Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Recently, I have been thinking through a new approach to money.
I am still working it through in my mind, and I’m a bit hesitant to write about it here. But I think this community can help add perspective.
My new, guiding philosophy towards work and income is this, “If I wouldn’t do it for free, I won’t do it for money.”
I realize, in many ways, this is an idealistic view of the world. But I am starting to wonder if this approach is more available to us than we think.
Still, it feels to me, at times, this statement comes from a place of privilege. And I will readily admit that. I grew up in a middle-class family that provided stability, support, and opportunity. I do not have unpaid medical bills on my desk from an unexpected surgery. I am not a single parent trying to raise my kids despite a deadbeat spouse. Nor was my position downsized due to unexpected corporate layoffs during the last recession.
I am fortunate to work a job I love and live in a country that provides me the freedom to do so. This is not something I take for granted.
I realize there are circumstances (sometimes caused by others) when we are called to selflessly sacrifice for our family. And I recognize there are certain seasons of life when we may be required to do work that we do not enjoy simply because there are people counting upon us to do so.
I just wonder if those situations are less common than we think.
18 months ago, I transitioned into promoting minimalism as my full-time job. And I am grateful for each passing month that I continue to do so (if you’d like to know more about how we accomplished that, you can find detailed information here). Somewhere along the way, I made a conscious decision that I would only pursue projects that I wanted to pursue. If I wouldn’t do it for free, I wouldn’t do it for money.
Probably, most significantly, is my approach to speaking. Despite an ever-increasing schedule, I continue to not charge a fee for my presentations—asking only for travel and accommodations to be covered. Most public speakers tell me I am crazy and that goes against every rule in the book.
“Set a fee,” they tell me. “Nobody will take you seriously if you don’t. A set fee allows you to offer a ‘discount’ to help close the deal with a potential client.”
But I see it very differently. Because I do not have a speaking fee, I can never be bought. I am never obligated to speak or attend an event just because somebody is willing to pay the price. Instead, each request is considered and weighed individually. Is it a good opportunity to promote minimalism? Is it an organization I believe in? Is the opportunity worth the investment? And while financial compensation is typically offered (or requested for long-term commitments), it is never the deciding factor. If I wouldn’t do it for free, I won’t do it for money.
I have adopted this approach to speaking, but also to every project I choose to pursue.
Our time should not be governed by the amount of money promised, but by the desires of our heart.
As I continue to pursue this approach, I have identified some specific thoughts towards life that must be present in the person who adopts it.
1. Hard work is not to be feared.
If the inherent joy found in work is not appreciated in somebody’s life, this approach will always crumble. We must appreciate work for the sake of work, not just for the financial compensation that arises from it.
There is something to be appreciated about working hard. We were designed to enjoy the process. We find fulfillment in it. It is satisfying to lie in bed at night with a tired body that has been both active and productive.
2. Work is not always enjoyable.
With any job, there are aspects of work that are frustrating and difficult—even with the greatest dream job in the world. I am not encouraging anyone to relinquish perseverance or to refuse pushing through the difficult parts of work.
For example, I love writing, but the process can be very difficult at times. I am able to persevere because the work results in something I am proud to have produced. Even though I would do it for free, I know there will be difficult moments along the way.
3. Life pursuits can not be purely selfish.
Those who believe they will find enjoyment entertaining only selfish desires will never survive under this approach to work. Ultimately, we must see our lives and work as opportunity for contribution—an opportunity to offer our talents and skills to a community of people who need them.
If you are entirely self-seeking in your approach to life and only enjoy pursuits that benefit your own self, this approach to doing what you love will only suffice in the short-term. Lounging each day on the beach for the rest of your life is not the answer.
4. This approach rings more true for those willing to live with less.
Because I have adopted a philosophy that says, “I will only do it for money if I would do it free,” I have turned down several, significant money-making opportunities. But I don’t mind because I have learned to enjoy less. As a result, my needs and views of money have changed dramatically over the past 6 years.
I am certainly not against being compensated for work, but pursuing riches is no longer a driving goal of mine. I don’t need the money and I don’t want the money.
Instead, I want to live a deliberate life that focuses on my strengths and passions and invites others to rethink the role of possessions in their life.
5. This approach does not necessarily require a new job.
I think, at first reading, this sounds as if I am urging everybody to quit their soul-crushing day job and try to monetize their passion. But that could not be further from the truth. Instead, I would push people to reconsider their views on their current employment.
I have a friend who works at a bank providing agricultural loans to local farmers. He’s really good at it. He helps farmers think deeper about their budgeting and their business plan for success. Then, he equips each of them with the resources they need to plant seed in the spring and bring in the harvest in the fall. This, I believe, is important work. And while some days, he probably wishes he could leave it all behind and golf every day instead, maybe, in actuality, if he looked a little bit deeper, he would realize that he really does enjoy his job.
