I happened to read the comic by zenpencil on Jim Henson yesterday while reminiscing on the comic by the same artist on Bill Waterson’s advice. Both the comics have the same essence of escaping corporate drudgery and following your dreams. Also yesterday, I watched Inside Llewyn Davis. Inside Llewyn Davis is a melancholic movie that depicts the daily struggles of a musician who has given up his job as a seaman to become a musician. Serendipitous right?
Most of the time, I get a feeling of disenchantment from people about their occupation. To put it bluntly, it is fashionable to be cynical about one’s job and complain about it. A lot of people feel that they want to do something different but most of them do not know what is this different path they want to take. And to fuel this fire, you have hundreds of books and blog posts which extol you to give up your job and follow your passion.
You go on a scuba diving holiday and all of a sudden you want to be a professional scuba diver. You do a couple of hikes and a la, you aspire to be a travel writer. You have started to cycle to office and you have this strong urge to start a bicycle touring company. You purchased this new DSLR and now your single aim in life is to be a wildlife photographer. An article about a so and so who gave up his cushy corporate job to start a local bike store or became a wildlife photographer reinforces these thoughts.
Even though these thoughts are romantic and warm the cockles of our heart, the reality is a bit different. When a hobby becomes a job, the fun aspect of the hobby goes out of the window and the boring part kicks in. When you do something repetitively, the novelty wears off. Some paragraphs from this article on becoming a travel writer:
But while free trips, global travel and your name in print sound glamorous, there are down sides. It’s hard work, hugely competitive and – unless you are the second Bryson – you won’t earn much. Roving overseas with a notebook, a deadline and a pack of other journalists can also take the fun out of travelling altogether. Not put off? Read on to find out how you can get this dream job.
Below is a paragraph from an article by a scuba diving instructor:
The job duties of an instructor aren’t what most newcomers expect, either. And to many it comes as a sad surprise. The reality of being an instructor at least full-time is that teaching is only a small portion of what you’ll do. Mainland-based instructors often work 40 hours a week at a dive store counseling customers or repairing equipment, then teach one or two classes a week on top of that. That means 60-hour weeks are commonplace. Think it’s easier at a resort? The norm for resort-based instructors is six days a week, and during busy periods seven days isn’t uncommon. Here, too, teaching is only a minor part of the job, but an instructor ticket is essential, if for no other reason than to get a permit to work in a foreign country. Many have left the industry disappointed that their dream of spending their days primarily as teachers never materialized.
And to top it all, you have to read this from a person who started his own micro brewery.
A lot of times, we misunderstand novelty for passion. You have a sedentary desk job and travelling once in a while looks like life’s calling, but the question to ask is, would it still be your life’s calling if you had to do it 24 by 7 while earning a substantially lower income? Would you not be more happy earning a good salary, enjoying the material comforts that your day to day job provides and travelling once in a while to break the routine?
In most of these offshoot jobs, the number of slots where you can be comfortable with the income is limited and the aspirants for these slots are unlimited. Also, in a majority of these, you have to be at the pinnacle to earn really well. We all love to think that if we are talented, success naturally follows, but I call this specious. There is more to success than just talent, success is mostly a factor of being in the right place at the right time and luck, not to say that talent and other factors do not help, but it is for sure not only talent. Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman expounds a bit on this.
The melancholy that sets in with a day to day job is our own making. If you are really interested in spicing up your work, there are innumerable ways to do it, it is just that effecting change is boring while cribbing about it is romantic.
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