try to walk people through any exercises to get this figured out.  I'll assume you either know what you love to do or have picked up a book to help you figure it out.

2. Be honest with yourself about how talented you are or can become at what you love doing.
This is one of the first big steps to making this work.  Like my situation with loving to play baseball, but not having the physical ability to excel and make a living at it, you need to take an honest and critical look at yourself and decide whether you can become a concert violinist, stand-up comedian, professional poker player, or affiliate marketer.  Do you have the necessary talents and abilities or are you dedicated enough to develop them (assuming they can be developed)?  As an affiliate marketer, are you a good copywriter, programmer, or marketer?  If not, are you confident that you can learn the business and build the skills needed to succeed?

3. Figure out all the different ways that you could build a career or business around your passion.
This one is just as important.  Maybe, like me you loved baseball as a kid and want a career in the sport.  Playing the game isn't the only way to follow your passion.  You could work in the front office, become a scout, study sports photography, develop your skills as a sports writer, etc.  The point is that there may be more than one way to build a career around what you love.  In affiliate marketing, this could mean focusing on what you are good at (maybe copywriting) and learning to outsource other tasks (like programming) to a contractor.

4. Dedicate yourself to doing whatever it takes to reach your goals.
Now the hard work comes in.  Most people aren't just naturally so talented at something that they can turn it into a career without a lot of hard work.  Just like a professional athlete has to train incredibly hard to get every ounce of performance out of their potential, you need to be dedicated to do whatever it takes to get you to your goal and building a career doing what you enjoy.  In affiliate marketing, this means putting in the time and effort to become an expert online marketer.

5. Do it.
Even if you carry out all the other steps, if you don't actually follow Nike's advice and "do it" you will never be able to make a career from your passion.

About the Author

Tom Wozniak is the director of marketing for Media Breakaway, LLC and writes the official blog for affiliate.com.  He has been in marketing and advertising for over 25 years with over 10 years of experience in the online world.

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