Coping with the stress of not being able to live off what you love

After being at SAE for just over three months, and being surrounded by likeminded creative individuals, I have discovered that everyone shares the same fear, that what they love doing, may not be a viable career. And if you do decide to make it your primary income, you will be living off bread and milk, living from paycheck, to paycheck (quite similar to student life tbh) The sporadic nature of jobs in the Audio industry makes for a lot of uncertainty and that scares a lot of people, including me at times. Unless you work for a large company or are a successful entrepreneur your only other choice is freelance work.

I decided a few years ago to make my Design and Audio endeavors a hobby that I do for fun in my spare time. My hobby would be funded by fulltime or part time work and if I earn some extra cash on the side doing what I love, it will be a bonus. From very early on I made myself comfortable with the fact that what I love doing might not pay the bills, and that working in a café or similar isn’t such a bad thing if it funds what I like to do. This mind frame has helped me deal with the impending doom of trying to penetrate a creative industry. I think it is important for people perusing a career in this industry to set themselves amazing goals and work as hard as they can to make them happen. But I think it’s equally important to be satisfied with the journey of getting there and hard work that goes into reaching those goals.