Paul Graham just posted an essay about “How To Do What You Love.” He starts by talking about how kids really only distinguish between two different things: playing and not playing (chores, etc.). Paul then walks through an individual’s steps through life and how, psychologically, they look at work, play, and enjoying what they do.

The reason I find this so interesting, is because my dad has always told me that I should do what I love… although he always backed it up with having some type of security, he never pushed me into any one particular profession - or even one that would have the opportunity to be high-paying. Looking back on things now that I’m older, I appreciate this enormously.

Paul mentions in his post that “All parents tend to be more conservative for their kids than they would for themselves, simply because, as parents, they share risks more than rewards.” This is true. He explains with an example of the teenage daughter dating the town rebel. The parents don’t share in the reward of exhilaration; they would only share in the event of a pregnancy. So, in that, it makes sense that even though parents want their kids to be happy, they are also looking out for themselves because of the subconscious knowledge that the risk of their children’s decisions lies on them. This makes me appreciate my dad’s long leash even more.

My love for a long, long time has been music. A few years ago, I went through a time when I realized that even though I love creating music, it wasn’t really my passion - I could do it for free because I loved it - but I couldn’t do it as soon as my product became “required” by others. “Elliott, I need some music that sounds like this…” Uh… no. It became tedious and frustrating.

So I had a breakdown.

I realized that MUSIC wasn’t what I was truly passionate about… so what was it? I realized it quickly after recreating in my mind all the different times I felt so exhilarated in relation to music…

What really was my motivation… was the building. The process of creating something - not just musically - but creating a business, a product, developing the idea, making it real, and having it used and appreciated by others. Shortly after the breakdown, I sold most of my music gear and started focusing on web development. Developing web products allows me to conceptualize, develop, design, and market a product that’s disposable… if it doesn’t work, I can just think of something else and start over… At the same time, a bigger project takes a lot of time and a lot of energy - but for some reason, I really like the process.

Ok, round about way of getting to this… check out Paul’s Essay; it really does a great job of explaining ways to find what you truly love to do. Because as I found out… even when you think you know, you might not.