It's a good post and an interesting idea, Mark. I found I took a different angle on this.

I was working at a job I found interesting but was making no money. When a job offering more cash and much better benefits came along I took it. I had just gotten married and I thought it was the 'responsible' thing to do. Since doing that, I have struggled with being bored at this job and feeling unfulfilled. The conclusion I came to is that my fulfillment wasn't going to come through my career but rather in the hours I spent elsewhere. So I come in to work every day at a job that doesn't jazz me in order to sustain me financially while I strike out after the things I love.

The thing I think I learned from all of this should not surprise anyone. I know some people in my life who would rather be broke doing something they love than have a relative comfort doing something they found uninspiring.

Both approaches come with tradeoffs and positives and negatives. I have to say... Blogcritics has been one avenue for allowing me to do what I love while eeking out a living at my job. The thing is, I sorted through these issues in my head and came to the conclusion that works best for me and my wife. Too few people actually think about this.

Good post, Mark.

Some jobs, however, are one-of-a-kind, and there is no promotion; mine is like that. I manage a company, and there is nothing higher, since the officers & board members are unpaid. I make enough to pay my mortgage & debts, & make donations to charities. I can wear jeans & sandals, if I like; I don't have to wear suits & heels. No, I can't fly to Paris, or buy anything in the world I see, but I don't want to, either. I wouldn't trade my job (I've been here 15 years come Jan 1) for one at double the salary elsewhere that would require a more formal atmosphere.

DJR, tell me this: if you could, wouldn't you want to be doing your evening activities as a career? If yes, have you exhausted every avenue of making that happen?

Nancy: That's the catch. If the salary from your career allows you to live as comfortably as you want and is not overbearing on you, then it makes sense to stay. I am not so lucky. But all in due time.

Thanks for commenting.

in a perfect world, me & the dj would be running a record shop a la high fidelity.

dj would be the jack black character & i would be that mousy little guy who gets bossed around (though i can't imagine listening to Belle & Sebastian)

oh, and my answer to the first part of #3 is "yes, obso-freaking-lutely".

ah Mark, you have opened up a can of worms that is the story of my life. I worked for a corporation for my first three years out of college, quit, and have been on my own ever since, although not really "on my own" because without the help of parents, wife, and even friends, there is no way I could have kept going pursuing my (freely admitted) selfish goals of lucrative self-actualization.

It's been EXTREMELY up and down, but I am very excited about getting to the point where this looks like it might work. But still not without a shitload of help.

And here's some additional irony: the more "successful" this is as a "business," the less time I have to do the parts I really like.

But I agree, in the end, you have to follow your motivation

Saleski: So you're telling me that that you've tried (and possibly failed) in opening your own independent record shop? Fess up. If not, then you have not exhausted every avenue.

Captain EO: My goals have been very similar. I have 7 years logged in corporate life since college, and the whole time worked on my art and writing in my freetime, hoping I could make a career of it. That has yet to materialize.

It's just a matter of finding your career niche. As an independent entrepeneur, we have to invest our efforts in something that people want. BC did so for you. I hope to do the same one day with an idea on my site.

But rest assured, failure will not keep me from trying. One's career is ultimately their life--- why sell yourself short?

Thanks for commenting.

no the record store thing is just a fantasy with no real substance (i do not have an entrepreneurial bone in my body).

writing on the other hand...if i go anywhere, it'll be there.

They say everyone has a book in them, MS... even if the only copy sits on your shelf, then it's worth it.

BTW, every time I respond to you, I write Mark first and then realize it looks like I'm talking to myself, and have to change it. I imagine the two Eric have this problem too.

you could differentiate yourselves by Mark Sa.

oops

Maybe I should write a post called "The Top 100 Guitarists According to Mark Sahm" to set the record straight.

Although, I'd get bored somewhere around 15 or so... so scratch that idea.

if i had a nickel for every time i've seen "where's Slash?!!" in my email....

