Adam J. Kurtz, author of Things Are What You Make of Them has rewritten the maxim for modern creatives:
"Do what you love and you’llnever work a day in your lifework super fucking hard all the time with no separation or any boundaries and also take everything extremely personally."
More recently, when I was made redundant, I did take some steps towards trying to sell the things I crocheted, but people won't pay a realistic price and so even a huge amount of work doesn't generate an adequate income. I now just crochet and knit for myself and occasionally make gifts if I'm sure they'll be appreciated.
Even more recently, after decades of dreaming of being a professional writer, I decided to write fiction just for fun. When I was in my 30s, I fell into the trap of feeling that payment for stories was validation and also believed the old quote from Samuel Johnson, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." I wasted many many hours polishing stories for submission when I'd have had more enjoyment out of writing the next one. Basically I turned what had been a hobby when I was a teenager into hard work and never ended up making more than a few pounds from it.
