Hobbies, hustles, and hype

Am I the only one who has noticed the Etsyfication of everyone's hobbies? Not one to be a hypocrite, I'll admit I've done a fair amount of this myself: why? One: because most unskilled or soft-skilled jobs today don't pay enough to live on, and two: you don't have to be on any social media platform for more than five seconds to see everyone in your feed promoting their service/product/creation. There's no shame at all in being excited about something you're doing or making, on the contrary! Let's applaud each other's activities, talents and passions. Yet why does this kind of support always lead to asking the whole of our family, friends, acquaintances and even coworkers to open their wallets/venmo apps?

"When you turn your hobby into a hustle, your whole outlook changes. All the existing stakes are raised, and one big new one piled on top: money. Each project has to prioritize profit, which necessarily means de-prioritizing everything else, however slightly. There are bigger consequences to your commitments, customers to satisfy, regulations to obey, taxes to pay. You have to keep track of things, manage emails, follow up with clients. You might have to schmooze, advertise, travel." (Not Every Hobby Has to Become a Hustle)

I kind of wish someone had told me this when I was younger, before I tried so hard to monetize my hobbies that I ran out of hobbies (and free time). I remember distinctly a conversation with my martial arts teacher, who ran a successful dojo for almost two decades before she sold it so she could retire.
"People always say to me: your school is doing so well, you have so many students, you've trained so many instructors, you're established in the community...why don't you quit your day job and do this full time? The reason is that if I did do this full time, everything would change. The whole dynamic. I love the martial arts, and I love my students. I'm grateful the dojo turns a profit and is financially stable, but if I had to depend on it to make a living, it wouldn't be the same. It would take the joy out of it. I can't lose that joy. That's why I keep my day job."

That conversation stuck with me for a long, long time (obviously). Look, I'm not saying it's bad to try to make a little money doing things you love or that you should feel guilty for taking any (as she clearly did not); what I'm saying is that we have to be really careful in our current society in which we get messages (mainly through social media, all day every day, but from our loved ones, friends and acquaintances as well) that we should be doing that. Absolutely, pursue your passions and do work that brings you joy. Why do we need to turn our passion into a hustle? Isn't life hard enough? Can't we have one or two things that are sacred and that we do just for the joy of it?

What do you think? You can always leave a comment below.

On that topic, here's a throwback to a post I wrote on something similar: The Truth About Entrepreneurship (and Why it Sucks)