I still cringe when I remember this one conversation from years ago. A friend was showing me photos of some of the incredible cakes she had made—gorgeous cakes with exuberant, witty designs, skillfully executed. She made them for family and friends, and she loved the work and loved making them happy.
You know, you could sell those, I said. You could sell them and also make a book about it and sell that, too! She was polite and listened to all my ideas. But as far as I know, she is still giving her cakes away.
I wasn’t wrong, of course. But my friend did not pursue my ideas because she was already doing what she wanted to do and wasn’t looking for advice about how to monetize her talent.
At the time, the idea of simply creating things for pleasure didn’t even occur to me. Instead, figuring out how to monetize skills was a constant habit. This was necessary because my family was broke and even a little bit more cash made a big difference.
