Why Do We Feel The Need To Monetize Everything?
There’s a deeper reason for our need to succeed.
This year I successfully started a raised bed garden from scratch. It was an ambitious passion project, and for a while, I worried I took on more than I could handle. But it was a massive hit.
Friends came over and marveled at the abundance and variety of veggies I was growing. “Have you ever thought of starting a Youtube channel about gardening?”, they asked. Of course I had. In fact, I’m still itching to start one now, but there’s one thing stopping me:
Will I be successful in monetizing it?
This may be a satisfying hobby, but I’m not willing to put in all that work into a Youtube channel and not be financially rewarded for it. I guess I’m not that passionate about gardening after all.
Not if my passions come with a price tag attached to them.
Creativity is supposed to be free
This analytical approach to hobbies and passions caught me by surprise. I never thought I would become so cynical about it. I decided to dive deeper and figure out the reason for this change in mindset.
Let’s go back to our childhoods for a minute and imagine ourselves doing something we really enjoyed. Maybe it was drawing, singing or playing a sport. Did we need an audience to feel satisfaction or appreciation? I don’t think so. The joy of creativity was its own reward.
Sure, there were plenty of times we did things for external validation — like writing an essay for that gold star at school or learning to play guitar so that we would become more popular with our peers. But for most of our passions, our motivation was internal, rather than external.
As an adult, all skills = money
Becoming a self-sufficient adult coincided with the booming of online businesses about a decade ago. As a millennial, I was undoubtedly influenced by the side hustle trend, but it seemed out of reach for a long time.
Soon enough, though, when I realized there was money to be made with the help of the internet, I started seeing opportunities for profit in all of my…
