Pros vs. Amateurs

[Deep Dish]

There are two big differences between people who turn a hobby into a career and those who forever remain at the amateur level. You do come across people who never show an improvement of skills despite many years of engaging their hobby. There is no shame of being an amateur since you are doing something you enjoy, but some hobbies can be turned into lucrative careers. It’s like off-the-clock training.

And not any hobby should be turned into a career, however, even if you could. If you ever decide to try to turn a hobby into a career, you need to be careful which one you pick. You often hear people say that you should “Do what you love,” so that when you wake up in the morning you’re not really going to work, but what they don’t tell you is that you may come to hate it. It’s never as enjoyable when it was just a hobby because of all the same drudgery which comes with the realities of business.

Pros practice EVERY day

Professionals show up to work every day, whether they feel like it or not. It’s not so much about how much time you put into your hobby but that you’re doing it consistently. It’s far better to spend one hour a day than doing all seven hours on a Saturday, because you build up muscle memory and form habits.

Amateurs are sporadic. They only practice their hobby when they feel inspired or have nothing else better to do. They watch Netflix or hang out with friends instead of devoting themselves to practice.

Amateurs give up

When faced with a challenge, amateurs quit.

Professionals live with challenges. When coming across a difficulty, they take a step back and then figure out how to tackle it.

 

[backseatjuan]

There are amateurs among professionals, and vice versa, there are professionals among amateurs. My buddy is an amateur, but he doesn't give up easily. On the other hand, I consider myself a professional, but I know when to give up. Everything has to do with money of course, no point in doing something for somebody else when you know you aren't getting paid for it at all, or the money that is necessary. I don't like your definition though, I think it is incorrect. Professional is someone who does it for a living, he makes money that way. An amateur doesn't know when to give up, or what job not to do, he does it for fun, not for money.

Boy I got so good at recognizing clients and categorizing them, I knew exactly what to expect for the person before he even opened his or her mouth. It is not a clear cut of doing your job, you also have to pick your client properly, and pick the job properly, otherwise you end up wasting your time.

There are amateurs in every industry, what sets them apart from professionals, is that they don't know what job not to take, what client to avoid, and how to properly do their job. They usually take everything in hopes of making a lot of money, some things they can not do, because they suck at it, other things they don't get paid for, because they picked a job too hard, or a client who's not going to pay or complain afterwards. Professional on the other hand picks and chooses his work and clients, and makes more money because his time is not wasted.

If you want to be a professional you have to realize that your time is worth money, and not all people agree with the price you set. Your job is to filter people that disagree with you.

Now if you accept the wrong client or job you will regret it. Something will most certainly come up after everything is done, client will not be satisfied, and you will waste a lot of your time trying to fix his stupid little problem. In the end you will get a bad review, and majority of your clients will not be satisfied.

 

[logicallefty]

I love being a cop more than about anything and I agree with the part about getting burnt out. Even when you love it as much as I do, when you do it 40+ hours per week it's extremely easy to burn out. Now I'm doing it part time, 16 - 24 hours per week maybe 30 on a busy week, And getting burnt out is pretty much impossible. It never feels like a job even on a rough night.

 

[Deep Dish]

There are amateurs among professionals, and vice versa, there are professionals among amateurs... I don't like your definition though, I think it is incorrect. Professional is someone who does it for a living, he makes money that way. An amateur doesn't know when to give up, or what job not to do, he does it for fun, not for money.

There are certainly hobbyists who produce professional level work (who just enjoy it) and some people with careers who are mediocre (but were lucky to have connections); professional is not synonymous with quality. But I was speaking more of a difference in attitudes rather than whether someone is paid for their efforts. A hobbyist with a professional attitude has a good chance of becoming a paid professional, though by no means a guarantee, and someone with a paid career with an amateur attitude will be limited in their success.

 

[Deep Dish]

 

[Desdinova]

Nice to see you posting again!

You often hear people say that you should “Do what you love,” so that when you wake up in the morning you’re not really going to work, but what they don’t tell you is that you may come to hate it.

