Written like a single person ;) That is where the use of 'never' comes into question, otherwise, great piece. - Michael W. May

1 'Like' for Michael's comment - Steven Hodson

Me too but I left it ON THE BLOG. ;) - Cyndy

I definitely do it for the $.07/month adsense makes me. :) Heh, I guess it must be for passion then! - felix

Even if I had those obligations, I wouldn't work just for money. I'd still stay out of work and risk getting things turned off or bad credit just for happiness. It's worth it in the end to me. I'll live longer. My happiness will always come before money. - Corvida

@corvida: before kids and wife came along, i'd definitely agree with you. do what makes you happy. once you have family, though, responsibility takes over. my wife would leave me and take my kids away if i suddenly decided that i was happier without a job, and stayed that way until things got turned off. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Corvida, it isn't just bad credit. It's about ending up with nowhere to live. It's stress one way or another. - Cyndy

Mark - I hear ya. I love to write for scribkin and other sites, but right now the food is coming from my day job. - Phil Glockner

money helps, but if you're not enjoying it, it isn't worth it. - Duncan Riley

Agreed Duncan - Shey

I'm a software engineer in Rochester, NY. Not an ideal place to live for my field but I wouldn't dream of living anywhere else because it would mean being away from my fiance. One thing that is uber important to remember (and I quote Avenue Q) "everything in life is only for now". Things change; very fast. Just because you aren't doing what you love now doesn't mean you won't be able to in a few years. - Benjamin Golub

Agreed. If you choose a path simply because of the money, then that's all you'll ever find down that road. If you choose happiness, it's surprising how much the other things just seem to take care of themselves. - Kevin Donahue

Ben, that was pretty tactful. Let's be honest... it sucks here for tech. It's a city so stuck on manufacturing that they can't see a way out. - Cyndy

Well, everything has context. As Mark says you do not want things turned off, but that is obvious. I have done work that I hated, and you end up burning out faster than normal. If you do something you love, you will enjoy your job more and be a happier person. Money needs to be made to pay the bills, but do you need to make a lot of money? Would be nice but other things probably make you happy. - Rob Diana

Hey guys don't throw Rochester, NY under the technical has-beens bus just yet. This place is growing. I worked just around the corner from ya and we're cranking out web apps for a little startup that now boast 72m in revenue - just started 5 yrs ago. (that's why Nelnet NNI bought us out last year). Rochester has SMART people like you two, Aaron Newman, et al. - Susan Beebe

While I agree that money should not be the only reason you do what you do, it is a useful standardized metric for how much your employer or society values what you do. - Clare Dibble

Money shouldn't be the PRIMARY motivator, but it's a useful secondary one. You can't work JUST for the money. You must enjoy what you're doing and who you're doing it with - the latter less likely in blogging but more for those typical 'day jobs.' - AJ Kohn

Well of course I had to 'like' this one. ; ) I do think Corvida is enjoying a time of life some of us look back on wistfully and I don't fault her for it. This ties in to another thread on FF, in which someone completely miserable in their job was weighing the role of money in the equation. If you don't have kids or significant responsibilities, for God's sake take full advantage of that freedom. Find your joy while you're unfettered, then the albatrosses (albatrossi?) down the road will seem much lighter. - Carla Thompson

Carla, exactly. But at the same time, whenever someone says "never" at some point it comes back to bite you in the you-know-what. Just ask my husband. ;) Looking back on some of those jobs I took because I had to, I think I got a lot MORE experience being unhappy there. And the really miserable job was the one that made me look at the great job vs. staying home with my kids and freelancing as what I wanted. - Cyndy

I love knowing that there are people out there who know what their passion is and go after it whole-heartedly. - Yolanda

Passion should motivate you, but being able to pay for housing, transportation and food is also good. I made a decision early in my career not to go into corporate, because I did that to pay my way through college and didn't enjoy it. Fifteen years later, more mature, I think I would actually be a better fit with that environment now. I'm too selfish to work just for money or just for joy. :-) - Sandra Fernandez

The flip side of the coin is that as long as there are people who are willing to work for passion alone, it gives employers no reason to offer fair wages for work. I have spent my entire career in Health Care. I get a fair wage, bonus, good health care benefits, 4 weeks vacation. In another industry I'd make more money and much bigger bonus $ but I feel we have a mission. My work means something. I certainly would not accept an unpaid internship. That's a companies way of getting something for nothing. - Kevin Shannon

@Kevin: I too never understood unpaid internships. Even as a college student I figured that my time was worth something. Giving it away for free seems to devalue the value of your work and time. - AJ Kohn

@AJ not that I've been one, but I've known folks who have. You simply aren't giving your time for free, you are getting paid in exposure to an industry, contacts and experience you otherwise might not get. In some very competitive fields, this is critical. It's up to each individual if that payment is equal to the value of his or her time. :) - felix

@felix I want to add a new room onto my house. You think I'll be able to find an entry level contractor, plumber and electrician who will work for free just because I'll give them a good reference. Probably not... but I will find contractors, plumbers and electricians that will charge me full price and send me one of their interns to do the job. I do agree, it's up to the individual to decide. Yet if I decide I need money while I pursue my passion it's hard to compete if someone is willing to work free. - Kevin Shannon

@felix: I get the 'soft' benefits of those types of internships. I'm just of the mind that you can get that AND get paid at the same time. I'm not saying it has to be a lot of money, but I think folks sell themselves short if they give their time away. Slippery slope in my opinion. - AJ Kohn

@AJ,Kevin - now I'm not saying what's right or wrong, but I can see why this happens. It is supply and demand, the entertainment industry has a *lot* of folks wanting in and not so many jobs. Thus free interns. An example closer to home - if I was in college and had a choice between an unpaid internship at Google or making $200/wk at a local software shop, I'd pick Google almost certainly. The benefits I get would be worth more to me than the money. - felix

You still need some money to live on. Only those who already have enough are in a position to not need money to motivate them. - Morton Fox