If you are you one of those people who…

Stay up all night playing video games

Collects and hoards comic books and Magic cards

Loves smoking the reefer and watching TV

Or any other activity where you’ve heard “Stop wasting your life away doing, ‘X’ and go find a job!“

This blog is for you.

The other day I was talking with a friend, who manages the social media and content for an international email marketing company.

The funny part of the conversation is when he explained that after 10 years of working in the industry his parents still don’t understand what he does.

Even after countless hours of explaining, examples and presentations they just can’t fathom someone getting paid to post things on “The Facebook.”

In a different conversation with another friend, he was telling me about how he thinks his son is addicted to video games. He confessed he didn’t understand the appeal and thought his son was just wasting away his life.

Until he found out that his son was making a little over $500 a month.

I know $500 a month isn’t much but, he’s just 13. How much money were you making at 13? Exactly.

Think of it this way, in both cases the parents were worried about their kids wasting their life away until they understood that the thing they were wasting their life on was actually paying the bills.

These are success stories. These are parents who let their kids explorer their interests to find out what they like.

At the end of the day, wasting your life away or not, parents will always care and worry. So why not focus and do what you love?

But, what about all of the parents who don’t let their kids do what they love?

What about all of the parents who force their kids to go to college to study hard to become someone with “dignity” (LOL) like a lawyer or a doctor?

What about the parents who said, “Stop wasting your life doing ‘X’ and go get yourself a real job!”?

How many dreams, ideas and breakthroughs were demolished, discouraged or ignored?

10 years ago, to be rich and successful we focused on where the money was and shaped ourselves to get there.

Today, we do what we love and figure out how to get paid for it later.

The days of hatting your job and day dreaming of what could have been are over. We live in a world where you are allowed and encouraged to do what you love.

If you aren’t doing what you love, it’s on you.

When I was in 3rd grade our teacher asked the class what we all wanted to be when we got older. One by one we shouted careers such as:

“A doctor!”, “An astronaut!”, “A circus clown!” and just about any other career an 8 year old could think of.

But there was one career I heard, I will never forget.

“A tourist!”

A WHAT!? -I said, “A tourist!?”

And the whole class, myself included, laughed at our peer.

The teacher took him aside and explained that to become a tourist, you need to have a good job that allows you to save up for trips!

That didn’t sink in for him either.

15 years later I found myself following my friend on Instagram with over 2 Million followers!

Did he go to college to become an engineer or internet expert?

Nope! He decided to buy a camera and to go against everyone else who thought he was a joke and became a tourist.

He now travels the world, taking pictures of some of the most amazing places you can imagine and, Yes, he gets paid for it. Every photo you see on his page, think of dollar signs.

What did it cost him?

From the outside, it only cost him a couple bucks for a used camera and a cheap course he took on photography.

But on the inside, it took him that, plus years of negative push back from friends, family and loved ones. It took him the effort to fight and push through all of that to pursue his dreams of becoming a tourist.

The hard truth

Being good at anything will take patience, effort and will.

No one just becomes the best at anything over night. All the success stories you hear, comes after countless stories of failures that no one wrote about, no one knows or understands other than the person himself.

My tourist friend went through days if not weeks of being homeless and barely being able to eat. His friends and family were worried but, persistence and patience kept him going and got him where he is today.

If you’ve ever been told by your parents, friends or anyone, you’re wasting your life away… ask yourself these 3 questions:

Am I happy? Does this thing I do bring me joy? If I could make a living off of this thing, would I do it? (remember making a living isn’t Ferraris and $10 Million houses, making a living is being able to pay for the things you need to be happy.) When things get hard, will I be able to push through to never work a day in my life?

If you answered “YES” to all three of those questions, go chase that dream. TODAY.

If answered “YES” to just the first question, also chase that dream. It’s not all about money in this case. Hobbies are required for a happy life, I think.

Don’t let others tell you how to live your life. As long as you aren’t hurting yourself, others and are happy, keep doing what-chu doing!

Those assholes are probably just projecting their own insecurities and doubts on you anyways.