/ 9 July 2022

The passion economy — loving what you do to earn a living

Whodowebecome

Jeremy Rifkin, a global economist who advises China, Germany and the European Union on the third industrial revolution, speaks in his book The Zero Marginal Cost Society about how every time something is digitised, it’s repeated almost for free. The whole world is moving in this direction. In other words, eventually just about everything will be free – think communication and photos as an example. According to Rifkin, energy and transportation are next. I’m still struggling to get my mind around that. It doesn’t seem possible, but I remind myself that we would never have been able to imagine how communication and photos would ever become almost free.

Now picture this world in which everything is essentially free: how do we determine value, and on what do we place value? The only thing that isn’t commodifiable and automatable yet is social and emotional connection.

What you see now is the passion economy. It’s about finding and developing something you really love and profiting from it. This passion economy places a premium on softer skills such as personality and creativity. The way the passion economy empowers the individual will change our pre-existing notions of careers, putting an end to the conventional path to university, internship or climbing the corporate ladder.

By developing new products or services that are cheaper, simpler and more convenient, workers in the passion economy can tap into large segments of the economy which they

could not previously access or afford to enter. In this way, the passion economy business has the potential to disrupt the structure of big businesses.

The passion economy reflects the world we had before the Industrial Revolution, when there were small towns and villages dotted around, but very few big cities. Urbanisation, along with the increase in the world’s population, was the dominant demographic trend of the late twentieth century, but before that, every village had its own butcher, baker and candlestick maker. These were run by families who had passed skills and craftsmanship down through generations. 

While not every member of the family might have been passionate about their required involvement, the business was built on personal knowledge and pride in a noble occupation that delivered necessary services and products for life to continue within the community. They might have been able to service the people within their own village, and perhaps a village or two beyond their own, but transportation wasn’t as efficient as it is today.

Now, the creator or passion economy is more likely to be run by the individual rather than an entire family – though that is not excluded at all – and, because of technology and the

borderless world we live in, we can service anyone anywhere in the world. With five billion people on the internet – and with predictions saying this will soon increase by 50% – all you really have to do is get 0.000001 percent to pay you $2 a month and you’re going to be living large for generations to come.

So, it’s important for us to understand the new dynamics of business and to uphold and apply ourselves to this new way of expanding and reaching millions of people from the

comfort of our homes.

At the time of writing, the passion economy was worth $38-billion. It has been growing steadily since 2010, with double-digit growth especially since the Great Resignation of 2021, when workers in the Global North quit their jobs at historic rates – leading to the (as yet unnamed) Great Reignition of the Entrepreneur.

Disruption, a theory developed by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen in the 1990s, is a concept that has been widely referenced but is largely misunderstood. Contrary to popular belief, disruptive innovations are not breakthrough innovations that make good products better. Instead, they are innovations that either enter at the bottom of the market and serve a lower-profit segment, or that target consumers who previously could not access or afford a product or service. 

This process is enabled by technological change and business model innovations. Because disruptive innovations tend to be seen initially as inferior to existing solutions, they’re often underrated by market entrants who tend to focus on serving large existing markets with greater profitability.

 Engineer, physician and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis explains that disruptive ideas usually conform to the Six Ds. They are digitised, deceptive, disruptive, dematerialised (think for instance of the printed photograph versus the digital picture), demonetised and democratised; in short, “a chain reaction of technological progression, a road map of rapid development that always leads to enormous upheaval and opportunity.”

What is required of us is to hone our interests, rather than to learn skills that we believe look good in the eyes of our employers or parents or spouses. By doing so, we move power out of big institutions and into the hands of individuals, placing emphasis on entrepreneurship, creativity, speciality and accountability.

The passion economy is not just about being your own boss; it’s about offering unique content and engaging communities. Technology plays the role of the enabler, not the

intermediary. You can now share your passion on a paying platform, which goes beyond social media and is more tailored towards creators’ needs. In fact, the more we hear how social media is playing with our minds and wasting our time, the more advantageous it becomes to use these platforms.

 New tools make it easier than ever for prospective workers to earn an income by tapping into passions and unique skills. Examples include writers on Substack publishing their own

subscription newsletters, professional video game streamers on Twitch and Caffeine, video course creators on Teachable and Podia, and online teachers on K-12 learning platforms Outschool and Juni Learning.

But what if you don’t have any hobbies, don’t know what your passion is … and hate your job? I have a simple piece of advice for you. I found that following my curiosity, instead

of worrying about what my passion might be, was an easier way for me to connect with what I wanted to do. Curiosity is a gateway to passion. Passion doesn’t just arrive because

we’re looking for it – we’ve got to follow the golden thread of what interests us. You will come to realise in the process that you are curious in a unique way. No one can be as inquisitive about a particular thing, from your particular angle, as you can.

Once a combination and range of curiosities come together, we will have developed a passion. You – and only you – hold the potential to offer that passion as a service to your community or to your clients.

I have written previously about how educational institutions have trained thousands of people to be the same. It’s caused a surplus of very smart people, educated in more or less the same ways. The passion economy provides an escape route out of sameness, a road towards personal fulfilment and a chance to provide singular, exceptional contributions to the world at large.

This is an edited extract from Who Do We Become (Jonathan Ball Publishers SA) by John Sanei. The book will be launched at Exclusive Books in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, on 14 July at 6.00pm and at Century City Convention Centre, Cape Town, at 6.30pm for 7pm on 20 July. Redeem your ticket via the Facepass.io App or Email:[email protected] for more information.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.