I can hear the voice of financial guru Kevin O’Leary saying that statement.
But it wasn’t him who said it to me.
It happened at a time when I was fulfilling my creative juices by making photo greeting cards.
Back in the day, stuff not that long ago, capsule when paper photographs were still popular, I would take pictures of flowers, animals, and other things, and glue them onto blank greeting cards.
I loved doing it – and even attended several craft shows where I tried to sell them.
I did sell some – quite a few actually – but of course, just enough to cover my costs, and not actually make any profit.
And then it was brought to my attention that I wasn’t counting in my labour – the time that I invested in creating these photo greeting cards.
And so when I factored that in, I was actually, probably, in negative money-making territory.
Did that matter?
Not to me.
I enjoyed the process so thoroughly – so abundantly – choosing photographs and then painstakingly gluing them onto the paper greeting cards – that I would have paid to do it. Well, I guess I did, actually.
But, in the big picture, in the grand scheme of things, I guess one can only contribute so much before the hobby becomes a drain. A financial drain.
And so, I eventually gave up my love of creating photo greeting cards. I still have a few that I saved as a souvenir.
I still see photo greeting cards created by others, occasionally in specialty stores – where people have, hopefully, found a way to make money by creating them and then selling them. They are extremely expensive – but then again, all greeting cards these days seem to be extremely expensive.
And I am slightly envious that others have what looks like, on the surface, to be a viable business creating beautiful, permanent cards, too pretty to ever throw away, suitable for framing even. I hope they are making money at it. I hope it is a good source of income. Even if they cover their expenses, and just have enough left over for some walking around money. That would count, in my books.
Did I quit too soon? Should I have persisted until I found a way to make money?
I’ll never know…
But I do know that I won’t let the thought of not making any money stop me from doing anything I love, ever again.