Passion Economy: What Is It, And Why Is It The Future of Work?

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Jo Nate

· 29 Nov 2021

Passion Economy: What Is It, And Why Is It The Future of Work?

The Passion Economy per se as opposed to the “gig economy” is an innovative and novel way of maximizing revenues or income passively through upscaling one’s potential. Businesses, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and gig workers collectively called ‘creators’ representing the new-fangled niche communities in the Passion Economy realm are confronting social media leviathans by taking their monetization skills to a whole new level. And these state-of-the-art tech-savvy creators are offering original and ingenious content qualitatively superior to the non-specific generalized content churned out by Facebook or Twitter.

Take for instance content creators engaged in ‘Life Coaching’- the most crucial subsector comprising Passion Economy, contributing about $15 billion to the $38 billion+ market. These new-age creators by constructively exploiting their creativeness are spearheading and pioneering an unprecedented internet-reinforced entrepreneurship model. Gig workers have a key role to play in Passion Economy as they help creators forge and cement an enduring bond with devoted, bonafide communities having identical passions.

Consumers and customers now have much better access to a wider variety of resourceful products and services, thanks to creators. Shortly, we might witness the emergence of digital markets and mediums that’ll thrive by bringing into focus the ingenuity of both benefactors and beneficiaries under Passion Economy.

What is Passion Economy?

The expression ‘Passion Economy’ has been of late gaining currency and attracting a lot of attention, especially in Silicon Valley. To put it succinctly but clearly, passion is a niche marketplace were “focused creators” feel inspired to establish a business, brand, or group sharing passions by capitalizing on individualism. Passion economy has spawned the appearance of a completely new type of digital medium that was not conceivable even ten years back.

These present-day digital platforms facilitate people to make the most of their passion for ensuring a lucrative livelihood and enjoying a gratifying lifestyle. The platforms and forums overwhelm the impediments of time zones and topographies in an imaginative way to promote relationships for fuelling the passion economy. The passion economy is essentially built around three core elements-creators, marketplaces, and digital platforms- that work in concert.

The entire concept of Passion Economy, by and large, revolves around two fundamental tenets or principles. The first is to earn as much as possible in the shortest possible time as a gig worker and invest a sizable sum in gilt-edged securities for building up a passive income nest egg. The second and ultimate aim is to follow your passions (your childhood dreams or whatever you’d wanted to pursue when you were growing up) while the proceeds from your passive income support you.

Passion Economy Vis-a-Vis the Gig Economy
Freelancers slogging mechanically and relentlessly in a 9-to-5 job know only too well the rigors of working in a gig economy. You toil for more than 8 hours a day in, day out constantly remaining at the beck and call of your clients to earn your paycheck. The gig economy requires partakers to continue slogging interminably while always looking out for more promising employment or ways to supplement overall earnings.
The Damocles sword of uncertainty hanging on the heads of gig workers (because of the temporariness of their occupation) led to stress, especially financial stress. No matter how diligently the gig economy participants worked, they were always hamstrung by the anxiety and strain to work more to earn more. However, as Passion Economy started trending and catching on, the handicaps about ‘gig jobs’ and freelancing were done away with.

Stakeholders in Passion Economy have thorough leeway in where and when they want to work, and the duration as well. Passion Economy is irresistibly tempting to gig workers as they can indulge in their passion to the hilt while earning passive dollars (think blue-chip stocks, dividends, book royalties). No wonder the world might be a more passionate and better place to live in when the Passion Economy comes of age.
Technically speaking or strictly speaking the Passion Economy is neither a recent phenomenon nor a very old concept. The idea of Passion Economy and the designation began to gain currency towards the close of 2019 in the tech bionetwork. The concept was perfectly exemplified in a blog written by Li Jin who elucidated “The new digital platforms that enable people to earn a livelihood in a way that highlights their individuality.

