[willis936]

That's just because your metric for success is different. I consider someone who was able to pay their bills and do what they really care about well everyday for 10 years far more successful than the person who did a passing job at something they didn't care about but were able to afford a house or whatever.

My advice is do what you care about and make sure you won't go broke. If you're good and lucky you'll have that opportunity. If you're extremely lucky you'll do better financially.

[TrololoTroll]

Ah, to be capable of being that optimistic/irresponsible

Money doesn't solve all of life's problems... But it does solve a lot of them, and just paying the bills is a safety factor of approximately 1

[fhd2]

Depends on where you live I suppose, but you can get by even on unemployment benefits in most of the EU from my experience. That's a good safety factor.

And I don't think anyone here said to only do things you want to do at all costs. I doubt _anyone_ gets away with that. But I'd argue you can generally use the skills related to your passion to make good money.

Being realistic: If you're doing things you reasonably enjoy 80% of the time, that's pretty much a dream job.