"There is no cure for laziness but a large family helps."
- Herbert Prochnov
Answering the difficult questions...
I am constantly getting questions from readers about how they can live their legend and pursue their passion given whatever life situation they've found themselves in. But one situation tends to come up more often than most:
"I have a wife (or husband) and kids to support so how can I possibly make the transition to doing work I love?"
They then list all kinds of reasons (that at times can be very valid) such as not enough time, they won't make enough money, or for whatever reason they just can't take the 'risk'.
This question is near impossible for me to answer. Simply because I have not been there. I have a wonderful family of two - my wife Chelsea and me. We have plenty of obligations, but we do not have any kids (yet) and there are no doubt people who have a lot more at stake than we do.
So the way I always answer this is to point them to the people I've met over the years who are in very similar situations, who have families to support and big financial obligations, who have defied the odds and built an incredible life for themselves.
The first person I always point to is Leo Babauta, the creator of Zen Habits.
In a matter of a few years Leo went from working his ass off as a newspaper reporter, to creating one of the biggest blogs in the world, and having a 100% passion based business - all from a standing start, from scratch, while literally living in the middle of nowhere out on Guam. Time Magazine consistently rates Zen Habits one of the top 25 blogs.
And the kicker... he did all this while supporting a family of 8.
Over a long double date at one of our favorite SF spots, and after a few glasses of wine, he graciously agreed to write us all an article on how he actually did it.
