If you do something as a profession, you often have to prioritize doing the broadest version of that thing in order to appeal to the largest potential audience or customer base. But the real influence often comes from the specialists, the people who have a very tight niche carved out of the broader field.

In order to become one of those specialists, you often have to take the route of not starting out as a professional!

When you do something for fun or as a hobby, you can take more risks, experiment more, and play more with your time. When you’re doing something as a profession, you have to be more calculating and focus on what makes more immediate money. That means you might never have the juice to explore the more niche aspects that would ultimately make you even more successful.

All this is to say: If you have a hobby that you’re good enough at to “turn pro,” maybe don’t rush into it. Spend a little more time playing around and finding weird specialty corners. In the long run, that might be far more lucrative – and more fun.