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Passionate About Your Job?

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Alfalfa
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Passionate About Your Job?

Post by Alfalfa » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 1:40 pm

Would you leave your well paying job to do something that you are passionate about. Like for instance you have a terrific lawyer's job but you are passionate about acting? would you actually leave and take up acting? If say you have a regional marketing job and you are passionate about asthetics and cosmetology? Would you leave?

Have anybody done this and regret it or enjoyed it? Please tell me your experiences... would love to learn from others. :)
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Post by riversandlakes » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 1:45 pm

Blessed are those who know what they are passionate about.

My sting as part-time fitness instructor was due to the money. Sure, I like the muscles and the confidence that come with it, but passion is not what i will tag it with :/

I won't leave my day job for a part-time sting. It still pays the most of all...
Goatboy will always cherish his former goatgirl.
But the world is full of fluffier ones.

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Re: Passionate About Your Job?

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 3:14 pm

Alfalfa wrote:Would you leave your well paying job to do something that you are passionate about. Like for instance you have a terrific lawyer's job but you are passionate about acting? would you actually leave and take up acting? If say you have a regional marketing job and you are passionate about asthetics and cosmetology? Would you leave?

Have anybody done this and regret it or enjoyed it? Please tell me your experiences... would love to learn from others. :)
Actually, Alfalfa, I did just that. I quit a very good position as the District Director of the largest tax preparation firm in the US in Washington DC on my 29th birthday and decided to follow my heart and do what I wanted to do, money be damned. I took a 60% salary cut and became a Commercial Diver in the Oil Fields worldwide. That was in 1976, for the next 15 years I did not get up to go to work, I got up every day and went diving (it's a mental thing). Something I had always paid to do, I was now being paid to do it. It is how I ended up on these shores back in 82. I have never regretted a minute of it and if I had to make the same choices over again I would do the same thing again. No regrets at all. Actually, it got me a keeper of a wife as well. :mrgreen:

sms
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by Alfalfa » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 3:19 pm

So positive and fascinating..

I mean ideally i would want to do the same.. never have to wake up to go to work.. but to wake up and do something I want to do...

It's different right..

Thank you for your input here.. I appreciate it. God knows I might very well do that soon if I have enough courage to...
:D
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 3:44 pm

You will definately need courage, especially if you are local.

It was more acceptable for my generation to do it as I was a member of the flower power generation of the 60's. Lot's of us followed our own drummers and damned the torpedo's. But, if you are local, you are still hung up on trying to please your parents (even protestations otherwise won't convince me) and worried about peer pressure. You have to believe in yourself 150% and not worry about failure because it is a distinct possibility. But, if you do it and succeed then you will never regret it. I have always done anything that I had a mind to do (including my first bungee jump in Queenland at 44 years of age). You only go around once in life and if you don't grab the bull by the horns, eventually you will be too old and spend the rest of your life saying "I wish I had tried that when I was younger, but........"

sms
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by elizabeth » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 3:58 pm

How i wish i could get a job that i work for passionate or at my lesiure.. But not no courage at all. Yes i am a local so got to work because of my home loan..for my reitrement and so on on..

Well how many people can actually work with passionate.. I envy those people.. and i look up for those people who go all the way to get a job they ready like be it how much their salary is?

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Post by Wind In My Hair » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 4:29 pm

Well my passion was to keep doing what I do, which I like very much, but to do so on my terms ie no overtime, back home by 5 or 6pm in time for a jog before dinner, no need to bring work home, no boss breathing over my shoulder, and control over my schedule.

Took about 5 years to put everything in place - financial reserves, a back-up career in case the sky fell on me, building a reputation to get enough work on a freelance basis... but now I'm living the kind of life I want. And yes, it is worth it.

Taking the leap and making the switch overnight can be very daunting. Maybe Alfalfa and others contemplating that kind of change can approach it gradually. Delayed gratification is difficult at first but definitely pays off.

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Post by dot dot dot » Wed, 03 Aug 2005 4:39 pm

I am more or less in the midst of doing it. I am a marketeer, did 10 over years of international sales and marketing at both client and agency / supplier side. Then registered myself here in Singapore as a sole proprietor, get hired as consultant for marketing. Still in the business, but now on my own.

Then I started getting more and more interested in the tourism market. Somehow as a try out and just out of curiosity I started doing customized packages for high end holidays of Europeans (mainly Dutch and Germans) coming to SE Asia. See there is a market in this, I know the Europeans and their wishes for a delightful holidays and I know the places to go here in SE Asia. Got good contacts in the industry. About to finish my Singapore tourist guide examens and then I will leave the marketing field and fully concentrate on the travel consultancy.

Needs to be said that the misses also makes sufficient income, so we can manage the change.

So far so good, feel much more like doing my own 'thing'.

Eric

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Post by Guest » Thu, 04 Aug 2005 6:21 am

I wish I could say I am passionate about my job!! My job is full of hard work and long hours and no time to socialize.

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Re: Passionate About Your Job?

Post by cyber_m0nkey » Thu, 04 Aug 2005 7:34 am

sundaymorningstaple wrote:
Alfalfa wrote:Would you leave your well paying job to do something that you are passionate about. Like for instance you have a terrific lawyer's job but you are passionate about acting? would you actually leave and take up acting? If say you have a regional marketing job and you are passionate about asthetics and cosmetology? Would you leave?

