Making a living from your art is the bravest, most vulnerable thing you can do. You cannot survive in a creative field unless you are passionate about your craft, unless you are willing to make sacrifices, unless you are strong enough to handle the road blocks and criticisms that will come your way.

Making a living from your art requires an immense amount of bravery. You are taking a risk. You are going against the odds. You are choosing to walk down a path most people consider taking but are too afraid to try. When you work in a creative field, you are challenging yourself. You are striving to better yourself. You are competing against yourself.

You realize there are a million undiscovered, talented artists in your field who deserve recognition, but you are brave enough to join them. You are brave enough to take a chance on yourself. You are brave enough to express your vulnerability.

Every single day, you have to dig deep within yourself to find inspiration for your art. You have to reopen old wounds. You have to put your heart on the page (or on the canvas). When you choose to work in a creative field, you are choosing to express your emotions in front of the world. You are choosing to be open with the universe and with yourself. Even though what you are doing is scary, you are brave enough to fight through the pain, the discomfort, the self-doubt. You are brave enough to continue creating.

To outsiders, doing what you love for a living might sound easy, it might sound like you have it made, but you have to work as hard as anyone else. Sometimes, you have to work even harder because you are in such a competitive field. You cannot get away with doing the minimum amount of effort. You don’t have a boss to fool into thinking you have been productive. You would only be fooling yourself — and it wouldn’t pay off.

In your line of work, you need a combination of luck, timing, talent, and effort in order to earn a paycheck. That is why it feels like your work day never ends. You are always thinking about the next project, the next idea, the next way to bring in cash and customers.

Anyone who assumes artists are too lazy to get a real job have no idea how much effort is put into your passions. They have no idea how many hours are spent working every single day. They have no idea what it takes to make a living from art.

Unfortunately, dealing with ignorance is part of any career in a creative field. Even though deciding to take a risk and follow your dreams is something your family and friends should admire about you, not everyone in your life is going to approve of your lifestyle choices. Some people are going to call you childish, immature, unrealistic. They will accuse you of chasing after pipe dreams that are never going to come true. They will accuse you of wasting time and blowing money.

Even once you reach success, once you prove your dreams are obtainable, certain people will resent you. They will be frustrated you chose to follow your dreams instead of settling for a nine to five job like them. They will be jealous you took the path less traveled and succeeded.

Ignore what the skeptics say about your choices. Making a living from your art is the bravest, most vulnerable thing you can do. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Never let anyone sidetrack your dreams.