When a Hobby Should Remain a Hobby

A lot of people dream of taking a hobby of theirs into a full-time business. But should they? I would consider this long and hard.

One of my hobbies is collecting pinball machines. I’ve built an arcade in the basement of my home. I get a lot of pleasure from it, both from the experience today with it, and also how it goes back to when I was young and the memories I have of being in arcades then.

Part of me would like to do more with this. If it gives me such pleasure, and is tied to such good memories, shouldn’t I want more of it?

Well, the answer is… no. I need to protect it. I need to keep it fun, and not kill it.

Right now, I don’t have any consideration to things like profit and ROI (Return on Investment). I have a “hobby” allotment in my monthly budget, which I put towards buying a new machine every once in a while.

That machine doesn’t have to earn, or do anything for me. I can also spend as much or as little time as I want in my arcade. Sometimes weeks pass and I don’t do much with it. And that is great to have that choice.

I can invite people over when I feel like it, and if I don’t feel like it I don’t have to see anyone.

So the arcade to me today is 100% fun, on my own terms.

I’m reminded of a story I read in the book the E-Myth Revisited (great book). It told the story of a woman who loved to bake pies. Her aunt taught her, she had lots of memories of making pies with her aunt. Everyone loved her pies. So she did what a lot of people did… opened a store to sell her pies.

Then it became her nightmare. She no longer made pies for fun or for love, but as a slave to the business. She had to come in early, and do the prep, then baking, then dealing with customers. Then at the end of the day the clean up, and then the business work like bookkeeping and other office tasks which could go late into the night.

She took her love and turned it into the worst job in the world.

You definitely want to work on things you enjoy, but just because you love something doesn’t mean it will automatically be a great business.

Back to my arcade. Obviously there’s a reason you don’t see a lot of arcades anymore, the money just isn’t there in the world of cellphones. I’d be stuck operating a business that people didn’t love as much as I did. I’d be paying rent, overhead, staff, bookkeeping, cleaning, etc. All things I don’t have to do now.

Now I can just slip down to my basement and play for 5 minutes, if that’s all I want. Then I can go back to whatever else I want.

I also don’t have to cater to customers. My arcade can remain a monument to myself. It’s everything I like and want to see in an arcade. If I had to worry about what could make the most money, then it would be a room full of crane machines or something. And I’d have to listen to kids screaming all day and doing birthday parties because that’s where the money is. All the while hardly making any money and all the stress it introduced into my life. Yikes.

I’ve really enjoyed the businesses I’ve run. I still develop new ideas based on things I like to do, but I’ll draw the line at what are hobbies to me and keep them that.