“The Passion Economy is driven by the fact that creators, through their personality and differences, can bring a community together around a topic they are passionate about, a skill or a superior knowledge they possess”. In the past twenty years or so, the gig economy as we know it has undergone a radical paradigm shift. What we regarded as employment or service in the traditional sense has changed so drastically that we need to redefine the notion.

Hitherto the behemoth online employers and bazaars homogenized the gig workers’ and participants’ individuality, uniqueness, and distinctiveness. Nevertheless, the onset of new portals and online platforms in due course enabled almost everybody to monetize their creativity, professional skills, and time in niche products and services (pet CBD, beard oil, food delivery, rideshare). So now the gig economy survives more as a sidekick playing second fiddle to Passion Economy where you can not only have your cake but eat it as well.

Individuals in a gig economy were subtly indoctrinated into believing that they could ‘be their supervisors’ but in reality, they did the bidding for others, trading-off time for money. This nuanced but universal exploitation served as the spark for the advent and mushrooming of new digital/online technology platforms. These novel virtual platforms go a long way in allowing you to make a living by emphasizing and capitalizing on your exclusivity.

These new online marketplaces provide you excellent backup, offering you web-based tools to let you develop your business so that you can stand out in this cut-throat world of commerce. Workers in the gig economy simply functioned as cogs in a wheel where attempting to do something offbeat by taking advantage of one’s distinctiveness was always fraught with the apprehension of losing a livelihood. Gig workers were completely in the dark about where their next paycheck was coming from.

In a bid to just survive and make ends meet freelancers in the gig economy resorted to unfair and unethical work practices like accepting less remuneration for working longer hours. In the rat race of the gig economy, the freelancers were downright losers while the big businesses were the odd winners. The emergence of the Passion Economy brought about an elemental and wholesale transformation in employers’ and employees’ perspectives about employment.

As a stakeholder in Passion Economy, you’re no longer required to swap time for money and sacrifice your sense of worth to keep the wolf at the door. Rather it’s a win-win situation where you have the best of both worlds-you can work at your convenience, receive passive income, and upscale clients tremendously.

Defining Aspects of Passion Economy
The Passion Economy comes in supremely handy for working professionals enabling them to benefit monetarily from their exclusiveness without any constraints. The up-to-the-minute contemporary digital platforms offer you greater support in nurturing and ensconcing lasting relationships with clients, exclusive tools for growing your enterprise, and staying ahead of the competition. These modern-day online markets let you focus on developing and fine-tuning a more indie-style association with customers.

Individuality is regarded as a virtue and not an impediment
Whilst previously the marketplaces for services and products tended to be watertight job compartments, the new-fangled forums emphasize the distinctiveness of workers, eventually letting them exploit the variety in user choice. Take for example the digital forum for online tutoring where the instructors are largely home-based guardians and retired teachers. The tutors get free rein in creating their curriculums on the digital platform where the UI showcases their experience, skills, and background.

However such a model comes with an attendant threat and that is, users or consumers will always try to go offline with their relationships with the service providers. Nevertheless, that risk can be mitigated considerably by providing productivity tools such as bills and schedules that motivate consumers to stay online.

Across-the-Board Accessibility
The creative products and services trending in the passion economy are giving near-infinite scope to individuals to become creators. Not very long ago the dawning of the influencer market (YouTubers uploading their creative videos) made it easy for creators to earn through commercials and classifieds. Now you can earn a fulfilling livelihood by starting a business or enterprise by upgrading your individuality at scale.

For instance, now you can create a startup where you focus on developing smartphone-friendly software applications for desktops and PCs. Currently, you’ve ample opportunities to engage early on as an entrepreneur and thereafter reap the economic benefits of passion economy as your startup grows. You can start by offering a very basic product or service, and then as your customers have new requirements, you can update and/or upgrade your offering.

