Do What You Enjoy

While at some point in time we all need to get to the bottom line of making enough money to live and perhaps a bit more to do some of the things we enjoy, doing a job just because it makes you money is ultimately unsatisfying, unless making money is what excites you.

I happen to enjoy writing software. I also enjoy other things that are creative, such as the occasional remodeling job, blogging, cycling etc. The software thing is what currently pays the bills and as it turns out is enjoyable to me most of the time as well.

Every once in awhile you will get excited about something. Perhaps it's a new technology. When that excitement peaks you should follow it. Over the years I've seen many great ideas thrown around that eventually turned out to really big. Very often those ideas were implemented by others who also had that idea, but instead of pushing it into the background pursued it.

The reasons for this are varied. Often the idea seems impossible to implement. I'm reminded of an idea that some of us tossed around when I was in college studying mechanical engineering. We thought it would be cool to have a pen that would be able to write by itself. It would have tiny gyroscopes in it to control it's movement. We also thought that we could have the pen record what you were writing using accelerometers.

Interestingly the second part of that idea is now a reality in the "Pulse Smartpen". This pen uses a camera and tiny dots on the paper to record what you write. In fact it goes even further in that it knows where on the paper you are and so can play back stuff.

Obviously back in 1980 when we had this idea there were massive impediments to doing what we talked about and it was really only an idle conversation that none of us were even slightly motivated to try.

The thing is that there were many more practical ideas that could have been implemented given the technology of the day that I and others were sometimes excited about. But we often let the practicalities of life get in the way of pursuing them.

Or worse we knew they couldn't be done.

Many of the greatest inventions were done by those that didn't know it couldn't be done. Don't let someone else talk you out of doing something you are excited about. Push forward, even if it takes years of working nights and weekends to get the job done. While you are doing that you will learn something. And maybe that will lead to a breakthrough. When it's no longer fun put it away and do something else.

In any case always have something that you are pursuing that excites you.