The other day my boss approached me and asked if I wanted to take on a side gig as a consultant, facilitating an off-site board meeting for a friend’s company. This is the type of thing I used to do before I started working for him.
“Sure,” I said, as he filled me in on the details. “That would be fun.” I was thinking about the change of pace from the routine of my company and the challenge of working with an entirely different business and management team.
“Yeah, it is fun,” my boss replied. He has done his fair share of side-bar consulting with businesses seeking his counsel. “But I wouldn’t want to do it for a living.”
We laughed together, a strange laugh of recognition – thankful that we were gainfully employed in a well-established, profitable company, rather than some washed up, wannabe-leadership-guru freelancers trying to hustle our next gig to make ends meet, like so many we have run across in our careers.
There was a time when I truly wondered if I would be more fulfilled pursuing the creative life as a full time writer and speaker instead of continuing with this uneventful management position I’m in. Just thinking about it got me all starry-eyed: The creative freedom! The best-selling e-book! The recognition! Managing my own schedule! And all those people I would inspire!
But I have come to realize that most writers hardly make any money, and that usually stops me dead in my tracks.
I don’t think that would be fun. Nor would it be fair to my family, forcing them into a life of poverty to accommodate my creative whims.
Since I started blogging, I have discovered that there is a whole world teeming with people who think they are writers. I read something recently that said, when surveyed, 23% of the American population consider themselves to be writers.
Doesn’t that make you throw up inside your mouth a little bit?
There’s nothing wrong with being a starving artist, I guess, but I would pretty much hate the not making money part. I’d prefer to be a contributing member of society, comfortably supporting myself and my family doing something I liked, rather than wandering off into some creative fantasy-world that I “loved.”
Or, what I once told myself that I loved.
Writing is a wonderful creative outlet. It suits me at this stage of my life. But as a living? I don’t think I would enjoy it the same if my livelihood depended on it.
To be continued….
