ALT-1 How to Turn your Passion into a Career
You can turn just about any reasonable passion into a career. However, the main dilemma is being able to turn the passion into a successful career. Just because you can make a career out of something, it does not necessarily mean you can be successful with it. Also, you need to keep in mind that the definition of “success” is subjective and relative. Everybody has their own interpretation of success. One example would be making a lot of money through the career, a second example would be making a decent living out of that passion turned career, a third example would be one of fulfillment. You have to factor in the psychological satisfaction of a career as well. One can judge the success of something by ones own terms.
The first thing you have to do is research the business and profit end of your passion. You can turn just about any passion into a career let alone a successful career; but, it takes a lot of discipline, patience, research and careful planning on your part. Also, you have to understand that you cannot do it alone. In today's world, you have to rely a lot upon networking. There are passion-turned careers that can be used as prime examples.
The first example would be the case of martial arts. Martial arts have been a longtime trend and will not die out anytime soon. Many people across the world have made martial arts into their lifelong passion. There are plenty that have turned their passions into careers; but, not all of them have been successful. Pursuing a career, let alone a successful career, in martial arts is very risky. There are many martial artists that do teach on a part-time level as pursuing it full-time does not always pay the bills.
In regards to martial arts, you can use that passion to go into any plausible career. However, that ttakes a lot of time, training, experience, and money. Ongoing and long-term martial arts training does require the necessary amount of funds. You could start up your own school or start up a local community program. However, neither method will immediately be successful nor profitable. You have to do your research on martial arts as a business. Remember, martial arts has to be your passion first before you decide to make it into a career.
When opening your own school, teaching privately, and/or starting up a supplementary community program, there are rules and regulations that have to be followed. In terms of traditional martial arts with ranking systems, you would have to obtain a certain rank. In cases such of various Karate styles and Tae Kwon Do, you would have to obtain a certain “Dan” rank. You would need to have a high enough Dan rank to be open your own school. A community program could be started up by a lower Dan rank; but, it has to be associated with a credible school for legitimacy.
If martial arts instruction is not your thing, you can pursue a career in arts and entertainment. You can become a writer, actor, choreographer, stuntman, or something else that needs your knowledge, training and experience. It is important to realize that you are not pursuing this solely for the money. Martial arts have been known as a “labor of love.” It is very difficult to turn a passion such as martial arts into a career. With social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and so forth, it should be relatively easier.
The second example would be acting. Not everybody makes big money from acting. However, money should not be the sole reason to pursue acting as a career. You can turn this into a career but you have to keep a cool head and be patient.
First, try to get as much training and experience as you can. You could major in acting while in college; but, most successful performers do not possess that degree. The best chance is to “just jump in the water” and “get your feet wet.” If there are open auditions for any sort of production, go ahead and try out. The more experience and training you get, the stronger your acting resume becomes.
Second, try to network as much as you can. Successful performers cannot do it on their own. It takes a team of people. A network provides great support when it comes to landing that potentially successful gig.
Third, take advantage of social media outlets to promote yourself and your work. This way, you can use an online grassroots network to get noticed. With YouTube and Facebook, you can immediately post movies immediately. If you are in a short film, that can be uploaded onto any of those sites. Then, all you have to do is tell people through tweets, Facebook updates, mass e-mails, word of mouth, and so forth.
The third example would be photography. To make a successful career out of photography, it takes a lot of time and patience. What you would need to do is get as much experience as possible. Also, you need to build up a portfolio of your work. That portfolio would be part of your resume and would help you get more work as a photographer.
While you can turn a passion into a career, you need to know how to make it into a successful one. You have to do a lot of research and get a lot of practical hands-on experience. More importantly, you have to understand the business aspect of things. This is because you are marketing yourself in the process.
