A question for the crowd

Is it worth it to drop all your money-making capability to pursue a job you love?

Is it worth it if that job is something that very few people [get to] do, and holds a strong possibility that you won't be able to achieve paidness in that job?

Basically, how much do you [have to] temper your idealism with your pragmatism?


I mean, I don't think of my job as a "career". I'm a phone monkey. I don't think it's likely to lead into anything I'd like to do more. Should I therefore drop everything and pursue a line of work that won't pay much, if at all?

Does the answer change if I've discovered that "doing what I love" as work turns love into, well, work?

Or do I keep the job I have, where even if I don't love the work I'm doing (I don't really care one way or another) I do like the people I'm doing it with, and I'm making money so that I can afford the things that I do enjoy?

Because that, to me, is a perfectly reasonable compromise. Rather than making myself hate the things that I once enjoyed to try and make money off of them, I'll use work to fund the things that I enjoy.

Which seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Oh, and because I never posted it:

The Chocolate Scale