| I wish OP all the best, but there is one bit I can't get out of my head > I feel very strongly that everyone should try, to the extent that it makes some kind of sense if you squint hard enough, to do what they want in work and life. This is much much easier to say after an entire career in tech. However I wouldn't give this advice lightly to people just starting over. Here is a counterexample. I started my career following my passion and "doing what I love", so I became an academic and joined a university. After 7 years I was burnt out, broke and hated what used to be my passion. And I had to essentially start over my professional career in the private sector. These days I don't necessarily always love my day to day job, but I do enjoy more the lifestyle it afford me as a whole. My takeaway is that earning money and growing your career capital early on has compounding effect over time, and more importantly, it increases your optionality in the future. Going into comedy writing is less scary when you don't need to worry about sustaining your family. |
For example, you might have a passion for writing on the weekends, but to write as a job it takes writing every day, hitting deadlines, pitching books, getting rejected, making changes you don't want to, etc., etc.
The advice is sound, I think a lot of people just don't think through the reality of what a job in their field of passion looks like.
I've been a professional athlete for a long time and it's the thing people get wrong the most thinking they want to have their hobby as their job. That's why they love it, because its a hobby!
If you only want to do the "job" after you have financial stability, you don't want a job, you just want more time to do your hobby.