Making a living doing what we love is something that most of us want. And yet, most of the times, we have seen countless examples of people who tried to do so and failed miserably at it? Why do most people fail at making money doing what they love and can’t even pay their bills? It’s because most of them jump in emotionally but without a strategy. Here are 6 guidelines that will raise your chances of success tremendously.
How To Make a Living Doing What You Love
1) You need to be really good at what you love
Millions of kids across the globe desire to become professional sportsmen in the sport of their choice. Only a very tiny percentage go on to play for the major leagues where the real money is it. Many of these kids maybe super hard working and yet they never make it because they just don’t have the aptitude for the game.
This may sound depressing but hard work only pays off when you have some aptitude to begin with. If you do what you love but are not very good at it, it is better to find something else you are good at so that the odds of success and making a living are in your favor.
2) People should receive value through what you do
If a musician only creates composition and plays music that he enjoys but no one else does, he maybe doing what he loves but he provides no value. On the other hand a composer that is constantly trying to come up with music that interests and serves the need of his core fans is constantly committed to providing value will continue to make money in the long run.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a businessman, a chef, a sportsperson or someone else. You will only make money when people receive value from you. If you don’t want to provide value then keep doing what you love but only as a hobby!
3) You should be able to convince people to spend money on your skills.
If you cannot make money from doing what you love even after pursuing it for a good year or two, it usually means that people don’t see enough value to pay for it. If your target market is not willing to spend money on you, here is what you can do.
- Get better at your craft
- Assess whether there is a real market. Are others in this industry making money?
- Get feedback from people about what they will be willing to pay for and make appropriate changes.
- Learn better marketing strategies to promote your product/skill/service
- Learn Sales strategies to convince people of the value you provide
4) You shouldn’t target the wrong people
Sometimes you may be targeting the wrong people all together. The reasons maybe
- They love your work but don’t have the money. – You can’t sell luxury vehicles to people who are barely making a living or to students. You are better off trying to sell to people who can actually afford your products/services or come up with a different low priced product/service for the people you are already targeting
- They don’t want to spend the money – Another very real category of people you will encounter are those who only want freebies. Monetizing this group is hard but can be done. You will have to think of other money making strategies for this group such as advertisements, sponsors or getting other patrons. If nothing works, solve the needs of a different group of people.
5) You should not depend on a single source of income.
It doesn’t matter how much money you make, if you depend only a single income source you are inviting trouble in the future. You may be a great sportsman today but what if you have a serious injury? You may be making money from your skill today but what if it is no longer in demand later?
Being prepared for the worst case scenario is extremely important if you are self employed. So even if you are making a lot of money today keep coming up with new ideas that have potential to pay off in the future. This way even if you drop one basket, you still have the other one.
6) You should be able to handle the struggle
The path less traveled is less traveled for a reason. It has a lot of obstacles. No matter how talented you are, there is likely to be a lot of struggle involved. There are going to be times when you will question whether it is worth the pain. You are going to wish you lived a stable life like everyone else . But guess what, the obstacles are there only to separate those who just wish for something from those who are determined to win no matter what.
Also, people are going to doubt you at every stage. They are going to laugh at you behind your back and will secretly hope you fail. One of the reasons they do that is because they themselves might have failed at the road less traveled which is why they cannot bear the sight of someone else amongst them actually passing through it successfully. The crabs will always try to pull you down. But do you have the strength to kick them away and keep climbing?
Conclusion
Practising these tips will not guarantee success, but it will certainly make you much more likely to achieve it! Finally if there is one thing you should remember, it is this: In life it is not the luckiest or most talented who succeed, the ones who do are those with decent talent, the right strategy and an immense will to succeed. Are you one of them?
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