Did it feed my passion? YES! (5/5)

Was I any good at it? Not really. (1/5)

Did it pay well? Not at all. (1/5)

Excellence = Work you're good at.

Enjoyment = Work you love.

Economy = Work people will pay for. 

If you enjoy the work that you are able to do, you may even be the best in the world at it, but if you are not able to get paid anything for it, you will be poor. You will be an impoverished starving artist.

Arnold is the editor-in-chief at a glossy magazine that is distributed all over the country. He loves his job and doesn’t usually mind the hours of unpaid overtime, except for the fact that his half-finished novel has been languishing in a forgotten folder for the last two years.

If you can find it, full-time employment doing creative work can satisfy the excellence/enjoyment/economy circles. The only downside is because you spend most of your creative juices on work, you may not have any left over for your passion projects.

One way some people have struck a balance is to have a day job that is creative but unrelated to their passion projects, so you don’t have to tap into the same creativity sources as you work.

Graphic designer Annie sits alone in front of the computer for most of the week. To unwind at the end of the day, she does calligraphy with pen and paper. On weekends, she also holds watercolor workshops at cafes (for a modest price) and teaches media skills to the high school and college students at her church (for free).

Anton works in a recording studio as a sound engineer, a role that satisfies his audiophile nature, but lets him save his creative juices for when he writes original music.

Angela is an art director at an advertising agency. She also makes a free comic that’s gotten popular on facebook. She prints limited-edition postcards and posters that she sells exclusively at comic conventions, and her followers flock to her booth to buy merch and get them signed.

Because the day job and the passion projects access creativity in different ways, the supply doesn’t get exhausted as easily. Some people may find that this arrangement suits them so well that they spend the rest of their lives in this configuration, all the way until they retire and get to enjoy their passions all day long.

REAL WORLD SCENARIO 3:  

Full-time Freelancer handling different projects, each one satisfying different circles

For freelancers who don’t have a 9-to-5 job, we are actually in a unique position to find the sweet spot not just in one job, but in several jobs at the same time.

As freelancers, we don’t always know when the projects will come in. There are busy seasons, when you hardly have time to catch a breath because you’re always running after a deadline.

And there are weeks or even months when you’re just twiddling your thumbs, waiting for clients to call for a new job. The quiet seasons are usually the time we get to invest in our passion projects, while we wait for the paying projects to come in. This is also a fantastic opportunity to experiment and find ways to reframe your service so that more clients will actually want to hire you.

In order to sustain you during the inevitable lean months, or to support our non-paying passion projects, you regularly have to take on projects that are not as enjoyable, but that pay very well.

But if you only work for the money and not for enjoyment, you don’t refresh your soul or replenish your creative energies. You run the risk of burning out.

As freelancers, we need to strike a balance between work we enjoy, work we love, and work that pays off big-time. You can have multiple projects, each layer satisfying different circles. For example, one project could be mostly for money, but it isn't necessarily bringing you a lot of personal fulfillment. But taking on that project allows you to volunteer for an organization that you are very invested in, so that brings in zero money but maximum meaning and significance. You are only limited by time and energy -- you can have as many projects or layers as you can without sacrificing on the quality of your work or and hopefully  your health of course!





My husband, Gutch, came up with this variation on the classic Venn diagram for our THRIVE workshops. Each layer corresponds to a particular job or service you offer. This model works for people who can do different things at the same time.

Our theory is that most people are multi-talented. There are usually different kinds of services we can provide. Having a wide menu of clients and services raises the likelihood of having a healthy flow of paying projects.  

I found my sweet spot after 2 day jobs and over a decade of freelance work. Sometimes artists shun taking on a regular job, thinking that by doing “regular” jobs they are giving up on their dreams. Or sometimes creatives don't take on "boring projects," worrying that if they work for corporate clients, their imagination will be limited, their creativity stifled. Or worse, they will be “selling out.”

My friend, there is no shame in being a responsible adult.

No matter what you have to do to put food on the table, as long as you’re not breaking the law or hurting other people, there is inherent dignity in a good day’s work. Day jobs are not the devil and I will forever be grateful for both of mine.

Having said that, if you have a day job and are considering  freelance passion projects on the side, Congratulations! You are one of the elite army of salaried employees, a dying breed in these dire economic times. You, my salaried friend, are a rare shiny pokemon. This also means your basic needs are met and you are now looking to satisfy your “self-actualization” needs. That is a rare privilege!

If you DON’T have a day job, Congratulations! You are a Full-time Freelancer!

Welcome to the club, friend. You have the motivation to pay attention to this next part.

Next: The Privilege of Art, Creativity and Self-Actualization