Painful Love or Loveless Pain

There is a saying that if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life. While I do believe it's true, I also have never found a job that was a true easy street. No matter what you do for work, you're going to have to work for it. The important question is, what kind of work do you want to do?

For artists (like writers), the big divide is whether your job is to make art or make money. Both come with their rewards and drawbacks. If you choose to be a professional artist, then there will be a great deal of struggle trying to make money off of it. It is a slow start and a long crawl to get anywhere. After that, if you can make it, you will have to deal with deadlines and expectations and audience demands. The upshot is that you are doing what you love and creating something that you're proud of. For as much pain as you have to go through, it is a labor of love.

The other side of the coin is doing a job for the sole purpose of making money. Of course, this is not necessarily an easier life path. You still have to start at the bottom of the totem pole, claw your way up, and deal with deadlines and expectations. The nice thing is that you will be making a lot of money and will be able to afford the finer things in life. The drawback is that your work is an alien part of your life, so you will spend a large chunk of your time doing something you don't care about.

Personally, I would choose the painful love of trying to be a writer as a profession than the loveless pain of doing a job I don't care about.