by Catherine Giordano
Has
this ever happened to you. As the “Lovin’
Spoonful” once said (in a different context), “Did you ever have to pick up on
one and leave the other behind?”
My
vocation my whole life has been market research. I like market research. Some
people may think it is boring; not me. I think it is an art form.
There’s
an art to designing a good questionnaire. There’s an art to developing a good
focus group and then drawing people out to express their opinions while making
sure that the focus group experience is an enjoyable one for the participants.
There’s an art to taking reams of data or hours of focus group conversation, and
“finding the story” (i.e. analyzing the data to find the conclusions). There’s an art to writing a report that my
clients will actually enjoy reading.
And
then there is art. When the recession slowed down my market research business,
I had the time to turn my attention to a dream that I had long ago set aside. As
a little girl, I wanted to be an actress and a writer.
I
started writing speeches. There’s an art to writing a good speech. There’s an
art to delivering a speech well. It requires a bit of acting talent.
My
market research clients often said “good job,” and then gave me a new
project. But the audiences for my
speeches applaud, and dozens of people come up to me afterward to say how much
they enjoyed my speech and how much they were moved, helped, informed, inspired
and entertained by it. And then the program chair invites me to return. Importantly,
I get paid to speak. Not enough for me to say I am earning a living from
speaking, but nothing shows appreciation like money.
If
I could write good speeches, I thought to myself, perhaps I could do other
kinds of writing. I started writing
poetry. Many people told me that they liked my poems. I started writing essays (non-fiction
creative writing), a little bit of short fiction, and reviews of TV shows. People
told me that they liked these also. I have even been published. Alas, I earn
writing credits, but not money.
I’ve
written a few books and I’ve sold some books. I’ve even gotten a few nice
reviews on amazon.com. Alas, my book
sales are not enough to say I am earning a living as a writer.
Since
I am not earning a living as a public speaker or as a writer, I must consider
these activities an avocation. This brings me to my point. My market research work has once again become
a full time job. Vocation must replace avocation. Money trumps accolades.
The
interval between posts may become longer, but I’ll still be posting. I hope you will still be reading. And I hope
you will continue to find my writing moving, helpful, informative, inspiring,
and entertaining.
I
am lucky to love both my vocation and avocation.
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