Comprehensive tools and techniques for business operation and development

The attention economy or the gig economy had online bazaars and souks that allowed entrepreneurs to make money via advertisements, subscription fees, and PPC campaigns. But dedicated creators in the passion economy garner revenues by way of SaaS (software as a service or on-demand software) charges. The creators continue to earn more through SaaS takings as their user/customer base burgeons.
More often business support is advanced in the form of bundled platforms such as IaaS (Information as a Service), MSaaS (Managed Software as a Service), and PaaS (platform as a Service). Then again there are digital platforms that provide backstage backup and marketing tools such as affiliate programs, personalized landing pages, and much more.

Unlimited opportunities for the creation of unprecedented first-time jobs
The creators’ platforms in the digital era have generated a completely new breed of jobs and openings that were unthinkable even a decade ago. New digital platforms are proving instrumental in throwing up unconventional influencers like podcasters, newsletter writers, audio content creators, and so on.

The emphasis is on virtual services and digital products
Even 10-15 years of entrepreneurship-oriented platforms like Shopify, Uber, eBay, and Amazon were mostly into promoting physical products and bespoke services. Novel creator-stack platforms focus more on upholding and endorsing virtual services and digital products. A platform or portal created for pushing physical products and services is designed and developed differently than a site created especially for sponsoring digital offerings.

Passion Economy: Is It The Future of Work?
The gradually increasing redundancy of labor unions together with artificial intelligence, and unbridled globalization have heavily blunted the middle class’s negotiating power, causing the existential crisis. In the 20th century, workers were largely required to duplicate workflow, be dependable, and comply with work processes and procedures. However present-day Passion Economy requires workers and professionals to be unique, distinctive, and individualistic just to keep their heads above water.

The traditional concept of work that came of age during the 20th century when industrialization was at its heyday is fast becoming obsolete.  Internet, globalization, and automation have brought about a complete change in our perspective or outlook towards work. Nowadays you just cannot assume that once you take up a job it’ll be for keeps till you retire.

Mechanical, repetitive, and manual jobs are fast disappearing and becoming extinct, and are being substituted with AI and algorithm-based openings. Self-driven or driverless cars and flying cars are going to become a reality sooner than later. So as we go from one day to the other we have to retrospect and mull on innovative and ingenious ways of making a living.

To survive as well as thrive in the passion economy make sure you abide by the following rules:-

Focus on creating value that is not easily imitable
Try your best to marry the best of 19-cent craftsmanship with consummate 20th-century machine-and scale economy
Think about building up a niche base of customers who share your passion rather than having many unresponsive and indifferent users
Try finding the sweet spot between your price and the value of your offering
Do your best to understand and realize the business you’re involved in or want to be
Never allow automation and technology to steer your business or become overly dependent on these two elements
Try to steer clear of commodity business
Tell an evocative story about your passion that your customers will come back to listen again and again

Conclusion
We can no longer take our 9-to-5 jobs for granted as our past generations did; in fact, such jobs will completely disappear within a decade or two. You’ll need to focus more on doing something that draws on your passion, creativity, and individuality. In other words, the passion economy will be the future of your work and everybody else’s enabling you to earn money while you follow your passion.

#passioneconomy

Comments (14)
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Sadaf W.

3 years ago

I find this Post really interesting and informative. I didn't know about Passion Economy before. Thanks for sharing such an informative Post.

Lety Zambrano Cartaya

3 years ago

I think it is a good proposal, I hope that what is in your head will be carried out. hits friend! 😉

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enigma

3 years ago

What a well-substantiated, comprehensive blog you have made of this ! Very informative. I knew pretty little about it. Thanks for sharing !

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moraedicson12

3 years ago

Thank you for your very informative oost. I was pleased that you shared with us comprehensive tools and techniques for operation and business development.

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moraedicson12

3 years ago

Thank you for your very informative oost. I was pleased that you shared with us comprehensive tools and techniques for operation and business development.

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Alfred

3 years ago

Better handling money, finance, and production of all the essential things can make a big difference in the economy

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sofibrav

3 years ago

I wish we could do something for our country's economy. I think if we managed finances better, everything would be wonderful, but the balance always leans towards morale.

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