I'm coming up on ten years in the same job. The lack of promotion doesn't bother me. The fact that I'm taking home less money than I used to does, a little. Health care costs increase dramatically, but my gross salary remains the same. Sigh.

Still, I know others who would love to have my job, so I don't complain. Not that anybody would care if I did.

If you are working for someone else, its always too long....

MPM
The Guide to Getting More out of Life

Mark, you chose a great book/career-changing system for the Amazon link, What Color Is Your Parachute?.

When I was about 30 (not atypically) I had the dread mid-life crisis. I could not decide between a new wife, suicide or a new career. Finally I made the right choice for me with a new career. I did it with the help of an old (he was) friend who had been a career counselor at Columbia and recommended What Color Is Your Parachute?. Between them I looked at my skills and needs and desires and the desires I had had originally -- what did you want to do when you were young enough to dream of being...? It also offers advice on finding your "constellation of skills" to present to potential employers you decide to interview for more traditional jobs that you invent and sell.

Finally I made the jump with, as Eric said, a lot of support and a lot of deprivations to being a freelance photographer. Result: I kept the wife, rejected suicide and was very happy learning how to make pictures and get clients and then make better pictures. Minus the heart attack 18 years later I would still be doing it. Of course now the chemical smells of my darkroom would have given way to digital eyestrain.

Moral: Do what you want to do. There is only one life and a few chances during it. Get in touch with yourself. One way is that book, supportive people around you and creative dreaming.

Excellent post.

the tough thing in all of this is that it's very often the monetary concerns that can hold a person back.

i'd love to make 'the leap' and, if it was just me, i mighta already leapt. however, there's the wife, the house, the elderly parents, etc.

still, the attempt, however feeble, will be made at some point.

I suppose at some point, I will embrace the mantra that everything is disposable and then risk it all for my creative passions.

And I echo your sentiment, MS... it has to be tried at some point. Which brings me back to the original question--- how long is too long to wait?

Hey Alpha, funny but I turn 30 in 20 days, and just got married last month. I guess I should take your advice, and get that book!

the actual 'how long' is tough to figure.

i've gone in fits & starts over time, actually researching the idea of going to chef school when i was only six or seven years out of college. the same problem stopped me back then: money.

now it's been over twenty for me. never too late just might be a cliche, but i won't let that stop me.

I worked for the same tech company for 14 years. I started as a bench tech while still a college student and 10 years later was a director making 4.5 times my original salary. About the same time I was promoted I turned 30, I started playing gigs again and hosting open mics for the first time since High School, my marriage was a mess and the tech boom was starting to bust. After a year or so I realised I hated my job and I was depressed from laying people off every quarter and working 70 hrs a week. My marriage ended and I was alone. The only thing that was pulling me through was the music.
Then something magical happened....I was let go from my tech shackles for refusing to outsource my area. They bought me out and showed me the door. I found a beautiful woman, started recording my music and moved to the country and started my own business. Damn, I'm happy!! I guess what I'm trying to say, is that sometimes you get so mired in the crap, you can't see how bad things are getting. I was lucky that fate pushed me out the door!

Rob, nice tale of tech despair and indie triumph. Thanks!

Sahm, good points all.

Yes, in my heart of hearts I would love to be paid to be doing what I love. And no, I have not come close to exhausting every option. I have, for the time being, found a compromise. I get paid and I get to do what I love. Just not at the same time.

How long is too long? Good question. I say there is never a too late.

When I'm on my own, I like to do artist-type stuff. I've had stuff in shows in NY, DC, MI, & various spots in between; I'm currently doing illustrations for a fanzine; and I recently started illustrating "To Kill A Mockingbird" for my own amusement, but someone else likes it and it may end up being published as well.

But I would NEVER do this for a living. Why? Because when you have to do it to meet the rent, it stops being fun & becomes as onerous as any other income-producing work, at least, as far as I'm concerned. I have several pro artist friends, and I could never live the lives of uncertainty & hard sell that they have to put up with. As it stands now, it's a relaxing, enjoyable avocation. Maybe other occupations or 'fun' activities are different, I don't know, but it would seem to me that 'having' to work at something you love to do because it pays your living expenses would kill the joy of doing it...?

