In the News: Love What You Do, Do What You Love

Apropos to my post yesterday about following your dreams despite the recession, the USA Today just ran a review of a new book about the very same topic.

Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields is a guide to teach you how to make money while doing what you love.

After you figure out what you want to do (i.e. what you love doing), you have to work out the finances. Fields says you do not need to earn top dollars, but there is no reason that following your heart should leave you destitute.

The book is filled with personal vignettes from others who have left the rat race to follow their dreams — including the author, who jumped ship from his lucrative law practice to open a yoga studio.

The key to success, writes Fields, is to find and fulfill an unmet need within the marketplace. That advice works well for those of you with entrepreneurial dreams, but what happens if you want to be an employee? Someone who gets a paycheck from someone else to be a chef or an outdoor educator, to work as a model or a fashion designer … or whatever else your heart desires?

I think Fields would say that, even when someone else is paying your salary, you need to approach your job search (and your career) from an entrepreneurial mindset.

What do you think? Do you agree with the premise of Career Renegade that it’s possible to have it all: A career you love and a salary you love, too?