Everyone has an ideal lifestyle. Mine is to live out of a suitcase and travel the world endlessly. While that may sound like a nightmare to some, I would give just about anything to attain this goal. The real secret however, is to live the lifestyle you want while also doing the thing you love most in the world. That is the true unicorn, the true holy grail of happiness. As you may have guessed, for me that would entail landscape and travel photography. Fortunately, these two things kind of go hand in had.

Pat Kay goes over his approach to dropping his previous profession in web and product design. He outlines his 3 point approach to turning his new hobby (photography) into his new profession.

The video is a bit long at nearly 30 minutes but it is a great watch. Just in case you don’t have 30 minutes to spare, here is a brief summary of what his main points are:

  1. Get good. If you are going to pursue something you are passionate about you have to be “damn good” at it. You have to be able to market and sell your skills. You have to strive to be world class so you can stand out in the market.
  2. Building a runway. Build enough escape velocity to break free of “gravity” and get to your calculated destination. He further breaks down this primary point into 3 subcategories: i. Lifestyle design, ii. saving money and iii. earning money.
  3. Run like hell. Put your plan into action and just go for it. Now that you have escaped gravity you are again in unknown territory. You have to build everything from scratch. Work hard and fulfill your new goals.

Covid-19 has definitely changed everything. The economy and our social structures have been shaken and a lot of people are reevaluating their lives. This is a scary time to make a big change but it is also, potentially, one of the best times. Be smart, calculate everything and make the jump. After all, you only live once and while this is very cliché it is also very true. You can always fall back on plan B but there are only so many “windows” you can target to achieve your escape velocity.

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