Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow

Four months ago, I quit my well-paying job at a software company so that I could freelance part-time and have more time for writing. Marsha Sinetar's book Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow was a significant factor in helping me make that decision.

I knew that editing technical manuals was not my "right livelihood". I enjoyed the work at times, but it was not meaningful to me in the way that my fiction writing is. However, I had bought in to the idea that writing would always be a sideline, while I spent the bulk of my working life making as much money as I could. Maybe when I had saved enough, or could support myself with fiction writing, then I could quit my day job.

I started to question that assumption when I came across Sinetar's book. She writes:

Most of us think about our jobs or our careers as a means to fulfill responsibilities to families and creditors, to gain more material comforts, and to achieve status and recognition. But we pay a high price for this kind of thinking. A large percentage of America's working population do not enjoy the work they do! This is a profoundly tragic statistic considering that work consumes so much of our lives. In a few brief decades, our working life adds up to be life itself.

Such a nose-to-the-grindstone attitude is not even a good formula for success. When you study people who are successful, as I have over the years, it is abundantly clear that their achievements are directly related to the enjoyment they derive from their work. They enjoy it in large part because they are good at it.

Quitting wasn't easy. I needed four months to make the decision and give my notice. And so far, the money has been a bit slow in following. But unless I take this risk and make the investment now, I'll never have the time and energy to create a writing career.