It is fulfilling for him to help farmers succeed at what they do. Maybe, he would do this for free if given the chance. And just maybe this ideal is a little bit closer to reality than he originally thought.
Ultimately, I offer this philosophy not as a presciption for your life, but as a description of mine. Our seasons of life differ. But I still hope it has spurred new thoughts in yours.
Jeni Parsons says
Thanks for this article. As smallholders in West Wales we share our produce rather than selling or bartering it. The Gift Economy seems the way to go for us and we’ve received gifts of other people’s produce as well as gifts of work time to help our projects. I also get paid for officiating at church services as a retired Anglican priest but like you I run the “if I wouldn’t do it for free I won’t do it” test most of the time. I say “most of the time” because it’s hard to step out of the assumptions others still make about ‘buying our time’ and not falling for it myself. There are still bills to be paid but somehow it works and our simplifying of our lifestyle makes it easier. It’s a work in progress of course!
George says
I am that type of person that takes a job if it fits with my current interest. Might be a luxury to some, but that is how I keep myself going. I had 15 jobs in 8 multinational companies, most of them had humans as resource approach. I go there to do a specific job, on the interview I ask what is their biggest challenge and what needs to be sorted, built, destroyed and what is the one thing they would like to achieve in next 18-24 months. Pretty much I turn the interview around. They are being asked to propose me an activity that I find satisfying.
If you have the option (with the minimalist and money conscious approach) to set aside 2-3 months worth of living expenses you can let go any time, when they aren’t giving you the opportunity to to be the best at what you are best at.
I am very engaged and enthusiastic about what I do, once that fades, I pack up and go. I believe the burden of a bad relationship (people, material or work) is probably the biggest waste of the very precious time we have.
Paul says
A few years ago, I was working a corporate job that I absolutely loathed. I hated the company, my manager, the daily work, everything. I had been in that particular job for about a year and had been at that company nearly 15 years! Out of the 15 years, I was maybe satisfied (not necessarily happy) with 4 or 5 of them. After a couple of quarters with not so great evaluations, I ended up getting an offer from them to leave with a severance or stay and make immediate improvements to my work, attitude, etc. That day was truly the best day I had ever experienced at that place. I met with several of my friends that night to tell them what had happened and get advice (in case I wasn’t thinking it through), and they all told me the same thing: TAKE THE MONEY AND LEAVE! As one friend said “they’re actually offering you money to quit a job and leave a company that you HATE? What are you waiting for??” He was right. I notified them of my decision the next day of my decision and felt a huge amount of relief from the ridiculous stress that I had allowed this place to put on me. In a fine bit of serendipity, I was offered another job at a different company a week later, which I walked into at the same salary. It wasn’t the greatest job, but it was way better. On top of that, about a week after I accepted that job, a friend offered me a job at his small business, which I took six month later after I had trained with him on weekends. I now do that full time and love it. Oh, by the way, I used the severance money to remodel my kitchen, so something good actually came out of that crappy job!
Book lover says
There is no such thing as a menial job = only the attitude one brings to it.
Alex Cowan says
I find your writing to be inspiring. This post, in particular, motivated me to conduct an experiment. You can read about here: http://www.maketime4life.com/work4free/
I hope you enjoy!
Karen H says
I have had the same job for over a decade. I work from home for a software company and I love it. Or I did, up until about two years ago, when my boss asked everyone in the department to “up their game” and work harder. This was a challenge to me, because I was dealing with a difficult relationship with my spouse, and that was using up all of my spare emotional energy. However, I was the primary breadwinner, and so I buckled down, sucked it up, and spent any available free time thinking about how I could craft my life to get some of my job satisfaction – really, life satisfaction – back. I planned out how our family of four could live in a smaller home, in a neighborhood with sidewalks, instead of out in the country where every trip out of the house requires a car. I thought this would solve many problems – less isolation, less house space to fill with needless material goods, less time in the car, more time walking and biking as part of going about my day instead of having that be one more thing I had to plan. And of course, it would be a smaller mortgage payment, which would take the pressure off me at my job, so I no longer felt like I desperately needed to keep it.
I tried to persuade my spouse to join me in this vision. When he couldn’t follow through with it, and he filed for divorce instead, I continued with my plan anyway.
Two months ago, we received (and accepted, of course!) an offer on our house, after having it listed for a year. Five weeks ago, our divorce was finalized. Two weeks ago, I hired a moving company to take my share of the worldly goods to a townhouse I’m renting for me and my kids until our new, smaller house can be built (in a neighborhood with sidewalks, across the street from the library, down the street from a park, near the elementary, middle and high schools).