Early in adulthood, I worked hard to turn a hobby into work. I eventually started to hate it. The one thing that I realised from it was that even though you're doing something you like, there are specific requirements that come along with it. You no longer have the free flowing creativity you had when it was a hobby. You now have specific tasks to stick to and specific deadlines to meet. That was the not-so-fun part. I ended up quitting my job because I hated it and I hated the people I worked with.

Now I'm doing something I enjoy a lot. It's a fairly different line of work, but it almost doesn't feel like work. I use the same problem solving skills I used in the other job, but the problems are never as complex. I abandoned the hobby that was work for the last 7-8 years, and only now am I starting to get back into it. I'm getting enjoyment out of it again, but I needed a very extended break from it.

 

[backseatjuan]

You no longer have the free flowing creativity you had when it was a hobby. You now have specific tasks to stick to and specific deadlines to meet.

Because hobbyist constantly learns and experiments, he is at play with his work. Professional is doing different kind of work, he is making money.

Now I'm doing something I enjoy a lot. It's a fairly different line of work, but it almost doesn't feel like work.

See my point.

I hated the people I worked with

You need an abstraction layer between you and the clients. A girl at the front desk that answers the phone and takes in orders. 99% of stress and mundanes comes from interaction with clients, because no matter your field, 99% of clients will be retards, so day in and day out you deal with idiots. If you can distance yourself from morons, you will have less stress, and work will be enjoyable.

 

[Colossus]

The reality that the "follow your passion" mantra misses is that when you do something for work, as in you are depending on this for your livelihood, it fundamentally changes your relationship with the subject.

There is usually a reliable inverse relationship between increasing work and decreasing enjoyment. I can relate to LL; I am interested in medicine (to a degree) and somewhat enjoy (or at least dont mind) my work when I'm doing it on a part-time basis or only seeing <10 patient per day. As soon as I start doing 40-50 hour weeks and seeing 16 patients per day, my job satisfaction goes down the toilet, almost immediately.

 

[user43770]

The reality that the "follow your passion" mantra misses is that when you do something for work, as in you are depending on this for your livelihood, it fundamentally changes your relationship with the subject.

There is usually a reliable inverse relationship between increasing work and decreasing enjoyment. I can relate to LL; I am interested in medicine (to a degree) and somewhat enjoy (or at least dont mind) my work when I'm doing it on a part-time basis or only seeing <10 patient per day. As soon as I start doing 40-50 hour weeks and seeing 16 patients per day, my job satisfaction goes down the toilet, almost immediately.

What you said is true, but let me go off the dome for second or two.

As you get older, you attain more maturity, education and experience. This leads to better paying jobs. Better paying jobs typically entail more responsibility and longer working hours. In a nutshell, that's less freedom.

On the other hand, if you discover your passion (it doesn't even have to be a "passion") and are able to turn it into an income stream, you may be able to choose the hours you work, as well as who you work for. Personally, I can't think of more freedom than that in our current world. You may make less money working for yourself, but I would happily give up more money if it meant I had more autonomy.

 

[Deep Dish]

 

[Von]

If you doing something 40 hours a week because you love it or you simply bored.... better go and turn it into a business and profit from it... better than just doing it to pass time.

Loved your post DeepDish... i see it with people who loves videogames... they do it 40 hours a week, have jobs, have girlfriend etc... but they never think about turning it into a money making machine ''professionnal level''

All they do in their free time is gaming... but gaming for the sake of gaming...

As have grew, I lost contact with that... why do something if you can't be good or compete at it... fun is important... but fun and useful is better

 

[Atom Smasher]

Interestingly, it seems that the trend of the day is "experts" selling us on working on our strengths abd ignoring our weaknesses. I've always disagreed with that.

 

[Deep Dish]

Interestingly, it seems that the trend of the day is "experts" selling us on working on our strengths and ignoring our weaknesses. I've always disagreed with that.

Huh, weird.

Looking into things, the focus on your strengths movement is based on the idea that focusing on your weaknesses is too slow, too painful, and it's business managers who are saying this. They point out that employees who focus on their weaknesses have 22% less engagement, compared to 1% less when focusing on their strengths. So they say you should delegate your weaknesses to other people.

The Harvard Business Review did a review and admitted there's no science to support it's a better method for improvement.