Nancy, I've often pondered that premise as an artist/entrepeneur branching out... and while I'd agree that there is uncertainty involved in such an endeavor, I'd chalk it up as the trade-off for the independence and control you have.

Beyond anything else, as bad as independence could be... could it be any worse than being a corporate drone at the total mercy of people who could care less about you?

Again, it depends, I guess, on your level of tolerance & where you work. I guess if I had an agent to do my peddling/marketing for me, I could do it, but I did live on my art for awhile, and found I didn't like not having the freedom to turn down assignments. It made me ... well, I felt like a whore, having to draw anything they wanted. At that point, I found a regular job to pay the mortgage, & was able to take only those assignments I liked, & tell the rest to go to hell, which meant the quality of the stuff I was illustrating went 'way up & became worthy of my art, IMO. I had to submit to THEM; now THEY have to submit to ME, and I can refuse if I think it's not decent material, precisely because I don't have to rely on it to pay my bills. Very important, to me at least, not to be illoing bodice rippers & porn.

But that's artwork, not something more neutral like a record shop.

One of my yet unrealized dreams is to have something that is both artwork-involved and a shop/store. Like a giant painting that you could walk inside, lounge out, and drink a beer while sampling podcasts on big fat headphones.

Of course, that would be a hell of a canvas to stretch. ;)

That's actually an individual determination. Some people should leave after 4 years. Others have to after 8. Personally, I'd like us to have an "out" clause at the mid-terms. Oh, this isn't about the oval office? Never mind.

Silas: When the shit hits the fan, NOBODY would want that "oval" job. 'Too long' could translate to a couple months!

On a tangential subject, IMO someone would have to be certifiably insane to want to be President - of anything. Either that or they must be possessed of an absolute absence of sense or judgement, to think they can handle something like that.

Especially considering that millions of people on the world would want to kill you even though they've never met you. That's a tough job.

But the desire to do it is a power trip, pure and simple. The title of all titles.

I'm 33 yrs old and I'm a server at TGIFriday's. But what I REALLY am is a photographer. Correction--- aspiring fine-art photographer, and have been aspiring for the past 15 years. But over the years I have let career, marriage, children all get in the way of what I really want to do, and that's be a fine-art photographer. Yeah, its sort of lame to say that I'm 33 and work as a waitress with a bunch of 20 yr old college students, but then, it's so great because I have the extra income to pursue my photography and the flexibility to still be at school events with my kids (I have 3).

I tried the "real job" thing for a while and I was so unhappy. I had more money, but no time to do the things that I wanted. So there is a definite trade-off. And once you really ask yourself what is most important to you, it's easy to make the right career path choices.

I always wanted to be Galactic Overlord; now that's a power trip!

Galactic Overlord does have a nice ring to it.

By the by, this piece sent me to salary.com and I am now officially depressed.

Chris: Perhaps EO can make "Galactic Overlord of BC Comments" your official title!

Alisha: The same thing caused me to write this article in the first place.

Already have that title, Mark! Looking to move on up, way up!

Mark, just wanted company in your misery? ;)

What DJRadiohead describes "in my heart of hearts I would love to be paid to be doing what I love" is a hobby, pastime, leisure activity. So obvious, dammit. Work is something different. Work is continuos eight hours job five days a veek 50 weeks a year after year. It is quite another story what we try (hard) to report under "work" and often get away with that.

This story has been chose as a Blogcritics Editor's Pick for the week, congrats!

You've honored yourself up the right to select your favorite story over the next week for the new column, which will be published on Wednesdays or thereabouts. In any event, please feel free to nominate your fave piece under this week's column. The time frame will always run between Wednesday (today in this week's case) and next Tuesday night.

Thanks and congrats again ~ EB