Competence Vs "Doing Something You Love"

I can give you a very good example. There are two artists who really should be counted as living American treasures for the number of book covers they've done: Michael Whelan and Kelly Freas. They do science fiction book covers and over the years they've both done thousands of paintings and illustrations. There's no doubt they're doing what they love.

Whelan recently had cancer. Freas had a triple bypass this year. Both had to continue working from (quite literally) the hospital bed to pay the bills. Niether can retire, because art never pays enough to put anything into retirement funds (in spite of the fact that they're top selling artists). Art makes them a living, but just barely.

Others I know who aren't so famous (and yet had done numerous book covers) had to go take a 9-5 job simply because doing what they love to do doesn't pay enough to maintain a house and sustain life. If they didn't have to eat and if they could live in a tree or a cave (rent free) then they'd do quite well. Same with musicians. Same with writers. Next time you go into a bookstore, look at the books on the shelves. Anyone who has more than 20 different books published (and currently on the shelves) is making enough to quit their day job and write full time (according to sf author Mercedes Lackey... and she should know, since she did that.) Everyone else is struggling.

It's a lovely ideal. It really is, but unless you happen to love something that's in high demand and garners a high salary (OR unless you have a spouse whose wages provide more than enough for you to live on) OR unless you can afford to retire then doing what you want to do isn't practical.


The Five Minute Mentor