So I was asked the other day, by someone I think is a great developing trader, for some advice. The trader’s dilemma is that he’s been at this trading thing for a few years now and is simply not making enough money. He asked if he should go out there and get a ‘normal’ job so that he can at least have a steady income stream and start living the lifestyle that he is after. He’d mentioned that his motivation to continue pursuing the path of a trader is starting to wane and that he is considering doing something he, in his own words, “f#@king hates”, in order to just have an easier lifestyle.
Now I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to say in situations like these… so I said this (word for word, except I filtered one curse word and added some punctuation):
Let’s say his dream is to be a belly dancer. Belly dancers don’t really get paid all that well unless they are the best belly dancer ever. So, if the goal is to be a belly dancer, there are two ways to look at it. Either, being a belly dancer is enough to make the person happy or, they need to be the best f#@king belly dancer this side of India in order to make it big in the belly dancing world.
So there are a few choices: put in the time and make the required sacrifices in order to become the best belly dancer, knowing that there is a chance that you might never be the best and that at some point you will have to accept the mediocre life of a normal run-of-the-mill belly dancer… but if you work hard enough you could be the best, so it’s kind of like a ‘what you put in is what you get out’ situation where the input is years of suffering. Or, be happy being a run-of-the-mill belly dancer, because hey, belly dancing is your passion and it’s not about the money anyway. Or, lastly, give up belly dancing because in truth, belly dancing is not the actual goal – making a comfortable living is.
Any choice, regardless of what it is, means that something has to be sacrificed. Either the dream, or the money, or years of your life. The only way to know which one to choose is to know exactly what you want, and not have any doubt about it. If you want to be a belly dancer, belly dancing will be all that matters, regardless of how difficult life gets. If the difficulties that come with being an amateur belly dancer are too much, then perhaps, belly dancing is not your passion after all.
There is no wrong choice.
Each person must choose their own path and no matter what you choose, life will go on and there will be moments of happiness and sadness, joy and regret. The most important thing you must consider when making that choice though – and this is only my opinion – is whether or not belly dancing is really your passion and worth the tremendous sacrifice it demands in order to be the best at it.
So… I hope that that weird story about belly dancing helps those out there that are wondering if pursuing this path is really for them or not.
Happy trading! And… belly dancing.
