I took me awhile to become comfortable saying I was a makeup artist when someone would ask what I do. After years of being groomed for life as a consultant or something similar, I knew what a lot of people were silently thinking while smiling and saying “congratulations! that’s so great for you!”

…What a waste of an intelligent mind.

…Why go to Georgia Tech just to go do something so trivial and silly?

(Well, first off, the beauty industry is far from trivial or silly. From special events, to the movies/magazines/tv shows which entertain us, or the daily morning routine for your average woman, women (and men) live their lives in and around the work that I do. It is one of the few industries which never falters despite cyclical economic recessions – a testament to the critical role it plays in so many of our lives.)

But I digress – back to the topic at hand. Honestly, I was prepared for thoughts like that. What I couldn’t have prepared for is how many people have genuinely congratulated me – almost to the point of envy – and then confided in me that they are jealous I am following my dream. Some even said that they were jealous I had a dream to follow, and that they were feeling lost and directionless. I can fully relate to that, as that’s how I felt before I gave into my “calling”, for lack of a better word. Although I was nervous and anxious and beyond terrified to enter an industry that I knew very little about (alone as a freelancer, nonetheless), the relief I felt after deciding that I was just going to go for it was astronomical.

Makeup keeps me up until the wee hours of the morning. No matter how much I learn, I want to know more. I go to bed thinking about it, and wake up the same. Even when I’m up at the ass-crack of dawn prepping for a 6am photoshoot, I never think about how much I dislike my job, because I don’t.

Makeup and the beauty industry is my lifelong passion. (Isn’t that the buzzword that every successful person mentions when they give us advice about choosing our paths?) I have worked jobs and in industries which offered me far more immediate prestige and financial certainty, all of which I excelled at. But too often, we mistake what we’re good at doing with what we are meant to do. Sometimes, for the lucky ones, they are one and the same and that makes things easier. But for most of us, what we’re good at leads us to the path of least resistance – which, let’s be honest, is a pretty attractive path when you’re graduating from college in debt and under a boat load of transitional stress. But read any memoir of the ultra-successful, and you’ll see that rarely is that path the right one. Why? Because it’s missing a critical component: passion for what you do, every. single. day. Even when I am doing work for free, which is unfortunately frequently since I am new and building my portfolio, I am happy to be doing it and to be meeting wonderful people who also chose to follow the beat of their own drums.

I know what some of you are thinking. “That’s easy for you to say Sarah. You’re well off. You don’t know the struggle.” It is a fair point. But you should know why I have that luxury: thirty-some-odd years ago, my father (a charismatic brainiac of previously unknown proportion) made the difficult choice to drop out of college to form his company. He was not cushioned by any amount of inherent wealth – he was an army brat, and when he chose to drop-out, he was so broke that he lived off of Ramen for weeks at a time. But he had an idea that ignited the part of him which overrides our need for immediate certainty and security. No funding, no cushy incubator/village setup – just a guy and his old-school computer. (Oh – and a pair of gloves with the fingers cut off to keep his hands warm as he worked in a friend’s garage space during the harsh Utah winters.)

He chased his dream relentlessly. He shook off the people who questioned his choices, knowing that he could potentially earn back what he lost during those years ten-fold. (He eventually would, and then some.) Don’t me wrong: he was not special for merely pursuing an idea. Anyone can do that. Many do, and fail hard. The difference is a will to persevere, and that will has to come from somewhere.

It comes from passion.

If we know that passion is the connecting link between every success story, then what is it that keeps so many people from pursuing theirs?

Well, I think for most people, success can be narrowed down to three general categories: happiness & satisfaction, achievement & recognition, and money. In my experience, people tend to latch onto the latter two in hopes that they’ll create the first consequently. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work that way.

I am a firm believer in one thing: you can make money and gain recognition doing anything, in any industry, if you spend the time and effort necessary to learn, hack, and innovate within whatever it is that you want to do. It is so easy to be shepherded into the “oooh! shiny!” lifestyle; the one that fills you with glee each time you tell somebody you do XYZ for ABC company and they respond with an ooooh, aaahhh, but often times excludes personal satisfaction. I know, I wrestled with the same decision for six horrendous months before finally making my choice.

So find what makes you happy, what makes you tick, what hits all the checkboxes on your list. If that’s being a consultant, or an analyst, or any other traditional job, then by all means, proceed and best of luck. But if it isn’t, stop caring so much about what people think and the money and the accolades and the oohs and aahs. I mean, most people in their 20s are perpetually borderline broke anyway, so why not put this time of high energy, low responsibility – a time when you don’t have that much to lose if you take a gamble – toward something that fulfills your spirit? Something that makes you happy when you think of yourself doing it 20 years down the road?

Find – or for those of you who are stuck where I was, accept – your passion.

Create a plan.

Grind daily.

The recognition and money will come eventually.