Not every hobby needs to be monetized. Feat Edison Chen and Adidas Originals
Summary
Edison Chen tends a garden at home with lettuce and Roma tomatoes, and he's determined to keep it that way. No monetization. When Kareem pushes back, suggesting even personal photography ends up licensed in future documentaries, Edison doubles down: he doesn't cook for people he doesn't love, and he refuses to turn joy into labor. The conversation cuts deep. "Do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life" sounds inspirational until you realize you're working 24 hours a day. Both agree the better path is doing something you like for work while keeping what you actually love for yourself. Edison's fashion and music career taught him that hobbies under pressure become stress, so now he guards his passions fiercely.
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Full Transcript
So, what's your take? Not every hobby needs to be monetized. You can just enjoy things. 100% agree. You can just enjoy Thanksgiving. I have a new hobby.
Okay. What's that? That I knew I was never going to monetize.
How do you know? Because I'm a gardener.
Oh, okay. At the crib. I'm a gardener at the crib. I got lettuce. I got Roma. I got tomatoes.
Yeah, but what if you somehow stumble upon the best ever of one of the things that you're growing and your friends come over, you're like, I got to get some of this, man. I got to get some of this. Bro, do not get me started. I think it's hard for people these days to chill. Passion is taking like a backseat nowadays. You know, it's like how does this enrich in my life and not just a dollar?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what you can't monetize? Reading.
Yeah. What about photography? Monetized.
Really? Even like say just I'm shooting for my own personal diary. Never to show anyone but my family. But you will in the retrospective.
Yes. In in the retrospective or documentary about you.
Okay. They will need to access those photos and then you'll have to license them.
Okay. And then your hobby will be monetized. There always is an angle somewhere. Yeah. No, I I feel like there's a pressure. If you're a good cook at home, all a sudden everyone's like, "You should open a restaurant." During co I started cooking for my family and there's no way I would ever cook for more than four people because it's too much.
Well, you could do a micro restaurant. I don't cook for people I don't love.
Oh, yeah. I like that. Yeah. So, growing up, I I love fashion. I love basketball. I love sports. I love music and somehow someway I finagled my way into that industry right and with that came the expectations right and all of a sudden the hobby became stressful sometimes it became pressure you know so that's why the the hallelujah is to really finding moments that I can just enjoy myself like cooking or photography you know so that I can still be me without thinking about how to please someone else
They say do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life. I don't think that's true. I agree agree with you. You do what you love and then you're working 24 hours a day.
I agree. I I couldn't agree more. I think that that's bad advice. I think do something you like and you'll never work another day in your life. Do something you love in your spare time. Exactly.