MONETIZE

I remember reading somewhere that the ideal hobby is one that is the opposite of one’s work. If you are an artist, it is best to have a hobby that requires you to do something mechanical and technical. The opposite would be true for an engineer; a hobby that requires creative thinking and no right or wrong answers would be best suited to that kind of individual. But it seems that people don’t approach hobbies in that way anymore. People don’t even look for things that they might be interested in; people gravitate to things that other people are interested in.

You could argue that this is due to an overwhelming wave of insecurity that has overtaken this generation of people, and I would tend to agree. But I think there is another layer to this that is keeping people from enjoying the hobbies that would bring them the most joy. It is easier than ever now to reach the audience of a niche hobby in more ways than one; this has kicked off many careers, even if unintentionally. Many people set out to find a hobby and wound up finding an audience and sponsors, eventually leaving the job that they were using that hobby to relieve the stress of.

People see this and feel that if they are going to venture into a hobby, they may as well make some money, may as well be sponsored by some company. Most people would rather leave their job than have a hobby that they enjoy. It’s hard for people to see others taking part in the same hobby as them and earning sometimes tremendous amounts of money to then do the same ‘for free’. Everyone feels entitled to a piece of the advertising dollars.

Instead of taking part in a hobby that one might grow to enjoy and become adept at, a person can find themselves trying to destress from their engineering job by joining a pottery class where they can’t help but use their expertise from their career to sculpt amazing mugs and pots and other creations. It’s a short jump from there to having people whisper into your ear that you could be earning this much money if you did this, and you would have such and such if you did that. What was once a relaxing hobby can very easily turn into an enterprise that no one asked for.

There is a strange assumption among consumers of content that content creators have found an infinite money glitch and are simply printing money. The same can be said for people who earn any amount of money from an online venture. In an age where we are being constantly encouraged to ‘touch grass’, it would do us all some good to remember that sometimes it can be deceptively green, especially when it is out of reach for the time.

The many hurdles that must be overcome in order to monetize one’s hobby are the very things that keep many of us on our side of the fence. Before we can even grow tired of doing it, we must be tested, and most of us don’t have the intestinal fortitude to overcome even that. The judgement of our peers when we have very little to show for our efforts. For years, that person who is selling pottery successfully today had to overcome self-doubt and questions of skill and talent while seemingly meeting with failure every day. No income. We never compare and contrast with works in progress. We always assume it is the success stories we will come to emulate.

Some of us do have that grit, that mental toughness that it takes to stubbornly make your way up a mountain. But once you have reached the top, the work has only just begun; the administrative tasks of being successful amount to much more than clocking in to that old job ever did. When you leave that engineering job that deposited money into your accounts every month, you are now solely responsible for your survival.

Let your hobbies be hobbies. Paint, draw, sculpt. Do it to connect with the world, with your peers, and to leave a relic of your existence behind for someone else to find. Contribute something to the chain-links of humanity, especially in a time of machine creation; create something just for the sake of making it, just because you can. Because you are alive and have a soul that can dream up something that no machine ever could.