I’ve been pondering about this a lot lately. Why do I wake up five days a week and go to work? Why do I work in the field that I do? Why do I spent my evenings working on band stuff for free? Do I live to work or work to live? Is this something I want to be doing when I’m 50? Or 30? I think it really comes down to motivation.
So what motivates me to work? I have to love what I’m doing! I mean, money is nice and to some extend required, but it’s not really what makes me super excited in the morning. (Actually it’s not something that makes me super excited at all!) It’s not something that keeps me in a place where I’m unhappy for too long. There has to be more for me than the paycheck at the end of the month.
Today I’ve worked 5 hours for completely free. I have couple of “clients” lined up. A lot of work to do. And I’m super excited and can’t wait to get more work done! For free! One big reason is that I’m motivated by the work itself. The projects are interesting and challenging. I know I can do extremely good job with them. I also know I can create awesome work methods in the process and get better at what I do.
On top of the work itself, I’m motivated by the opportunity to help. This is something I’ve missed! I understand extremely well people who do charity work and volunteer for whatever cause. Building websites is really easy for me and if there’s challenge, I’m even more interested! The fact that I can help someone out by doing something that’s fairly easy for me (or extremely hard and challenging), but means the world to them is just a pretty damn good situation to be in. Add the fact that I’m motivated by the result of my work and you have me pumped to get up to work long hours for free. Who knew working for free could be so damn awesome and rewarding!
Where does this fit in our society? To tell you the truth, I don’t really care.
