how would you roll if money wasn't involved?
neal shaffer
Get down to the real reason for doing what you do.
Here's a thought: what if your efforts had no chance of paying off? What if you simply couldn't "monetize" (ugh) your website, sell your products, or convince others to retain your services? Then what?
If the answer is "I'd quit and find something else" then, hey, fair enough. That just means you don't truly love what you do, and there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. But if you do love what you do, this is a question worth exploring.
The most important thing I learned growing up around the DIY culture was that money should never be the sole motivator. People did things because they were compelled by a basic passion to create something and send it out into the world. I knew plenty of people who went into debt starting bands, booking shows, making their own xeroxed magazines, and screen printing posters by hand. I knew plenty of others who parlayed those endeavors into careers.
Almost nobody started or stopped based solely on whether or not their work "paid off". All of them came out ahead.
So take a look at what you're doing and imagine recasting your efforts in a vacuum where money doesn't factor. What's the passion? What's the one thing that you'd continue to want to say regardless of whether or not anyone was explicitly rewarding the effort?
Figure that out and then approach everything you do from that perspective. Watch what happens.
Reader Comments (2)
Good post, Neal. Wouldn't it be awesome if all the world worked this way?
The thing is that I feel like most of the world actually could work this way, and there are a lot of success stories of people who do. But, yeah, maybe a 100% adoption rate would be a little pollyannish.