Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing?
I have a friend who went for a short trip last summer. He went to Gokarna and he was so happy after the trip. He came and shared all his experience with us and we were thrilled that Gokarna could also be such a fun place to travel. A bunch of my friends, immediately decided to plunge into the idea of visiting Gokarna the next weekend. We all started to search the internet with the To-Do’s in Gokarna, when suddenly something happened and I cracked a joke. My friend just heard it and told me,
“Hey! Do you want to give Stand up Comedy a try?”
The first thing that came to my mind was I can make some extra money through it and I could easily afford such short trips now and then.
Additionally, its not much work. Generating content and putting it in front of the camera. Its a matter of a month or two only.
That’s all!! Its too less work, but a big fat PAYCHECK!!
My friend had, apparently, met this lady in his trip who started a new venture for publishing stand up comedians and she was looking for fresh women who could speak without any bounds. I contacted her and scheduled a meeting with her. They had their own publication house and they invited me in and asked me whether I was comfortable to speak about any topic. I agreed to it.
I did not have much problem in public speaking but I never tried making people laugh though.
Finally she handed me a list of topics from which I could choose my pick and create my own content which should be fifteen minutes long.
Now, making people laugh for one time and again barging in after a few hours is different, and constantly speaking for a duration of fifteen minutes, making sure that people do find it hilariously funny, is a totally different story all together.
The publishers told me that if they like my audition and I am selected in the final list, then they would negotiate my pay and let me know when to come for the final screening.
The word “PAYCHECK” buzzed in my ears so hard that I just said a YES without even a second thought.
I immediately agreed and scheduled the next meeting. Meanwhile, I started preparing the content.
Here came the difficult part. Making people laugh once or twice is easy. But keeping a role on it in camera, poking your presence of mind in front of the audience every 30 seconds — that is unimaginable.
But, somehow, I just got through a script and did a few trials in front of my friends. They gave me a go ahead and I decided its time I could give my audition.
I went to the same place and there were two other people sitting straight in front of me just to see how I perform. The first few stanza went by without much of a hassle. When I went further into the topic I saw the woman, whom i met on the first day, listening deeply, but not making her way through it.
“She ain’t laughing” — was the thing constantly going inside my head.
Finally, when I went towards the end part, I knew everyone would laugh in this one at least, and that did happen. I had the script written in that way, a few salient points scattered throughout and a marvelous ending.
My friends did laugh in between the scattered points and I though they were enough. But these are pros, critics that we are talking about.
They did not find my salient points laughable enough.
She gave her feedback saying that it was good. A few brush ups are required here and there, but she felt that I was quite bubbly and well suited. She told me that I needed to write a bigger piece as the one I narrated would not be more than 3 to 4 minutes. But they were looking for at least 12 to 15 minutes of constant blabbering.
She added that the next time I come I should be ready with 3 topics minimum so that they could start filming after a few improvements, if any.
In my mind I knew it is very difficult and I had no idea as to how to proceed. So I decided I will give my heart and soul and do this.
I came back home and started writing something. I took the topic and carved my own imagination onto the paper.
It took me seventeen days to figure out the whole thing and once it was done, I started narrating it to my friends. They gave me a few improvements to be incorporated and then I again started to re-writing. Finally, I finished writing on one topic after a month.
But I had to prepare 3 topics to get my first screening done and I was just done with one which took me a month. It was much tougher than I even thought.
I picked up the next topic, but I couldn’t get much content in it, so I decided to give it a few days until I experienced some real life incident, which could be an inspiration to be incorporated in the content. But the few days passed by soon and I started getting calls from the publishing house.
With my day job and my household chores, it was very difficult to find out time to write a narration.
I felt I had to work harder to make things go right.
Slowly, I started scribbling something, but I couldn’t find the piece satisfactory. I knew people wont laugh enough with my work.
I had a big project, in office, to be handed over to me, and I had to deliver it in a few weeks. I started working extra hours to make things go right and this time I was fully packed up. I was 12 hours in the office, sleeping 7 hours, finding time to cook somehow and then again rushing to the office.
I did get a few calls from the production house, asking about my progress with the content but I preferred to ignore it, for the time being, as I was too preoccupied with my day job.
It was another month that flew by, and then another. Slowly, I lost interest and calls stopped coming. The notebook where I wrote all the contents, now, lay in one of the shelves of my cupboard, accumulating dust and grime.
The only reason I did not pursue it, was even though I had the talent, I was driven by the idea of accumulating cash. The things that you want in life are not to be driven by the sole importance of earning money. It should be your passion, your desire. Just like the fact that I love writing, its in my name. I keep coming back to it no matter whether I am earning or not.
Thereby, do something that you like to do, that you intend to carry on for the rest of your life.
Now most of the time we do not even get to know whether we will stick to the thing we are plunging into.
In that case, try it for a while, the first instant you feel that its lot of hard work that you have to invest, that is the sign that you do not want to carry on with it.
Its not that you are lazy, but its just that the point that you will have to work in order to get results is making you feel lazy, which will ultimately make you give up on it.
The thing that drives you always, will never make you feel lazy as you will never feel you are working for it. It will be an enjoyment, a piece of vacation from you monotonous life.
So no matter whether its less work or no work, unless you feel that its what you want and its what that makes you feel happy from within, you wont pursue it in the long run.
So always follow your passion. Something that drives you, that gives you immense happiness even if its a lot of work and takes away half of your day. In the long run, when you are established you will find out ways to reduce time but you will also be extremely motivated to do it.
Eventually, the work which does not feel like work is the thing that stays on and generates cash.
If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.
Hope you like the piece of motivation I shared. Do comment below and let me know, how you are motivated to do your work that you love. Also do clap for me if you liked it and hit the “follow” button to never miss any updates when I publish a new story.
