10 Seemingly Unusual Passions and Associated Careers

Everyone is aware of 'typical' passions: painting, playing an instrument, coding software, carving wood, etc. They've come up time and time again in various movies, books, articles, and other media. These are great passions to have, as they bring value to both the practitioners and those that receive the product/performance.

But not everyone's passion in going to fall into the traditional creative fields. Some lie elsewhere, and it's important not to limit yourself if you're currently searching for some of your passions. Focus on what it is that you love to do, and then find a career path for it.

Here are 10 passions you may not often think of and potential career options.

  1. Playing with toys - Performances. I recently saw a TED Talk about Black, a Yo-Yo artist who travels the world showing off his yo-yo skills in performances. These performances are intense like a magic show, but incorporate yo-yo tricks instead of magic. Other shows/events that come to mind are Domino competitions, LEGO shows, and model airplane performances.
  2. Eating - Food Competitions.  I am reluctant to endorse the act of stuffing your face with more food than should be humanely possible, but some people love it. And that means advertisers are willing to pay people to do it.
  3. Watching movies - Movie Critic. This is a semi-unusual one, but I don't think most people realize how heavily reviews are rated by viewers. Especially as the cost of going to the movies approaches $20 a ticket, people really want to know ahead of time if they're going to like it based on a trusted source.
  4. Listening to music - New Album Reviews. In a similar style as a movie critic, having someone to go to for a review is great. Additionally, music often times encompasses more than just the surface lyrics and having someone analyze, explain, and relate other works can be extremely gratifying.
  5. Reading books - Book Reviewer. Ok, one more in the review category. Writing out a thoughtful analysis and sharing your own personal thoughts can be much more interesting for a customer than just looking at the back of the book and how many stars it has on Amazon.com. With the thousands of books that come out every year, how is anyone supposed to learn about anything but the most popular ones?
  6. Organizing - Personal Organizer. Some people just have a hard time getting their lives in order. Then there are people who love to organize and make systems for everything. Sounds like a match made in heaven.
  7. Partying - Promoter. Clubs and events need to have paying customers at their doors if they want to survive. Spending nights dancing with people in the newest night spots, making connections, and keeping a party going are all part of being a successful promoter.
  8. Driving - Personal Driver.  Although not often seen as a glamourous job, the truth is that a personal driver spends time with some pretty interesting people and has a lot of time to themselves. And while sitting in traffic may not be the most exciting part of the job, driving cars that may cost as much as a house could be worth it.
  9. Shopping - Purchase Manager. Every time we go into a store to buy some clothing or other item, someone had to go out and find it first. Depending on what it is they like to shop for, they could be choosing clothing, jewelry, or suitcases to fill the aisles of big department stores or little boutique shops.
  10. Drawing - Webcomic Artist. Though drawing is not that unusual a passion, there are multiple different ways it can manifest itself as a career. I follow a half a dozen webcomics and absolutely love them. And with additional gear and goodies sold alongside the free comics, paying the bills can actually happen.

The internet has made a lot of these passions a little more marketable, but not all are based online. Also, there are plenty of other career opportunities for these same 10 passions, so the key is to really think creatively about what the options are.

Do you have any interesting passion/career combos?

- Ryan