What Happens When You Turn Your Hobby Into a Job?

There’s a big industry on the web that will show you how you can turn your passion into something that pays your bills. I’m sure you’ve seen the Facebook ads: “Follow your passion! Make money doing what you love!” In just a few easy steps, you’ll be able to solve all your life’s problems, find your dream job, and make bazillions! But you don’t find your passion the way you find change underneath your couch pillow. No. Instead, you stumble around blindly in the dark, stubbing your toe on a bunch of different things, until you find the light switch you’re looking for. One day, you wake up, turn the right light on, and realize that this is what makes you happy — and you can’t imagine doing anything else. You find the work you are passionate about through trial and error. I started this website on a whim. I was 27 years old and I just needed a way to fund my travels. Being a travel writer seemed like a way to do that. This website was to be my online résumé where (maybe) editors would hire me for assignments. There were no grand plans to turn my love of travel into a career. No thoughts of the future. I just wanted to do something that would keep me on the road one day longer. During those first years, to keep the money coming in, I also taught English in Asia, tried to run online marketing websites, and even played semi-professional poker. Yet, as time passed, I found myself devoting more and more time to this website. I loved learning how to make it better, finding new ways to help people travel, writing content, figuring out social media and SEO algorithms, and meeting people through it. Many of the bloggers I met in those first days are now some of my closest friends. I still wake up every day loving what I do and the people I meet. I was asked recently what happens when you turn your passion into a profession? How does that change your relationship with the thing you love so much? Well, it changes the relationship a lot. As the years have passed, travel went from something I wanted to do to something I had to do. The content beast had to be fed. I always had to go out and do stuff to make sure the articles were as updated and accurate as possible. I was no longer just casually blogging about my experience but creating detailed guides. Time moved quickly until, one day, suddenly, there were also five employees to worry about, health care plans to consider, accountants and taxes to pay, meetings and conventions to attend, ad revenue to secure, conference calls to make, and contracts to read.

This had become a business.

Sometimes it fucking sucks.

Sometimes I wake up and just don’t give a shit.

Sometimes I don’t want to go on a trip just because we need content. Sometimes I’m tired of taking pictures of menus, going to grocery stores to look at prices, and collecting brochures for our guides. Sometimes I don’t want to write another goddamn article or could care less about a brand deal coming through.

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What Happens When You Turn Your Hobby Into a Job?

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