From Lawyer to Vegan Blogger. Yes, You Can Follow Your Passion to Success

You may be among the many who have pondered about whether or not you can ‘make it’ online by following your passion. 

For one lawyer-turned-vegan blogger, that has been the case. In a recent Google Web Creators blog post, Jessica Hylton-Leckie of Jessica in the Kitchen,

The blog post talks about how, in 2010, Jessica started a baking business and blog. 

But, the focus of her time was on her studies and eventual career in the legal industry. 

And that’s what she did.

But then, she was met with immense stress and resulting health challenges.

It was at that point that she had to face the fact that her passion, blogging, may be a way out of her challenging situation. 

Principle #1: Is Passion Really Necessary?

This particular question isn’t brought up in the Google blog post, but I’ve been in the online marketing industry for years, and I know it’s one of the most important ones to consider. 

Nope. It’s great to have passion for what to do, and it’ll likely make things a lot easier, but no, you don’t technically need to have a passion for what you do/

I know that’s a surprising notion, since we’re talking about passion. 

What’s more important than passion is that there’s an audience that shares an interest in what you have to say. 

After all, you can be passionate about something, but if your passion doesn’t fit with, or align with, a commercial market or industry, it might be challenging for you to build a successful blogging business. 

Principle #2: Decisiveness and Commitment 

The reason why I put decisiveness and commitment together is because a lot of people make a ‘decision,’ but don’t consistently follow through with commitment. 

You need to first, try to evaluate how much time and resources it’ll take to start your blog. Look into things like a domain name, hosting, a blog platform, a theme, an email marketing solution, cameras (if your topic is a visually-rich one like cooking), content production time, and other tools. 

Principle #3: Planning

Then, comes planning. What will a typical day, or week, look like for you? 

You may have to do a few ‘practice runs’ to see what it’ll be like to fully pursue your passion. 

One thing that’s mentioned is to have six month’s worth of savings set aside. That’s very good advice. 

Principle #4: Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help (From Supportive People)

This journey can seem lonely. You can join an online community of like-minded folks who can help you, or at least be a source of encouragement. 

Of course, be careful who you associate with and who you share your ideas with. Some people can be incredibly discouraging. 

Principle #5: Devotion to Skill Acquisition

This journey will likely require that you learn some new skills and improve on those you’re proficient in. 

Thankfully, blogging is largely a knowledge-based endeavor (as opposed to something like manual labor), so you can rapidly become minimally efficient at the key tasks you need to perform. 

Yes, following your passion can take time, decisiveness, and calculation, but if there’s a market for it, you can be successful. 

Source: Google Web Creators Blog