The Untold Story of How Money Affects Your Creative Passion
“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” ~ Andy Warhol
I’m certain you’ve heard the statement that making money from your passion kills the passion. How true is this?

Just like you, I’ve heard this statement bandied around many times. And I’ve taken it at face value without critically examining its merits and demerits.
As a result of this line of thinking, many of us creatives are torn between seeking out viable ways to monetize our creative works and sticking with just creating as a hobby.
But as I came to the end of writing part 1 of this series on Art + Entrepreneurship, the question came to my mind again. “Does money kill creative passion?”
So why don’t we critically consider this question now? First off, what is a passion?
“Passion is a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something”
So our original question can be reframed this way: Does money kill our strong feelings or enthusiasm about creating?
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert’s cartoon, in a Wall Street Journal interview, explains that passion ebbs and flows because as our definition above has just shown, passion is about feelings.
For example, I heard a guy on the radio talking about how when his sons were younger, they got into different sports. And they’ll spend money buying expensive sports gear and uniforms only for his sons to lose interest and change their minds after a while.
I’m sure we all have similar life experiences which can make us relate to his sons. So one thing we can definitely say about our interests is this:
Passion is not enduring and therefore cannot be relied on.
Does Money Kill Creative Passion?
The truth is whether you make money or not, your passion for whatever it is you create, may come and go as it pleases.
There are several reasons why we lose interest in something. Scott Adams argues that failure is something that kills your passion.
The [projects] that didn’t work out – which was most of them – slowly drained my passion as they failed. The few that worked became exciting as they succeeded.
The easiest way for your passion be drained is therefore not by making money from it but to repeatedly fail at doing that thing. I find this quite interesting because it means passion does not guarantee success. Success, on the other hand, can fuel your passion.
Scott Adams puts it this way,
In hindsight, it looks as if the projects that I was most passionate about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success.
He goes on to say:
Success caused passion more than passion caused success.
Put that way, it sounds jarring to the senses but I happen to agree with Adams. However, I approach this concept quite differently.
I call my concept, “the gift of progress” which I explain in this blog post. The summary of my concept is this. Making progress (or success if you will) motivates you, it fuels your passion for doing more and makes you accomplish bigger tasks.
Money does not kill passion otherwise, we’ll not have superstars. But failure can.
The Bigger Question About Money and Creative Passion
Having said all this, I think the bigger question we’re trying to answer is not whether money kills passion. It’s “how do we find meaning or fulfillment in our lives”?
We’ve somehow tied having a meaningful life to our passions. So it’s not surprising anything that appears to be a threat to our passion gets us all anxious about losing our life’s meaning.
The founder, Benjamin Todd, of 80,000 hours ( FYI: that’s the total number of hours you’ll work in your lifetime), believes we’ve got the order all wrong.
In a TED talk, Todd explains that we think our interests/passion matter more than they do because we underestimate how much they change.
Adams agrees:
“For most people, it’s easy to be passionate about things that are working out, and that distorts our impression of the importance of passion. “
The current order we follow in deciding on our life careers is this:
Todd argues that finding a fulfilling career does not start with following your passion. Rather, true meaning in life is found when you master a skill and use it not for only yourself but for the good of others.
Answering The Question About Money and Creative Passion
Dilbert creator Scott Adams and 80,000 hours founder, Benjamin Todd, are separated in age by probably a few decades. And while Adams speaks from a lifetime of experience, Todd speaks from a short youthful experience backed by loads of research, yet they both come to the same conclusion.
Passion is not what you focus on when you want to build a meaningful career. Start with skill/ mastery and working for the greater good.
Neither money nor passion give our lives meaning. It’s how our skills benefit others that gives us true meaning.
In conclusion, if you decide to monetize your creative work and turn it into a career (not a hobby), do what’s valuable.
That’s to say, focus on getting good at something you like that genuinely helps others. Then your success will fuel your passion and in turn, give your life meaning.
Part 4 of the series will be on “The Secret to Maintianing Your Creative Focus in a Commercial Environment”
Your Turn
What are your thoughts about money and creative passion? Does the fear of killing your creative passion stop you from going professional with your creative work? Do comment. I really want to hear your opinion.
Warmest Regards,
You may also be interested in other topics in this series:
1: Making the Decision to Monetize Your Creative Work
2: The Truth About Art and Creative Passion
3. The Secret to Maintaining Your Creative Focus
4. Seven Practical Ways for Textile Artists to Make Money
5. Art & Entrepreneurship – Interview with Melanie Brummer (1)
6. Art & Entrepreneurship – Interview with Melanie Brummer (2)
I’m sure you’ve heard this many times, but it’s not the monetizing I have issue with, but the marketing preparation. I have many art skills, mixed media, mosaic and now, fiber, but what I’m seriously lacking is photography. Or, perhaps better stated, a good place and system to take pictures of larger items. In the online world, we all know that it takes excellent pictures to sell, and my pictures are far from excellent.
I take pictures over and over again on different days, with new ideas and still remain unsatisfied. This kills time that I could be creating (which I enjoy), as well as frustration. Why continue creating new items just to stack them up with the ‘already created’ items awaiting decent photography.
It’s an ongoing loop that has shut me down several times.
Hey Lorrie, thanks for your comment.
Yes , I too used to grapple with this issue. Although now I take photos of my work myself and do enjoy the process and I do get good results. But initially it was a headache. So I got someone to do it for me.
So, get someone to do it for you. There are many local photographers who will do it for a very reasonable fee. Ask around. Especially friends and family. It’ll save you time and you’ll feel good about your work when you see them well photographed.
When I did that, it took a lot of pressure off me and allowed me to continue focusing on and enjoying my creative process. HTH
I think it is not the money itself that kills passion. It is the constraints put upon your natural creative expression when making a product for someone else that kills passion. Some of us are more sensitive to this than others. I certainly am. It is a very personal thing and differs with different people.
Give me a free rein when making something for others and I feel no stifling of creative passion when taking money for what I do. But as soon as I am given parameters, I start to feel my creativity being stifled and also find it more difficult to be creative and to enjoy what I am working on. This is true whether it is quilting, writing, researching, developing programs, or even icing a cake.
I am good at a lot of things and have the interest, talent, and knowledge to make money with my skills and doing that does not bother me because being good at, and being interested and knowledgeable, are not always the same as being passionate.
Individuals change for many reasons. And it is not unusual to lose, either temporarily or permanently, our passion for what we are doing, whether it is art or something else. Sometimes things can hurry up the process of losing passion.
Perhaps we lose passion just because we find something more interesting or something that is a change that we are drawn to. But I do believe for some of us, charging for our art can help kill passion.
I do not take money for my work because then it is just that—work. But not everyone feels as I do. And it is lucky for us they do not.
For you, Clara, it was the marketing aspect that got in the way. Your simple solution was to let someone else handle marketing. I think that it is smart to give up that which affects your passion negatively if it is something you can give up.
Wow, Vicky, you’re so multi-talented. That’s awesome. I find that a lot of folks in this community are talented and knowledgeable in more than one area.
I agree with you that some of the issues with money are very personal and they differ from person to person. We each have our comfort levels. 🙂