[Closed] Turning hobby into career + losing the fun factor

It's hard to say. I turned my hobby into a business and it was very successful at first. Eventually though it broke me, mentally and financially, and I now have nothing whatsoever with that hobby. That's not likely to happen to you as you'll be working for someone else, but it could certainly take the shine off it.

Perhaps not strictly similar, but when I was heavily into motorcycling, I considered working dispatch/courier, for a bloke who was setting up a new business in the area. A mate who had done the job said that I should only take it if I wanted to hate the sight of a motorcycle! He said it was the quickest way to take any pleasure out of doing something you had previously loved.

There’s a phrase of ‘Working in a sweet shop, last thing you want to do is eat sweets when you get home’ - paraphrased.

There is a good risk of that.

However financially it seems to be a winner.
What’s to stop you trying it out. If it doesn’t work go back to Brewing or even Screwfix….

Sorry to hear about brewing @singletrackmind. I have fond memories of a bike ride from the brewery some years ago, and ending up back at the brewery drinking some really lovely beer you’d made.

I think it could go either way with regard to ending up hating your hobby. But it also seems as though your current job is stacked very much in favour of screw fix. Nothing to stop you giving it a try, if it doesn’t work out you easily have the skills and experience to get another job.

Good luck with the second interview.

The question is . ‘Will working in the job lead me to hate the sport, or enhance it so I love it even more, or might it stay the same

if woodwork is your hobby then working as a carpenter is 'doing your hobby for a career' but selling tools,  materials or services to woodworkers isn' , its just doing a job in a field that you are interested in. ( unless what you really enjoy about woodwork is hanging around in tool shops.)

My career of 30 years has been my hobby for 40. I get paid to do something I love.

What’s to stop you trying it out. If it doesn’t work go back to Brewing or even Screwfix….

This. The new job sounds better in every way. If it doesn't work out, just take the money and run.

if woodwork is your hobby then working as a carpenter is ‘doing your hobby for a career’ but selling tools, materials or services to woodworkers isn’ , its just doing a job in a field that you are interested in. ( unless what you really enjoy about woodwork is hanging around in tool shops.)

That sums up my experience.

I work in a bike shop but it in no way interferes with or degrades my experience when riding.

I think it depends on your outlook and what the hobby is possibly as to whether it’ll taint it or not but I’m certainly very wary of it.

From being a tiny person in primary school I played musical instruments. By high school I played 4 and all of my spare time was consumed with county brass bands, swing bands, other group music alongside 30 minutes per instrument of practice each day (I finally ditched the violin later in school dropping to 3). I went on to doing music alevel and eventually a music degree. At the end of university it all stopped, it wasn’t fun any more, I didn’t do it for enjoyment but purely from habit. It’s only in lockdown that I’ve bought one of the instruments again and still find it tough to just do it when I want because it’s one of those things you need to do regularly to keep it in check.

There must be other retail positions or jobs that are better on paper and don’t risk your enjoyment of something?

I worked in a bike shop. It made me resent my bikes after a month.

I worked as a cycle courier. It made me hate riding my bikes.

The money in both was less than 40h at minimum wage in a bar. Bike shop was 35h with unpaid lunch breaks. The bike courier job I could do 2 from 3 of eat, pay rent and keep my bike on the road

If they had paid better, perhaps I'd have stayed.

I've done my hobby as a job for 9 years now, and still do my hobby at weekends with mates.
Some days I CBA doing the hobby, but it's the job so I crack on if I can't avoid it, and usually enjoy it by the end.
Guess it depends on the job description. There'd be elements of my 'hobby' I'd not want to do for a job (training other people for eg), but I know others who earn their living doing that and they love teaching others about their hobby.
If it didn't work out, you can always move on to something different.

As an old and grumpy teacher I advise the young and keen to be wary what they volunteer to do.
I liked coaching teams and even reffing matches but came to resent losing at least half a Saturday.
Loved DofE and expeds.
Hated doing the MTB club, just sucked the fun out of riding.

One of the advantages I had when working in outdoor centres was the multiple sports we did. This meant you could vary what activity you did for leisure, maintaining interest.

That said, there is a huge difference between the professional working time and personal. Leading an MtB session has little to do with you on the trail, and everything to do with paperwork, punctuality, customer service, coaching and asessing, risk assessing, carrying spare layers/lunch/tools, fixing bikes, loading vehicles etc.

I've turned two hobbies into jobs (photography and music) and thinking about doing it with a third (baking sourdough).

I don't do them as voraciously as I used to outside work but I don't hate them by any means. Also who's to say I would have maintained the exact same level of enthusiasm for them as a hobby over many years anyway.

For me the plus sides of doing something I truly enjoy for work far outweigh any negatives. YMMV.

Growing up I always loved computers, and I'm a programmer now. It's not necessarily a bad thing to work doing something you enjoy, and I'm lucky in that programming is a viable career.

However. I don't now do any programming as a hobby. I don't hate it, but I'm just not that fussed after a 40+ hour week. Even other things that use a computer (e.g. music recording which I used to do a lot) I generally don't fancy so much since I've had enough of computers by the time the weekend rolls around.

I’ve done it twice. Once working as a bike mechanic for a few years, and again running paintball and airsoft sites for 6 years.
Both times I ended up never actually participating in the hobby I had turned into work as I was surrounded by it all the time and lost all enthusiasm for it.

