Whenever I come across some people—especially those in well-developed countries—who say they resigned from their well-paying jobs to pursue their passion, I laugh because it appears very unreal to me. That's because such a thing is not common in my country.
With the way the world is currently going with respect to Nigeria (Africa) it's very rare for someone to choose passion over money. What matters now is survival and the thing that pays well—the thing that puts food on the table.
I think I wrote about this same topic some months ago, where I illustrated and gave the instance of someone resigning from a good-paying job in an oil company to take up a teaching job that pays $30 per month because that is his passion. He loves to teach; teaching gives him satisfaction. Is that even thinkable? No, not in a world where things are tough, or not to someone who is not from a very wealthy family where money is not a concern.
You know, life is really hard in our part of the world, and a good number of us are merely living for survival. Anytime we hit a jackpot, we grab it without hesitation. Most of us are no longer pursuing passion; rather, it's the big money we are after.
If you go to the rural areas, farming and low living are their mode of life. You'd think they're doing that because they love it, but if you offer them a big job that pays millions of dollars, no matter how low-rated the job is, you'll see them leave farming and move on with the job offer. I'm not saying farming is bad; farming is very good and highly recommended because there's a lot of money and free food in it. But the people who willingly go into it just for the small-scale farm are usually those who don't have many worries about life. The ones doing it in a mechanized way—some of them love it—but they are also in it for the money.
As for me, I would choose money over passion as it stands now.
