Passion does not Equal Money

 Somewhere along the way, your hobby turned into a side hustle. You can’t just like something anymore. You can’t just do something for the sake of doing it anymore. It always needs to have a purpose, always needs to have an audience. The moment you say you like drawing, a person suggests an Instagram page as an amazing place to showcase your creativity. And as soon as you post the first one, you need to post the next. And the next. And the next. We’ve started treating free time like an investment portfolio where every interest must generate returns. But a hobby is not a startup, and it doesn’t owe anyone growth charts or branding. Think about how you played as a kid. You weren’t bad at drawing, you just drew. The house looked like a potato and the sun had a smiley face and that was fine.

But now? The moment you’re good at something, the pressure is on you to make it your identity. To make people see you as “the guy who draws.” And at first it’s logical. You like something? You’re good at it? Why not get recognized for it? Well, because on that path, curiosity is replaced by that audience you’re catering to. Your interest turns into a posting schedule. You don’t wanna draw another drawing? Too bad. The audience is waiting. At this point, you’re not doing it for yourself, you’re doing it for the people.

We all love that LeBron James story where someone turns their passion into their full time job and ends up being a billionaire while still finding joy in it. And sure, sometimes it works. But there’s another kind of success we rarely talk about: keeping something just for yourself. Keeping that voice note with blasphemous pitches in your Voice Memos app. It’s okay to find joy in something and not share it with someone. Not profit off of it. Your brain doesn’t care about the brand you create. It cares that you have places to go where you’re not being grades. When life gets heavy, you don’t always need more ambition. Sometimes you just need a soft, pointless thing that asks nothing from you except that you show up. You’re not wasting your potential by not monetizing everything. You’re protecting it.