The paradox of doing what you love

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Dr Michael (Mickey) Hobbs, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

We’ve all heard the adage, “Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Yet data shows differently. Those “doing what they love”- creatives, healthcare workers, teachers, coaches, and generally those in ‘helper’ roles- are often working hard. They’re more likely to be in precarious roles that are often underpaid, in which the workers’ passion for their job is exploited by the industry, not only in terms of pay and overtime, but also in terms of bullying and workplace harassment. These professions are plagued by burnout and mental health issues- more so than other white and blue-collar industries- and also have high rates of suicidality. Marginalised groups, including women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC and disabled people, are particularly at risk.

These are systemic issues that have been shown repeatedly in many countries around the world. As a coach and functional medicine practitioner, who often works 1-on-1 with people, I immediately recognise the limitations of what I do. On one hand, doing what you love is empowering: being in touch with what’s important to you and the ways in which you’re internally resourced is good for you. It lends you motivation, creativity, and resilience. So much of what we do in coaching is help people contact this, and creatives are some of the best at it.

Unfortunately, its effect is paradoxical. Focusing the locus of control- both intentionally and by what you’re not centring in the conversation- back at the level of the individual perpetuates a David vs Goliath situation, in which the industry doesn’t have to change. A solely individualised approach to issues of work, health and wellbeing, are, in fact, the seeds by which exploitation breeds.

Workers in these industries- including myself- aren’t naive. We’re very aware of the ways in which these industries exploit us. Our work becomes one way in which we try to enact change. As Professor Mark Deuze argues, this is an example of Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism at play: workers get burned, and so they continue. Yet this is also a strength. Workers have always found new creative ways to organise and build alternative worlds.

But systemic issues also need to be addressed systemically. Unions, collectives and other politically-engaged organisations are critical for driving and supporting change in these industries. Workers should belong to a collective, or a union, or a political organisation, and be actively involved in them, if they can afford to be. Part of my role, increasingly, is working with companies, organisations, and groups of people. When I do work 1-on-1, part of my role is to help illuminate these systemic issues to my clients, and help encourage and equip them with the political and social skills to enact change, not only in their own lives, but also at the collective level. It requires a different kind of learning process, that is foreign to how many of us were taught here in the West: one in which we’re not just learning by ourselves, but in conversation. It requires a different kind of processes for me, too: of not coming with all the answers, but be willing to listen, and ask, and learn, and to strive towards better care, and understanding.