As part of this move, I have had to look at every single thing that I own, and some things that now belong with my ex, and decide whether I want to keep them or let them go. It has been incredibly therapeutic. I have decided that keeping all of my photos, music, artwork, three-fourths of my books and about half of my clothes has been a good choice. I’m still working on whittling down my kids’ things. However, I also gladly sold a dining room set for cheap to a lady who has eight kids and thus doesn’t care that mine has already been knocked about a bit by kids. I donated the couch and chair that my ex wanted to burn, because he didn’t know what else to do with it, to our kids’ day care, where it is now climbed on by them even more than when it was in our basement, and has saved me a day’s worth of day care, because I included bags of clothes and toys my kids outgrew with it. I couldn’t keep any of my plants, so I checked with my city government and they let me transplant them and thus create a garden in two different city parks. (Digging in the dirt = cheap therapy.) And I kept the biggest rock I could carry from my garden, and am waiting to put it into the garden at my new home, because once I had carried that thing 100 yards and put it into my car, it felt exactly like dropping the load of responsibility for a person for whom I had felt more responsibility than love for too long.
Now that I have cleared out so much clutter and excessive financial responsibility and emotional weight, I have found that I love my job again. I haven’t had much of a chance to really dig into it again yet, but my mind is throwing off so many sparks of creativity, and connecting up what needs to be done at work with who-when-how, even when I’m out for a run or bike ride or buying groceries, that I have no doubt I will love it even more now that my life is about to be so much happier and settled.
I am fortunate to be paid well for this job. However, rather than using the excess to buy more stuff or numb my emotions with expensive experiences, I am saving the money. (I do work in finance, after all.) My longer-term plan is that I won’t have to work for any pay, if that’s what I choose. I know that it is the freedom to decide whether to do the work that is a major factor in the enjoyment and satisfaction of doing the work.
So if you are in a job that you don’t love, or used to love but no longer do, then I recommend looking at the rest of your life to see if you need to fix something other than your job first. It certainly has worked for me.
p.s. Thanks for requesting comments. This just saved me the time of writing another journal entry, and simultaneously is possibly helping another person or two besides myself.
David Briley says
I am 58 years old. My employer of 24 years shut down about a year ago. I had a successful and demanding career. Much of it I enjoyed. Some I did not. I am not retiring…can’t. It did not work for me, as some motivational experts would say, “to leave your job at the doorstep (because it was stressful) and become Mr. Emotionally Right when you walk through the door to your family”. I am thankful for this timeout period and have had some time to reflect. I want the passions of my professional and personal life to be the same. You must be the same person.
Currently,I am working PT at my local church doing anything they need for 20% of what I use to make and doing anything that is needed. I have found peace, great people to work with (they respect me), an opportunity to imprint on some great young leaders, and help others in need. I went on an international mission trip that may change my life. I did this because the staff needed help and I was available. I am becoming a believer in minimalism because I have to (and want to). Make no mistake I need to make more $$$$. But the question I now ask is “what is the least amount of money I need to make?” knowing that that will lead to more life satisfaction. You are on track Joshua. Keep it up. .
Jason says
Your approach to speaking is exactly the approach I’ve taken in teaching. Though I do other things on the side, one of the things I do that is closest to my heart is teach swordsmanship. I have charged for this instruction in the past, but in the last year have decided to no longer do so, for exactly the same reasons you articulate here: I can’t be bought if I don’t offer myself for sale. Much of the other similar work I see being done inevitably loses something vital in the process of ‘monetizing’, and the accompanying need to ‘promote’ the work. The work itself eventually becomes entirely secondary to the insatiable need for attention and promotion.
Another aspect to consider is that a single job might not be the answer for those wanting to simplify. I work several part time jobs, and enjoy all of them, mainly for their variety. The part time aspect allows for a lot of flexibility that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Also, the piecing together of several small occupations can provide a very acceptable income, if that’s what’s needed. Of course, as always, the real secret is to need less income….
Leisa Kugler says
I am an Emergency Room RN. I have done this paying job for 25 years. Over the past 5 years, I began volunteering in a free clinic, I volunteer with the Red Cross, and I volunteer with my local ambulance company. I also volunteer to accompany various kids field trips/scout event/ etc as a medical caretaker. I see it as a gift that I have that I can easily share. I didn’t always volunteer, but rather spent my hours raking in the overtime in the ER. In the past 5 years, I have opted to show my children to share their gifts by my example. My only regret?…that I didn’t do it all along through my younger years because there is no substitution for the gratification you feel. The paycheck doesn’t do it…you truly can’t buy the good feeling.
Tom Zed says
I think it is an unrealistic cliche, for the majority.
Utopia.
There are very few people who could honestly say, that they got to the stage in their professional career, not needing to earn a living (pay the bill$)…
I very much enjoy your posts.
Keep up the good work!
This one, though, is way out of touch with reality, in my opinion.