Why You Should Still Do That Passion Project

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A passion project is a concept that you want to get off the ground, because it’s based around something that you truly love. For example, lots of people know that they could write a book if all the conditions were right. They just need the time and drive to get it done. Passion projects among people like myself are ultimately going to be for-profit ventures. They may be a bit more creative or experimental than the other things that you have going on, but they – conceptually – should be able to eventually make you some money.

Back when I wanted some sort of foot into the music industry, I envisaged this hub brand under which all of my favourite music could thrive. I would have run a website for it, and been highly active on the socials to build a community around it. I worked on it for absolutely months, until I realised just how much work would be involved, and I didn’t have the resources to pull it off. Also – it would take many months more before I could monetise the traffic.

As you grow, as do your interests. I would love to have created something that I could say was mine and represented where I was at that time period. Back then – we’re talking about eight years back – I wasn’t in a position to do so. Now, thanks to the work I’ve done with other projects, it’s a very different story.

I’m of the opinion that you should always do your passion project, for the simple fact that you’ll always feel robbed of the chance to follow it. I feel that way about the music project. But what I will say is that you should probably wait before you put all of your time and effort into it. If you’re someone with lots of ideas – some of which can be turned into legitimate easily monetisable businesses – I’d suggest it’s a better idea to start there first.

If I used all of the skills I had at the time – within a couple of years of learning about WordPress, digital marketing and content creation – the result would have done nothing like what I could come up with now.

I've started publishing ebooks. It took me forever to click publish after years of going on about doing it, but now here I am hunting down freelance fiction book editors to ensure my ideas are coming to life in the way I imagine them in my head. I don't necessarily care about how well they do; I just feel better about having actually published something and sharing it with the world. You're bound to feel the same way about something.

So how do you get yourself in a position where you can pursue your own passion project? I’d say start by finding a side income method with a proven track record for success and push on with that. It may be freelancing, selling things online or creating content. Whatever it may be, use it as a chance to acquire skills, as well as build your income and diversify your income streams.

I will always recommend the methods of online money making that allowed me to leave full-time office work behind. Ultimately, I would never have been in a position to pursue passion if I hadn’t learned and pushed myself with online arbitrage, affiliate marketing and freelancing as a copywriting. That then led me on to other things. Skills wise, a whole heap of what I do now came from my full-time employment over the years.

In order to be able to fund your passion projects, or even to be able to grant you the time to do them, you’re probably going to have to ensure that you have built up stability elsewhere. If that stability – for you – comes in the form of a full-time job, ensure that you’ve got that under control first. For those that are already self-employed (or have extra time as they only work part-time hours) you may first want to focus on building something which will pretty much guarantee strong cashflow around the calendar.

Get yourself some stable foundations, free up your schedule and then make that passion project a reality. In that order.