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Comment by arn | Hacker News Reader

"and do something that I'm really passionate about, like starting a rock band?"

What? This makes no sense. You're doing it wrong. If you were really passionate about playing in a rock band, you would already be filling your time playing in a band, jamming on weekends, playing in your free time.

You don't just "go out and start" doing something you are passionate in. If you are passionate about it, you can't stop doing it.

What do you do in your free time? You have no hobbies or things that keep you busy or wish you were doing rather being at work?

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I play music in my free time of course.

Jamming on weekends occasionally is much different than abandoning your day job and attempting to support yourself with music.

Fun Fact: Kevin Smith was toiling away for years at the very convenience store in which he filmed Clerks. He used the stuck shutters at the beginning of the film as a plot device as well as to hide the fact that they had to shoot almost entirely at night while the actual store was closed.

You can do both. You SHOULD do both. Something is obviously holding you back, and there's no way we can pretend what that is. I've found wives and SOs are really flexible if you lay it out that it's something you NEED to do.

Because Smith was working at Quick Stop during the day and shooting the film at night, he slept no more than an hour a day. By the end of the 21 day shoot, Smith was unable to stay awake while some of the most climactic scenes of the film were shot.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerks

sleeping an hour a day... :)

well, baby steps. I started a website during medical school, and it consumed much of my free time until I quit medicine. I didn't quit to start a website, but my website allowed me to quit.

Maybe music/show business is different? Forgive my lack of familiarity with the terminology, but you can't form a band, book gigs, do weddings, etc...?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Jeong <- this guy was a physician while he developing his stand-up, and is now a sit-com actor.

Girl Talk was a biomedical engineering student until he basically dropped out for music. It's not different, he was catching red-eyes back from shows in order to make it to finals.

You just have to want it badly enough.

He has a biomedical engineering degree and actually worked a 9-5 day job as an analyst for a few years while playing gigs on weekends.

http://stereogum.com/4530/quit_your_day_job_girl_talk/franch...

I stand slightly corrected, thank you.

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