Find your monetizable passion

- The next phase in creating your career plan is to determine if you can generate revenue from your passion, what I've termed monetizable passion. In other words, just because you love doing something doesn't mean you can make a living at it. The first step is to determine if you can monetize your passion. For example, you may love oil painting, but discover that that's not a sustainable career. So you become a graphic design teacher and that buys you the time you need to devote to your painting in the evenings and on weekends. I want you to think of yourself as a wagon wheel. The hub is your core brand or skillset. If you were, say, Apple, that might be that you manufacture and sell electronic devices. If you were Coca-Cola you bottle and market beverages. In this example, let's use musician as the hub. The spokes extending from that hub are the various ways you can derive income from your talents. This might include studio musician, touring musician, teacher, which could mean private lessons, clinics, K-12, after school programs, high school and college courses, producer, audio engineer, arranger, managing other artists, mixer, songwriter, booking agent, product endorsements, etc. Some of the things you love to do will not be monetizable. Now I know what I'm saying may not be an easy pill to swallow, but it's important that you understand the distinction between passion and monetizable passion. You may never find a way to make a living doing some of the things that are closest to your heart. They are hobbies. Be prepared. What you do for a living may have little or no connection to your true passions. So your second step is to be open to adjusting your goal, whether that's a company you're targeting or a market or an audience. I had a friend whose passion was her horse, which she rode twice a week without fail. But with boarding, feed, maintenance, and healthcare, horses cost thousands of dollars to keep. Now, my friend had been an executive with a television company for over 20 years. You'd think that someone who had successfully moved up the corporate ladder for two decades would consider that her career. But she thought of it as just her job. A job that gave her the income she needed to take care of her true passion, her horse. The poet Wallace Stevens sold insurance to make a living, as did the composer Charles Ives. I'm not suggesting you sell insurance to pay the bills so you can pursue your passion after working hours. If you need to find a day job, the optimal thing would be something as closely related to your passion as possible, like a touring musician who, when she's not on the road, teaches music and authors books on the subject and does session work in recording studios. The third step in this process is to be cognizant of larger trends in the economy. It may not be the right time to open that business or pursue that degree. Consider whether there is currently a market for what it is you want to do. I had a student years ago whose ambitious but legitimate goal was to be the editor at Vogue Magazine. I suggested she broaden her search to Harper's Bazaar and Elle because Vogue might not be hiring for an editor at that moment, and also that she needed to consider other options, like starting as a junior editor at a less prestigious magazine. So be sure to examine the particular industry you want to work in, as well as the state of the broader economy. This is the business side of designing your career.