Good observations, Boyd.

I would take it a little deeper, though.

Say I love taking photographs of landscapes.

I hear the "do what you love" thing and decide to open a photography business.

BIG MISTAKE!

The moment I open that photography business where people come in and get me to take photos of things, is the moment I STOP doing what I love.

What I love is taking photos of landscapes. Landscapes I choose to take photos of. Landscapes that call to me and inspire me. Landscapes I feel some kind of connection with.

Taking a photo of a shoe with a snake slithering through it, because that is what the clients wants, is NOT landscapes. It is not what I love.

For the landscape taking photographer to be truly happy, they must continue to take photos of landscapes of their choosing. Then offer those photos up for sale.

And if they are no good at selling, then an agent must take care of that for them.

But it may go even deep than that.

What part of you is satisfied when you take a landscape photograph of your choosing? And could that part of you be satisfied in some other way?

If taking photos of landscapes which you choose, satisfies some Creative Element inside of you, then it stands to reason that another activity, besides photography, could also satisfy that Creative Element. It might be Painting (Art), Sculpting, Sketching, Image Manipulation, Writing, or a host of other creative "hobbies."

Dien asked if there was a way for him to make money from Body Surfing.

At first, the obvious answer is to open a Body Surfing School. But that makes Dien a Teacher - something he may not like.

What would work is for someone to Film Dien in action and for those video to be sold. Not by Dien though. Because that would make him a Video Seller, not a Body Surfer.

Also, Dien could enter Body Surfing competitions all over the world and win prize money.

The only drawback to this is, he needs to be supported, or have independent income coming in, while he practices body surfing until he is good enough to enter the world class contests.

You may remember the story of the Golfer and his Wife. It went like this...

After a lifetime of Work, Joe (not his real name) retired. He was now able to fulfil his dream of playing all the major golf course across the country.

His wife did not like golf but did like photography.

As Joe played the courses his wife took photos of them.

The resulting photos were compiled into a book, published, and made them millionaires.

Neither liked publishing, marketing, or any of that "stuff" which gets the book sold. Others took care of that. They just did what they enjoyed - he played golf and she took photos.

Notice how they were able to do this because they didn't have to earn money?

In other words, if they were still working they would not have had the time to do this. If they were paying off huge debt, they would not have had the spare money to do this.

The same applies to Dien and body surfing. If he works (business or job) because he needs money to live, he does not have the available time to practice body surfing to the extent he becomes skilled enough at it that people would buy videos of him, or he would win prize money.

The alternative is a Body Surfing Newsletter. Where Dien body surfs all the beaches of Australia (and the world at some stage) and writes reviews.

Problem is, Dien is a Body Surfer and not a Writer (for the sake of the example). He is a Body Surfer and not a Publisher. He is a Body Surfer and not a Marketer. And yet, he needs to be a Writer, Publisher and Marketer to get subscribers. And hopefully enough subscribers so subscription money is enough to support him while he travels around and body surfs all the beaches.

Catch 22.

In Joe Innis' work "How To Be a Rich and Famous Artist and Still Paint Pictures", or something like that, he mentions using agents to get your Work sold. That way you are able to do what you love - paint.

In that regard, Dien could surf a different beach each week. And instead of writing his review, he could dictate it. Then someone else could transcribe it. (Or he could dictate it straight into Real Audio format using Real Player's Real Audio Encoder, and offer an Audio Newsletter.)

Marketing could be handed over to someone else. Or Dien could handle that himself with a small bit of effort, if he chose to market totally online.

Would something like this fly?

Don't know. Got to test to find out.

There is a way to do what you love and make money from it. It usually involves delegating and using Leverage (Other people's resources) though.

Michael Ross


Learn more about Leverage here.