Are you paying five days for two?

Make your hobby your livelihood if you can find a way. In New Zealand in 2012, I met a fishing guide who’d chosen to spend his working days doing what he loved most.

Make your hobby your livelihood instead of just waiting for the weekend

He’d worked as a cabinetmaker in Denmark, but fishing played a huge role in his life. After a trip to New Zealand, he stayed and worked as a fishing guide for several years.

Later, he wanted something new again. With a friend and a small team, he’d started a fishing show to be broadcast on New Zealand television. They’d found sponsors who helped with the project.

A day on the water with the family

We went fishing with them and had a fantastic day. I caught a large kingfish, and the children caught fish too. The area in the far north was beautiful and quiet, with wild horses on the beach.

I’d recorded an interview for Amino TV, as with the other Danish entrepreneurs we met on the journey.

Why work five days to look forward to two?

I became interested in the difference between working hard all week to pursue your hobby at weekends and bringing the hobby into the work itself.

It wasn’t necessarily about moving to another country. It was about asking whether you could make what excites you into something you work with every day.

The people I’d interviewed who’d taken that step seemed happy and full of energy. That was my experience on the trip, not a promise that the same choice suits everyone.

Nikolaj went from cabinetmaker to fishing guide and television

I’m recording the video at a campsite in New Zealand while frying pork chops outside our caravan. They’re sizzling and bubbling, and it’s 25 degrees at six in the evening. You’re allowed to be a little jealous of that.

That day, I’ve been with Nikolaj, who’s been a professional fishing guide here for five years. He said he’d barely completed half of ninth grade because he spent the rest of his time fishing. He was hooked on fishing but became a cabinetmaker because he didn’t know what else to do.

The work wore down his knees. Then he stood there thinking: What the hell do I do now? He also got divorced and went on a fishing trip to New Zealand. He stayed. Later, he returned to Denmark, found a lovely woman and brought her to New Zealand.

Eventually, even working as a fishing guide wore thin. He still loved fishing, but in the end he couldn’t be bothered taking rich Americans around. So with a good friend, a New Zealander living in Japan, he’d started making a fishing show. The plan was for it to air on New Zealand’s TV3 from April 2012.

According to Nikolaj, TV3 didn’t pay for the programme. Instead, they’d secured sponsors providing money and, among other things, a motorboat. They were a small team of eight: Nikolaj, a camera operator, the friend hosting, New Zealand’s strongest man, who was also a good friend, and some young guys editing the footage.

They spent a few months in a little cabin in the far north of New Zealand. It was the most beautiful place. When we went out with them, I caught a 15-kilo kingfish. At first I say it gave me a twenty-minute fight, but it was probably closer to ten. The fish were biting like crazy, and the kids caught one after another.

Wild horses roamed the beach. There were very few anglers up there and no cars to be seen. It was indescribably beautiful. As I tell the story, smoke also drifts over from cooking. There’s a bit of everything happening around me at the campsite.

The interview with Nikolaj was coming to Amino TV as part of around 35 interviews with Danish entrepreneurs abroad. At that point, the first eight or ten were already online.

My daughter, laying the table and life on the road

In the middle of the video, my daughter passes. She’s annoyed about having to lay the table and thinks she should be paid for it. So there’s a little entrepreneur in her. If she pulls faces behind me, it’s because she thinks I’m an idiot dad. That’s another part of travelling with children.

Make your hobby your livelihood if the opportunity is there

I’m telling the story because so many people work incredibly hard Monday to Friday for perhaps a little time for their hobby at weekends. If they don’t also need to do laundry, washing-up and everything else. Or they wait for their five weeks’ holiday.

Nikolaj and Søren with the brewery are some of the people I’ve met who’ve said: Screw it, I’m bloody well not carrying on like this. They’ve chosen to follow their interests and make them everyday life. For them, it meant uprooting and starting in another country. Of course it doesn’t have to mean that for you. The fishing is just more beautiful in New Zealand.

The people on the trip who’d taken that step had genuine, enormous smiles on their faces. I experienced them as happy, cheerful, innovative and whole people radiating happiness. I don’t think I meet people like that very often in Denmark. I’m sorry to say it.

I’m not saying it’s a specifically Danish phenomenon. Denmark is simply my starting point, so that’s what I can refer to. I experienced the same in the USA, where I’d also lived for three and a half years.

Why work five days to be allowed to do what you love for two? Perhaps instead you could work with what you want for five days and do something almost as fun at weekends. Or enjoy it all seven days. Think about whether there’s a way to make your hobby your livelihood. Søren and Nikolaj have found their path. Also read Skab din egen succes about finding your own path and making room for what you’re passionate about.

Also read the story of the brewer who started without his own brewery.

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