Why the thesis that we no longer need to work if we only make our enthusiasm our vocation is sheer nonsense

Again and again one reads in books, articles and also in social networks that one supposedly no longer has to work, but is virtually on holiday if one follows what one is passionate about. This raises 2 questions: firstly, what exactly does it mean to follow what you are passionate about? And secondly: if one follows this enthusiasm, does one then work - or is one then only on holiday?

Let's turn to the first question: if I want to follow what I am passionate about, then the question arises as to whether I should do this in my private or professional life. Many people argue that all you have to do is make what you are passionate about in your private life your profession. Then all problems would be solved. Then your whole life would be one big holiday.

I don't see it that way.

First of all, there is the question of what I am passionate about. Now I can already hear many people saying: but that's obvious! That's what's on my mind all day, that's what I like to do.  But here is the first task: do I really know all the topics I am passionate about? Or asked the other way round: if I know so well what I am passionate about, why am I passionate about some topics I never used to care about? 

One of the possible answers lies in the fact that we both need impulses from outside and should develop our inner ability to look for topics that might excite us and always be open to new topics. Just for fun, go through the many theme-oriented magazines in the magazine shop at the next opportunity and wait for your inner reaction to which themes you stop at, where you pause, where you start thinking, where you get a good feeling. 

Let's say you stop at a music magazine and think you've always wanted to be a music promoter. After all, you are passionate about music. That leads us to the second question:

Does the subject I am passionate about also correspond to a possible job? if I am passionate about music, then wanting to become a music promoter may be a fallacy. because the skills needed for a music promoter could at least go well beyond music, possibly even lie in completely different areas. For example, a music promoter also needs to be strong in networking, needs strong organisational skills, needs to be good at planning. At that point at the latest, I might stop and say to myself: oh, networking is not really my thing, I just love music. 

Let's go one step further: if I want to turn what I am passionate about in my private life into my profession, then I need at least two very crucial additional factors besides my own enthusiasm for the subject: there must be a market for my subject and I must be willing and able to commit to my enthusiasm professionally.

The question of whether there is a market for my topic depends first of all very much on, 

• which problems of which people I would like to solve with which service, or 
• which people's wishes I want to fulfil with which service.

For example, if I am passionate about travel, then I might find that many people who want to go on a somewhat complex private trip are not able to organise it very well. Or that many people who need to take slightly more complex business trips are tired of trying to pick out the best travel options, prices and routes every time. 

Now I first have to look at which and how many people have this problem, my target group.  In the next step, I think about a solution to the problem and come to the conclusion that I want to solve travel planning through an app. And this brings us to the second challenge: am I willing and able to commit to my enthusiasm professionally?

To stay with the travel example: if I can enthusiastically programme an app for travel planning myself, then I might have found my fulfilment with the programming and later realise when marketing the app that this is now not my subject at all. Conversely, it could also be that I first have to raise the funds to have the app programmed and then enjoy filling the entrepreneurial role of marketing it. 

In other words, once I have identified what problems I want to solve or what desires I want to fulfil, I need to list what needs to be done to deliver and market this service. In doing so, I can determine which of these tasks I am enthusiastic about and which of them I can actually perform. The tasks for which this is not the case, however, still need to be implemented: this is where I need the resources, time, manpower and money. Maybe I always wanted to learn programming and instead of hiring a programmer I can learn the subject myself. However, I need time for that.

But wait: don't I just have to follow my enthusiasm? Just do what gives me pleasure?

It's a long way from hobby to vocation. But that doesn't mean that one should shy away from it - quite the opposite. But I have to be clear about the differences between a hobby and a vocation right from the start. 

For a hobby, one's own enthusiasm is enough, because after all, it's supposed to be fun - and that's a good thing. For a vocation, it is also important 

• what kind of performance I achieve with my enthusiasm or what kind of products I manufacture
• whose problems I solve with it or whose wishes I fulfil with it
• which task I have to fulfil
• which of these tasks I am enthusiastic about
• for what kind of tasks I have the necessary skills or can develop them
• which resources I have to realise the tasks for which this is not the case.

This is my answer to the thesis that you only have to make what you are passionate about in your private life your profession.

Now to the second question mentioned at the beginning:

Let's say I have overcome all the above challenges, I have now developed a travel planning app and am marketing it. Or I am a music promoter.

Would my whole life then be one holiday? Would I never "work" in the strict sense again? Given the variety and number of tasks required for any professional endeavour, one certainly cannot speak of a holiday in the narrow sense of the word. In the broader sense, i.e. figuratively speaking, many people have the opinion that one's own activity, if it really corresponds to my enthusiasm, is no longer work. 

Even from the small examples listed, it is easy to see that for the professional undertaking, many tasks have to be fulfilled that probably do not correspond to my enthusiasm. What matters here is whether I can delegate these tasks or develop the enthusiasm and skills to carry them out myself after all. Not everyone is good at, or at least motivated to, identify a market for a service or product. Not everyone enjoys developing a necessary technical solution for this service themselves or even controlling its completion. 

Therefore, I would like to counter this with a thesis: If I want to make my enthusiasm my profession, then I have to be willing to do things that no one else wants to do. I have to draw strength from the vision, my target image, the big picture of what I want to achieve. This gives me the strength to "go through" tasks that are less enjoyable and beyond my own abilities: I have to "go through" if I want to get to the goal. 

And here we come full circle: yes, I need my own enthusiasm - as a basis. Mathematically speaking, it is the "necessary condition". Without enthusiasm, everything is nothing. But enthusiasm is not yet the "sufficient condition" for professional purposes: beyond my enthusiasm, I need the need, the market, the description of the solution of the product, the marketing plan, the task lists and the resources. 

For music as a hobby, I only need my enthusiasm. Maybe I know one or two bands privately and like to promote them now and then by arranging a few gigs in some music pubs. That's fun, and I should follow that.

The job of a music promoter may require me to research a long list of possible venues and then contact all of them - or the whole thing may have to be achieved digitally. I put my music hobby on the back burner when I don't feel like it at the moment or when I have other tasks to fulfil. As a professional music promoter, I have to continue researching and contacting people even when I don't feel like it at all, maybe I don't have that much power at the moment and actually want to or have to do many other things.

So if we follow our own enthusiasm professionally, then we "have to go through it" if we want to find our vision, our fulfilment. And that's why it's important that our vision is really powerful - that it's worth going through a valley sometimes, to deal with disappointments sometimes, to get up again after small defeats in order to go on and reach the big goal. 

Yes, it is worth following our enthusiasm. The decision whether we do what we are passionate about "only" as a hobby or make it our vocation depends on what we are willing to give for it.

Do you have anything to say or ask? I look forward to your feedback, suggestions and further questions! Gladly also on [email protected]. For many more tips & tricks of this kind, simply send an email with subject: "Tips and Tricks" to [email protected].