>This sounds strange to people raised with the idea "do what you love and the money will follow." But we all know that's crap. The problem with doing what you love is, you'll have to do it within a capitalist framework. Obviously you hate this, and if you connect what you love to that you'll eventually hate what you love.
>you'll eventually hate what you love.
For anybody who might discover this dead-ass thread: My whole life I told myself to avoid doing what I loved because I would hate it having to do it under constraints, and I was tragically wrong.
Yes, it's true that no matter how much you love something, it won't necessarily be fun to do it when/where/how you don't feel like doing it – for that's where most of the fun comes from, the leisurely pleasure.
And yet now, I would do fucking anything to go back in time and pursue exactly what I loved. The notion that I would come to hate it was an excuse.
First of all, nobody has enough time to dedicate to becoming world-class in more than one thing. Unless the thing you love is just tinkering with a hobby that isn't artistic, isn't something you take any pride in, isn't something you identify with, then don't keep it as a hobby, because if you do you're never going to be any good at it.
Something I've realized as the years go on is that it's not a dichotomy of enjoyment/money; that's such an oversimplification. As I said above, even if you do the thing you love as a job, it's not going to be fun 100% of the time, but really, it won't be either way: Even if it's just as a hobby, it's going to require work and systematizing and dedication to get it to where you really can take pride in it.
Do you want to spend the rest of your life working a corny job and then spend 45 minutes at a time, two nights a week, trying to make a video game or playing in a bullshit cover band? Because one day you'll realize you have money but it never seems to be enough, and yet at the same time you also never finished a game or played in a band that played anywhere outside of bars in a stripmall…because you simply didn't have enough time to get any good at it.
OP might insist he hates architecture, but at least he knows how to design a quality building when he wants to – and he will again.
The satisfaction comes from your identity, and the types of people who look up to you. If you don't give a shit about your job as an accountant, who cares if people want your autograph at a finance convention? When you wake up, do you feel good knowing you're an accountant who happens to have a hobby as a rockstar?
Yes, the "do what you love and the money will follow because everyone is interested in something" idea is a joke, but the reality isn't too far off: do what you love, keep your business glasses on, and you'll discover opportunities through which you can make money while still being who/what you want to be, still be surrounded by the people you like and admire, and still be adulated by them.
You will never have the respect of everyone. Never. You can be the biggest rock star in the world with a ton of money, full artistic integrity and control, and there's still gonna be some fat, bald faggot proclaiming, "What, am I supposed to be impressed?! The guy gets on a stage and plays a GUITAR as his contribution to society! Meanwhile I toil in court to put CRIMINALS behind BARS! I'M the real rock star here!"
Besides:
"Doesn't matter what your title is, how much money you have, or where you live; if you have to wake up to an alarm clock every day, you ain't shit."