This is the dilema.
I windsurf , quite alot. I sail to get away from the hustle and bustle and its great.
Going really fast with just a decent breeze on big kit with flat water is an amazing feeling.
Hitting waves and jumping 10 - 15 ft up is also brilliant fun, as is using the power of the wave to turn and surf down.
Stopping ft work, although kinda enforced by covid and working shifts at Sfix gave me more free time. Spending 100% (+) of my wage everyweek however wasnt as pleasant.
Job is in the local windsurf shop, and I can imagine having people coming in all day saying how great it is down the beach could get old very quickly.
Its the work - life - cash balance I guess.

Sounds like the sort of job that attracts the hobbyists, people who are really into it. I mean, could people with no interest in wind surfing do it?

I keep thinking about doing my hobby for a job, but then quickly realise I would be poor very quickly. Skydiving is both seasonal and really poorly paid. I'd need to be sponsored and/or part of team for it to be anything other than a hobby.

Same with brewing. I like it as a hobby, but making it a career or job would be financial suicide for me. We are lucky to have so many other good local breweries round these parts that a new one would be fighting over scraps.

I worked several seasons as a bike guide taking people across the alps from Bavaria to the Italian Lakes.

The worst thing about the job was the guests. Not all of them, obviously, but when one of those PITA types showed up it soured the week for me (and the other guests).

The best bit about the job was when not hiding, but ferrying the luggage through the alps for a few hours a day before parking up and spending my hotel expenses on a lift pass.
As such I jacked off the guiding to drive the van during summer. Ride when I wanted. Sleep where I wanted. No major responsibility.

Is your hobby riding your bike or fixing bikes? If it's the former, I don't see how working in your bike shop would ruin riding bikes... They are not the same job

The worst thing about the job was the guests. Not all of them, obviously, but when one of those PITA types showed up it soured the week for me (and the other guests).

Same with brewing. I like it as a hobby, but making it a career or job would be financial suicide for me. We are lucky to have so many other good local breweries round these parts that a new one would be fighting over scraps.

I'm not clear how much time you'd get off during the week if you have to work all weekend? As another windsurfer, I'd struggle if it was only 1 day a week off...what are the chances it will be sailable on that day? Also are you happy sailing on your own (potentially) during the week?

It's surprising how many windsurfers are replying to this one.

I'm close to Boardwise and the 2 owners, Ian and Doug, plus Jack and Steve never seem to be off the water. And they always have the nicest kit...and they get 2 weeks a year at Vass.

I like cycling.

I worked in a bike shop for a while when younger selling bike bits surprisingly. Didn't affect my enjoyment of cycling and didn't really seem to relate to cycling, it was just talking and selling.

I signed up to a 24 hour solo MTB race as a drunken bet and had to do a bit of training and then ride for 24 hours. It put me off cycling anything, anywhere for over a month and I found it difficult to get back to enjoying it rather than fighting to be faster everywhere.

So for me, working in something related to a hobby was no issue but spending too much time and commitment to the hobby put me off.

I should imaging being a windsurf instructor 40 hours a week could take the edge off enjoying free time windsurfer but selling lumps of Styrofoam would have less impact to me.

Hobbies are by definition undertaken for pleasure and relaxation not as a main occupation. For me, the issue is often tackled the wrong way round - rather than “can I make money from a leisure activity?”, a better route is “can I find a job that has an intrinsic level of interest to me?”

Not a career and not done professionally, but being really into my photography I got cajoled into doing a couple of shoots for people - only candids at events (wedding and christening).

The whole thing pretty much stopped me picking my camera to for the next/past 2 years. I need to find the bug again for personal pleasure

I think I could only do a hobby as a job if I did not need to rely on it financially as I think it is the grind of making ends meet that causes people to fall out of love with it more than the fact that they are doing their hobby day in day out.

So for eg, I too love photography. I have even done weddings for friends and family and if someone phoned me up on a recommendation I would happily do a one off event. But the thought of *having* to take work on, dealing with idiots, the stress of trying to secure work then shooting weddings because I had to and not because I wanted to etc. No thanks.

DJing. I can play at a party all night. I could play in a club all night for money. I love DJing, even just mixing some tunes on my own. But I always want to be playing my music my way. Having to take soulless gigs on, being asked to change styles because that's what someone else wants, bending over the DJ console for crooked promoters, not getting paid by cowboys etc. Yeah that would soon drain my love for it.

In short, if I won the lottery and never needed to work again but didn't want to get bored I'd take up a hobby as a job safe in the knowledge I could pick and choose the contracts I took on. Other than that I am quite happy working in financial services - I like the work enough, it pays the bills and I can switch off and enjoy my hobbies in my down time 🙂

The one thing you should takeaway from this consideration is that you want / need a new job away from from Screwfix.

Without meaning any offence, can you not try it and find out? The Screwfix job sounds ok, but replaceable, so the cost of jacking it in to try something for a while isn't like you are leaving a 14year stint at a job you have loved. A friend often says, what's the worst that could happen, obviously in this case you may lose some of the passion you have for a sport you love, but if you start to feel that way, you can get out quickly and keep the passion?

Maybe something to consider is whether there are opportunities to progress in the current job or the potential new job. At the end of the day, cash is king and having a work/life balance is great but not having enough money to enjoy that life kinda defeats the object a bit. If neither job presents any potential increase in earnings then maybe neither job is sustainable for the longer term.

Go for it!
It's not like Screwfix is a top job or fun....
Just don't leave in a ball of flames in case you need to go back anytime.

Remember to make sure you get enough days off and holiday so we can get away again this year 🙂

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