A question that continues to cross paths with me in any professional space is, “Would you take a pay cut for an undetermined amount of time, to do a job you love?”. There are clearly two sides of this coin because while the phrase “American Dream” is clearly on life support, stability and having a safety net is what most people living in America have seemed to be focused on since the dawn of modern living. Yes, you may catch a few one-offs who will couch surf or try living solely off passion and pocket lint while in pursuit of their dreams. However, it’s the people that live in the middle of those who are insanely wealthy and close to destitute that seem to have the most conflicting views on this.
Let’s take it back to the mid-century or even before, where in order to collect a smidge of a bag, you had to marry into the right family to acquire and sustain wealth for yourself and your family. The silver lining in this previous reality was that at least you knew what you had to do and literally everyone was doing it, so the pressure to find your niche was unpopular—or forbidden for women. In present day, to sustain a middle-class life in a major city within the US, you have to have a day job, at least two side hustles, a business plan (just in case), a monetized hobby and you should plan to give blood to Red Cross or sell an organ on Backpage. Please don’t get me started on what this flow chart looks like if you partake in the creative community without a day job. America is just getting hip to paid internships and there are a couple of companies, I’ve just been made aware of, that keep track of compensation in every industry across the world. Isn’t that something? That in itself is a double-edged sword.
When it comes to doing something you love, many people will argue they’d do it for nothing as long as they have the bandwidth and resources. However, there are people in industries, such as design, art, music, or engineering (just to name a few) that may get overlooked because the people they are freelancing for or larger companies will see their shine, but not want to pay them what they’re worth. Reasons aside, these companies end up outsourcing and getting a cookie cutter project done overseas for a fraction of the cost. While this may be a fiscally responsible move when you have to move quickly and strategically, it almost seems like it’d be worthwhile to take your chances and money on someone or a community who you could build a tailored future with. While building relationships can also be done internationally, a sense of community built in-house is what I believe the world needs and is slowly falling back into; however, America is clearly the middle child and resisting these growing pains.
1. People can imitate or recreate your vision, but they cannot create what you’d do specifically. That’s where the power is.
2. This is frustrating coming from a country that loves to say they prefer things produced in-house, however many of our everyday resources or things we deem luxury are made overseas.
3. Sadly, Americans are focused on their individual well-being where they are more afraid of building communities, in fear of someone “stealing what is theirs”.
A hard truth is that a lot of what we think is ours, is borrowed. Therein lies the need for taking chances on potential pay cuts in order to help smaller collectives flourish. Giants like Amazon are phenomenal convenience-wise, but when anything gets too big it can and will begin to hoard any industry it has the means to branch into.
My very first love is writing and second is hair care. Currently, I am not solely sustaining my life by neither. As a day job, I currently work in EdTech. I have had a full-time job since I was 17, as I felt couch surfing was (and still isn’t) an option for me. Independence is always something I strived before I was old enough to provide for myself. Overall, there has to be some source of income while you figure out how to generate wealth from what you love to do. It’s a rough choice pulling yourself up from your bootstraps—also typically the people who tend to use that phrase began with a four hundred-year start.
If I could make a hint of a mark in this world with my creativity or if I could somehow guarantee a larger return down the line for a non-substantial pay cut right now, I would consider my options. However, when your passion does not generate enough and you have other opportunities or a familial safety net to sustain your lifestyle, it provides you more breathing room. It’s not right to ask or tell people to take an uncalculated risk as every day above ground proves that nothing is certain. People have families, health issues, every asset to acquire is severely inflated and boundaries that got crossed long ago that they feel like they have to nurture. While I’d love to tell everyone to follow their heart and take that pay cut for a potentially large return, we have to further illustrate the value of community on a larger scale and what that looks like for the future of literally everything. Every industry has pivoted, CEOs are getting old and companies are getting passed down or dissolved. We just need to get everyone to somehow value community as much as they value themselves.