How to be an Amateur Professional
The difference between being an amateur and a professional, and what you can learn from both to succeed in your career and life
When it comes to getting better at and more richly rewarded for what we do, there is much to be learned from both the path of the “amateur” and the path of the “professional”.
Amateurs throw themselves into their work, at least in spirit, for the love of the game. The word itself comes from the French, and can be literally translated as “lover of”. According to Wikipedia, the amateur was historically considered to be “the ideal balance between pure intent, open mind and the interest or passion for a subject.”
While in modern times we mostly associate the word “amateur” with athletics, some famous amateurs from the past who made a huge contribution to the world as we know it today include Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Ben Franklin, Guglielmo Marconi, Henrietta Swan Leavett, and R. Buckminster Fuller.
Putting aside the connotations of an amateur as someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing, a true amateur does what they do not as a means to an end but for its own sake. At its best, the spirit of amateurism is what gets people to put in the hours irrespective of personal gain and regardless of how much else they have on their plate.
By way of contrast, the word “professional” has evolved from the Middle English, Anglo-French, and Latin words for professing one’s skills and vowing to perform the highest possible standard.
While the word is often used to connote being paid for what you do, in spirit “being professional” points to doing what needs to be done to the best of your ability simply because it’s your job, regardless of whether or not you want to or how you happen to be feeling about it in any given moment.
Given that there is much to recommend both amateurism and professionalism, how do you decide which path to take in your own pursuits?
In the early days of my work as a coach, I would spend my days talking to pretty much anyone who wanted help over a cup of coffee. I spent so much time “coffee-cup coaching” that my local café had a booth unofficially reserved for me and whoever happened to be next in line for a caffeine-fueled exploration of their lives.
I also spent hundreds of hours reading about every aspect of personal growth, business development, and spirituality, not to learn anything specific or even useful but rather because I found the topic so damn interesting. I wound up working in two bookshops, one mystical and one psychological, mostly because they gave me bigger discounts and easier access to more books.
I grew up in a family where that kind of professionalism was just normal, so it was a bit of a shock to me when I began to work in the “real world” and discovered that showing up on time and doing what you say you would was a competitive advantage.
But it was also a household where both my parents absolutely loved their professions. My dad was a mechanical engineer whose long hours at the office were fueled as much by the love of designing and building solutions as the need to keep the lights on and his employees gainfully employed. And while my mom was a high school chemistry teacher for much of the time I lived at home, her love of science and childhood desire of being the next Marie Curie infused her classes with a kind of enthusiasm that turned a traditionally dry subject with genuine interest and enjoyment.
Similarly, in my work with clients I find that the ones who rise to the top of their fields are those that represent the highest ideals of both the professional and the amateur — reliable and highly skilled but with an infectious love, enthusiasm, and fascination for what they do.
And this is the heart of what it is to be an “amateur professional”:
To love what you do so much that you would do it for nothing while delivering on your promises to such a high standard that you often wind up being paid far more than your industry norm.
Here are a few questions to help you bring out the best in yourself as both an amateur and a professional:
1. Why do you do what you do? Are you motivated by the love of the game, the pursuit of a good living, or both?
2. If all your work was being funded and your only job was to get better and better at what you do, what would you do with your time? Where would you go to learn more? How would you go about mastering your craft?
3. How would you approach your work differently if you were being paid millions of dollars to do it?
As you play with these questions over time, you will find your love for what you do increasing and the rewards for doing it increase as well.
Michael Neill is an internationally renowned thought leader, challenging the cultural mythology that stress and struggle are a prerequisite to creativity and success. As the founder and CEO of Genius Catalyst Inc., Michael’s mission is to unleash the human potential with intelligence, humor, and heart.
To learn more about Michael and his work, visit www.michaelneill.org or join the nearly two million people who have enjoyed his TEDx talks Why Aren’t We Awesomer? and Can a TEDx Talk Really Change the World?
