I’ve always liked the idea of being my own patron, which in practice involves figuring out how to make enough money to both put a roof over my head and to fund my own creative explorations and growth.

Sometimes this has meant working actual jobs (way back in the day); sometimes it’s involved taking on clients; sometimes it’s been a matter of selling things like books and setting up paid subscriptions for some of my writings and podcasts.

A strange patchwork of income sources has allowed me to serve as my own Medici for about two decades, at this point, and I feel immensely fortunate to be able to say that.

Everyone will have their own best-fit (or best-fit for this exact moment) approach, though, and finding the right balance can take time—there’s no one, true, perfect way to lead a creative life.

For most of us, the ideal approach will involve taking stock of our personal portfolio of skills, experience, and capacities, and then figuring out how to leverage these things so that we’re economically (and psychologically) stable, with enough time, energy, and resources left over to spend on whatever creatively fulfills us.

Some people have trust funds, some have high-earning career paths, some have neither money nor solid paychecks, but do have simple needs and inexpensive tastes.

The trick is to juggle and arrange these elements in such a way that, in the end, you have what you need to create whatever it is you think should exist in the world.

Making this happen might require you pick up some new skills, that you on a job, or that you figure out how to monetize an activity that was previously just for fun (without negating the other benefits of that activity). It’s possible to make the wrong tradeoffs, or to give too much away in this pursuit, which might require backtracking or a full reassessment of both priorities and costs.

Ultimately, though, if you can self-fund at least some component of what you’re making, that gives you absolute power over some facet of your creative life. And that’s a type of freedom and fulfillment that’s difficult to achieve via any other means.

If you enjoyed this essay, consider supporting my work by becoming a paid subscriber, buying me a coffee, or grabbing one of my books.