This is a response I wrote to a friend who was struggling trying to figure out if he should settle for a career he didn't like in order to have security or pursue his music dreams...

As an official adult who owns a house, has a job, pays bills and has already graduated from college I would like to say that... I've worked several jobs that I did not prefer-- that weren't my passion-- until my church started doing a series called One Month to Live... during which we were supposed to reevaluate out lives and determine what we would change if we only had "one month to live".

Within the next few weeks, I changed many things in my life but most importantly I quit my job (...which was, in fact, at the church! I'm quite certain that's not what they were going for :) and determined to do music the rest of my life. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made!

Though the economic recession made it so that I had to get a part-time job for a season in order to keep paying bills (FYI, I was able to quit that job recently), I was ALSO able to find a job DOING music. Meanwhile I had more free time to reawaken my music aspirations in our band (www.myspace.com/wearethepreamble) and in my personal writing & performing.

According to "The Millionaire Next Door" and "Millionaire in the Making", you are MOST LIKELY to get SUPER rich if you stick to doing something you REALLY love. How's that for security!

However, I think Howard Thurman addressed this issue best when he said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

So, I say do what makes you come alive because I know a lot of "dead" people, mostly adults, and they are a drag to be around-- they aren't making the world any more exciting, colorful, beautiful or adventurous.

Also, I highly recommend reading anything Derek Sivers has to say but especially this article:

http://sivers.org/scares-excites-do-it

Oh yeah, and "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." --George Bernard Shaw