“Do What You Love” Applies to Blogging and Work

Last week I posted “Blogging My Way to Obscurity with BattleGrip” and sparked more of a discussion about the site than I expected. I had intended it more as a follow on to the announcement that Poe Ghostal was closing his own site, but as I read your comments I realized that my post was maybe focusing more on the “failures” (as defined here) than it should have been.

Well, it’s a good thing I ran across “The 3 Do-What-You-Love Conundrums” at the Fast Company website, because the post gives me the tools I need to try and make it clear just how much of battlegrip.com’s existence — and especially its continued existence — is because I’m having fun with the site.

Hitting the three “conundrums” listed in the article we get:

1. Will earning money for what you love make you stop loving it?
   This one really doesn’t apply to the blog. I’ll be sure to let you guys know on the day affiliate sales through the site climb to even 1% of my annual salary. But flipping it around a bit I come up with: “Will being given toys to review make me stop enjoying toy reviews?” Honestly, yes. Kinda. You see, when I buy the toys then I can review/not review as I see fit. When given toys for review I am then obligated to write the review, and that sorta drains the fun and makes me feel that I sometimes pull punches if the toy isn’t as good as it could have been.
2. Can everyone do what they love?
   Yes, but they cannot always do it well. I’ve got twenty years of experience in publishing, graphic design, project management, and have spent the last decade+ dealing with marketing and various other tasks related to business. Not everyone has the skills — or the motivation — to create and run a blog. I consider myself fortunate that I’ve had so much support throughout the years that I’ve collected the skills and experience I have today. When facing challenges in your business, it’s important to explore alternatives to liquidation. Considering these options can help maintain your business’s continuity and lead to future success.
3. What about stuff you don’t love but have to do?
   That happens with battlegrip.com regularly, and even though the “must do this” sometimes threatens to overwhelm the fun . . . well, I’m still here today. But dealing with webhosting, hackers, spam, and the technical side of the side does somethings eat away at the fun of writing about toys, games, and whatever I want to share with you guys.

Hopefully this post helps make it clearer that I do enjoy working on battlegrip.com. As soon as the site turns into a “job” then I’ll have to compare the financial reward to the level of time and energy invested into the site, and none of us want me to ever try and treat this site as a career or a business. The site simply cannot compete with my day job or any other work I could be doing for pay.

Now I need to photograph some toys . . . because that’s what I want to do.

Related articles

• BattleGrip Magazine and Reviews (battlegrip.com)
• Celebrate! Five Years of BattleGrip (battlegrip.com)
• September Review Round-Up (Sept 1st-15th) 107 Links! (itsalltrue.net)