Have anybody done this and regret it or enjoyed it? Please tell me your experiences... would love to learn from others. :)
Actually, Alfalfa, I did just that. I quit a very good position as the District Director of the largest tax preparation firm in the US in Washington DC on my 29th birthday and decided to follow my heart and do what I wanted to do, money be damned. I took a 60% salary cut and became a Commercial Diver in the Oil Fields worldwide. That was in 1976, for the next 15 years I did not get up to go to work, I got up every day and went diving (it's a mental thing). Something I had always paid to do, I was now being paid to do it. It is how I ended up on these shores back in 82. I have never regretted a minute of it and if I had to make the same choices over again I would do the same thing again. No regrets at all. Actually, it got me a keeper of a wife as well. :mrgreen:

sms
That's interesting as on my last visit to Singapore I met a Canadian guy who also did deep sea diving in the oil industry in a previous lifetime. He now ownes two restaurants in Singapore.

Anyway back to the topic. I certianly am passionate about my job/career, but I waited until relatively later to choose a career. I am currently regional IT director for a global European company, but I've only been in IT for 8 years. Before that I did all sorts of things, truck driving, photography, accounting, wine sales, etc. One day (when I was 27) I decided that it was time to start thinking about a long term career. I asked myself what I enjoy and what am I good at (what do I understand) and came up with IT - haven't looked back since - no formal training and I never completed my economics/accounting degree, just a passion and a talent. Thankfully the job not only provides satisfaction and challenge but also pays well.

I condisider myself very lucky that I can do a job that I look forward to every morning when I wake up and I see the pay as the icing on the cake (not the cake itself).

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Post by Guest » Thu, 04 Aug 2005 7:39 am

[quote]Anyway back to the topic. I certianly am passionate about my job/career, but I waited until relatively later to choose a career. I am currently regional IT director for a global European company, but I've only been in IT for 8 years. Before that I did all sorts of things, truck driving, photography, accounting, wine sales, etc. One day (when I was 27) I decided that it was time to start thinking about a long term career. I asked myself what I enjoy and what am I good at (what do I understand) and came up with IT - haven't looked back since - no formal training and I never completed my economics/accounting degree, just a passion and a talent. Thankfully the job not only provides satisfaction and challenge but also pays well.

I condisider myself very lucky that I can do a job that I look forward to every morning when I wake up and I see the pay as the icing on the cake (not the cake itself).


Cyber_ M0nkey, how did you manage to get this position seeing that you have not been the IT for that long?

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Post by cyber_m0nkey » Thu, 04 Aug 2005 8:01 am

All it took was one lucky break and that was right at the start in my first IT job, which was doing IT support. Very quickly I worked out that not only did I have a nack for the technical side of the job (which meant I learned REALLY quickly) but also that I had a talent for being able to translate business in IT and back again. What I mean is that I understood the place of IT in a company and how IT could add value. From there I progressed quickly, and everytime I requested more responsibility, i.e. a promotion - I got it - I have never been turned done for a promotion.

My career progression so far has been;

1998 - IT support
1999 - IT support Team leader (asked for this role and got it)
2000 - Systems manager for startup (role created for me (on request) by existing employer to retain me after poaching attempt from another company)
2001 - Business analyst in same startup (wrong turn!)
2002 - IT Manager for Australia/New Zealand (took 20% pay cut to get back to what I enjoyed)
2005 - Regional IT Director - ASPAC (for same company)

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Post by kansah » Thu, 04 Aug 2005 9:50 am

Hi Alfalfa,

I was a supervisor back home in the Phils and I quit my job to pursue my passion for travel and writing. I'm living on my savings right now (or what's left of it :lol: ) and doing my writing while in Singapore.

I have no regrets so far, because I've been pretty productive in my writing since I got here. Lots of time in my hands, a new environment (most important, no family to pressure me into being practical) gets my creative juices going.

The only thing bugging me right now is that I'm required by Singaporean law to either have a job or go to school so I can stay here longer. Bummer! But I won't let that get to me :twisted: .

As for you, all I can say is, prepare yourself for anything and trust in your instincts. I'm sure you've thought long and hard about this so, you should be able to tell whether you will regret it later or not.

Good luck!
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Post by Strong Eagle » Thu, 04 Aug 2005 11:24 am

Left a job in the US that paid very well so that I could come out here and start a business and live in a foreign country.

I like being my own boss (I only need to ask myself for the afternoon off to play golf!), and I like the idea of proving to myself that all the things I think I know about running a business are indeed true.

The downside is uncertainty. You trade a regular paycheck for rags, riches, or both.

I think one needs to realistic in following your passion. Look, if your passion is to be poet laureate of the world it is indeed a noble calling but you better figure out how to live because poets don't make a lot of cash.

There can be no passion without mission.

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Post by Alfalfa » Thu, 04 Aug 2005 11:54 am

Thanks everyone for your input its great to know that just like me alot of us are doing the same thing. And courage is what we need in order to bring us forward.

And there has to be alot of consideration before we take the next step.

Anymore experiences from others?
We'll get along fine as soon as you realize I'm Good.

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