Be a Professional

Today, one of my favorite writers had an article on his blog entitled Professionals, amateurs and the great unwashed.  Seth Godin is really a master at writing only a few words but getting a strong point through to the reader.

Seth was talking about people and how they work.  Seth said that a professional is somebody who is expensive, but worth more than you pay because of the quality of the work that they do.  An amateur is somebody who is cheap, even free, because they are not doing it for the money, but for their love of what they are doing.  The “great unwashed” are people who are only doing it because it is a job.

Professionals? It seems so.

How many of us are the great unwashed here?  Sorry to say, but I expect that most of us are.  Too many people do what they do only because that is how they make money.  Some people start off with a passion for what they do, but later it becomes nothing more than a job.

Amateur, but loving what he does

After reading Seth’s article, I took some time to think about myself.  What am I?

• A Professional? I believe that in many ways I am a professional at the things that I do.  I strive to be the best.  I make a sincere effort to improve my skills and provide a good value for my clients.  In many cases, my services are expensive, but I believe that even though my fees may be higher than others in my field, the services that I provide are high quality and thus a good value.
• An Amateur? Sometimes I do things for free or for a reduced price because I do love what I do.  But, in the end, I mostly want to be paid good money for the value I provide, so I suppose that puts me more toward a Professional.
• The Great Unwashed? It’s easy for me to say that I am not in this class.  Why?  Because I only do things that I enjoy doing and that I am good at.  If I enjoy something but am not good at it, I improve my skills and make myself good at it.  If I do something to the point where it’s nothing but a way to make money, I change what I am doing and reinvent myself.  I have gone through a lot of careers over my life, because if I get tired of my “job” I change to something that I want to do.  That’s one of the beauties of being an entrepreneur like I am now.  I choose what I’m going to do.

So, what am I?  I would say that I am 80% Professional and 20% Amateur.  What are you?

Doing things that you love doing, and making sure you are good at them is a great habit to get into.  If you are just doing a job to make money, how can you enjoy life?  For me, you can’t.  You do hear, though, a lot of people say they are wage slaves.  Why would anybody want to be a slave to their job?  These days, it’s so easy to change what you do, and do what you enjoy!