Find Your Passion and Figure out How to Make Money from It
By John Irvin
When I graduated high school, I thought I was off to college to complete a Pre-Medicine degree. Then it would be off to Medical School after that and finally a three or four year Residency, etc. etc.
After writing somewhere around 10 or 15 books in High School, I figured my writing was over for the rest of my life. Because who has time for writing books when the real life is where it’s at? A “real” job is what we’re supposed to do. Right?
Funny how life throws you curves and next thing you know, you’ve graduated college with a Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Humanities and you’re thinking, Well, maybe I could take the class and obtain a Medical Assistant’s Certification?
Wrong again.
I lived with one of my brother’s in Kentucky for the year following my college graduation. I worked a warehouse job dragging in 40 to 50 hours of overtime—sometimes more—per week. I was making good paychecks, but I had no life. I somehow managed to write one book though.
I decided I had enough in 2014 and moved back to Pensacola, Florida. I worked an Emergency Room Patient Access job as well as pizza delivery for the next couple years, before one friend asked me this question.
“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
I did some soul searching, found some books. By then I knew I wanted to write, but could I really make a living off of my writing? Thankfully, there are more and more books out there on that very subject.
The answer, yes, you can.
I quit my full-time job in December of 2016, just a few days before Christmas.
It has taken trial and error and more trials—tons of reading and researching how to make a website, how to self-publish books, how to write better, how to keep motivated, how to be an Authorpreneur.
I have to throw in Business for Authors by Joanna Penn is one of my top go-to books. She’s an Authorpreneur with more experience than me. She’s also one of the many examples that you CAN make a living off of writing books.
I’m reading more and more about how to run this business of mine and I’m slowly seeing promise and potential.
I haven’t reached my goal yet, but all great things take time.
You need to find out what your passion is and figure out how to make money doing it. Life is too short to work a job you hate. Life isn’t about working 9-5, go home, binge Netflix and pay bills, then repeat every day, except maybe weekends.
Yes, it is hard. Yes, there is a huge struggle. Yes, you will wake up barely able to breath from the stress—but you learn to let it go like the ice princess says. You learn to smile when it dawns on you, this is just the first chapter of living your dream!
Another work, I haven’t read yet except for snippets is Turning Pro: Tap your inner power and create your life’s work by Steven Pressfield.
So, chase your passion, chase your dreams. Determine to NEVER give up. You’re just one more day away from success.
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