Are You a Creative Professional or a Hobbyist?

Roberto Blake

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Differentiating a hobbyist from professional is something that can be a bit sensitive for some people. For most people, the distinction comes from profiting off of one’s creative work. If you’re making money as a writer, designer, crafter, or artist, then you’re usually considered to be a professional. But what this simple idea doesn’t take into account is commitment, which is often measured by the amount of money and time you invest in something.

When you’re truly committed, you will invest your time and money, whether or not you expect a return on that investment. This is an indicator of how serious you are, versus someone who will quit the moment anything resembling failure occurs. An amateur can make a profit at what they do, and in fact this is not uncommon. Conversely, someone can also invest years of time, and a considerable amount of money pursuing an endeavor, and still never break even. Neither of these outcomes accounts for talent, capability, or even the results that they produce.

People who use their time and money to build up their skills and their training typically (but not always) produce results at a higher level than those who have made no investment of time and materials or learning their trade. This is why we tend to value people who have invested in traditional education via university or trade school. But that is not to say that those who are self taught have not invested in themselves as well. They just went about it in a different way. In many cases, self-taught folks spend even more time and resources developing their skills than their peers who go the traditional route.

What is a Creative “Professional”?

In my opinion, we have to rephrase the question, because there is more than one way to define what constitutes a professional.

We could be talking about someone who can produce results of professional quality. That could simply mean that they are talented or that they’ve invested in themselves in terms of time, money, etc. On the other hand, we could consider someone a professional based on their commitment of time and their ability to make a living off of their skills. I would say that the latter is more common and the most notable distinction. It is possible that people who make a living from their work may not be as talented as someone who has professional-level results, and even the same level of education is them, but for whatever reason does not pursue profit.

One common benchmark I’ve heard people use to determine whether or not someone is a professional is whether 70% of their income is based from their work. Another benchmark is whether someone has had at least 10 years of experience employed in that profession. Personally, I consider those benchmarks to be somewhat arbitrary. Spending 10 years at something doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be good at it, and just because someone paid you for something doesn’t mean that it was high quality work (it could speak more to your salesmanship). These two benchmarks disregard ability, results, and (up to a point) genuine commitment.

What is a Hobbyist?

Since we considered what makes a creative professional, we also need to define what makes someone a hobbyist. For me, this again comes down to the commitment of time and money. I would consider someone a hobbyist if their creative endeavor is something they feel they can leave behind or live without. If it’s something that they could go months without investing any time in, then I would say it’s a hobby for them. If it is something that they do on a completely recreational basis and primarily for themselves, then I would say that also classifies them as a hobbyist.

In regard to the investment of money, it is true that some hobbyists are more passionate than others and spend considerable amount of money and pursuing their creative passions. However, we cannot consider this spending to be a genuine investment when we compare it to professionals. When professionals spend their money, they’re expecting to get a return on that investment, in terms of some future compensation or leverage. In the case of a hobbyist, this spending is typically to improve the experience and the results that they are getting. The differences are subtle but they are there.

To illustrate this let’s use a very clear and more recent example, Adobe’s Creative Cloud. For a professional who uses Adobe software on a regular basis—and is making a profit from the work they are doing—the investment each month for the subscription makes perfect sense. However for a hobbyist, someone who may only use one Adobe application infrequently, going weeks or even months at a time without using the software—and only rarely ever making a profit from any work—the idea of constantly investing in a subscription does not make sense.

Let’s use another example: college. The university experience is an investment of time, typically 2 to 4 years. It is also a considerable investment of money, often leaving people with up years of student loan debt. If you’re going to invest in that amount of time and money, you’re probably going to pursue a related skill or trade that will help to pay off the debt, and make a substantial living after clearing the debt.

Ask yourself

So to determine whether you are a creative hobbyist or a creative professional, ask yourself some simple questions:

• What is the quality of the results you are producing? Are they at a professional level?
• Have you committed your time and money in pursuit of your creative passion, and is it something that you do consistently?

So which are you, a creative professional or a hobbyist? Both can be rewarding, but knowing which category you currently fall into can help you set your priorities and pursue the things that will be most worthwhile to you.