Tristan is a customer of mine. He’s a former engineer who, inspired by my books and courses, started a marketing consulting firm.
He’s making a respectable if not exceptional income in that business. He’s an excellent student. He has a university education from a world-class institution.
He redeemed a consulting coupon the other day and used it to ask me a most interesting question:
“I?ve got loads of ideas and ways of how I can improve all that and take things onto a level I?d be happier with.
But I guess I?ve come to a point where I?ve got to face the facts and look at what I?ve really achieved (or not) over the last few years and whether I really want to keep pounding away like this.
Allow me to make a confession: I have got a very serious addiction! It?s not drugs or alcohol or anything like that but it?s an addiction nonetheless.
You might not believe it?s possible to get addicted to something this, but every since I discovered it, I got completely and utterly hooked on…
 Tristan and his dance partner electrify audiences... |
 ...burn up the dance floor... |
 ...and deliver ENERGY to enthralled onlookers every weekend! |
…Latin American dancing!
After I turned 20, someone showed me proper competitive latin dancing and I was hooked pretty much from that day forward. It feels like my whole life has been about becoming a better dancer ever since.
When my dance partner (now my fianc?) and I stopped competing in the middle of last year (2009) we were ranked 8th on the Amateur latin dance chart.
We also competed internationally regularly and had worked our way inside the top 100 amateur dance couples in the world.
But then we had to stop. Why? Because we realised we were spending insane amounts of money on lessons, kit/costumes and transport and even more insane amount of time travelling to competitions, training, competing etc.
There just came a point when we realised, ?wait a minute? this isn?t our job!
But it?s taking more time then our job (and not making any money). As you know, I run my own business (hardly an easy career option) and my fianc? is a doctor (GP).
We really had our work cut out competing with these guys for whom (though Amateur) dancing really was their LIFE, and always had been since they were kids.
I think we both realised that if we wanted to stay competing, to keep improving, then this really had to become our life, not just something we did in the evenings.
Work was suffering, family was suffering and our relationship was suffering. So we had to quit, at least temporarily.
He asks me:
“What should I do???”
I gave him some rather unusual advice, about blending his technical and artistic skills. Which I will share with you next week.
Meanwhile…
What would YOU tell this guy? Post your comments below.
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
61 Comments on “Nursing an Addiction, and Chasing a Dream”
I am retired, trying not to be. I “dance” Modern Jive three times a week. I try to promote that dance style because it is the easiest way I know to get people into partner dance. Our local teacher is ballroom trained and runs the http://www.ceroccentral.com franchise. This earns her a living and gives her the opportunity to attract people into her ballroom classes. Good ballroom dancers might consider that Modern Jive is not a “real” dance, but looking out on a class of 100 smiling faces, most of whom never experienced partner dance before has to be a rewarding experience. I have seen a lot of people struggle for a long time to get a class to profitability. Some gave up (they should not be in any biz) If you look at the map on http://www.modernjive.com you will see a cluster of independent classes around Bedford UK that have made successful businesses from dance classes after learning locally.
Whatever, I spend my retirement promoting Modern Jive Pro Bono whilst learning about website construction, analytics, sales funnels etc via twitter ( @mjgeek ) and facebook as a newbie, and from Perry and Glenn Livingston – Thanks Perry, (sorry I have not put any money your way yet, still formulating biz plan.)
The day you let go of the pressure of making money will be the day of the start of your financial independence…
just keep doing wht you love to do, if you re really passionate about it, making money will be just consequence of that, nd will be not a problem anymore soon…
best regards
José
Perry, they should take their passion and run with it and make it their line of work. They can learn and at the same time help other folks just starting out in the amatuer dance world. They would make a goldmine.
I would suggest he does online research into the latin dance market to see if there is a demand / how it is being satisfied now. (I think I would assume as a student of perry;s that this had already been done, but maybe not). How viable is the market and what could they offer?
As their relationship suffering was an added reason quoted for giving up dancing .. I would ask how it is now. What are the priorities?
I’ve been in a similar situation (racing cars). Spending insane amounts of time and money we (my partners & I) didn’t really have.
As passionate as we all were about what we were doing, we finally had to say “Enough!”.
Other aspects of our lives were suffering (one partner went bankrupt) and we realized and had to accept that the real cost of everything we were doing – money aside – was not a price we could afford.
Understand the true cost of what you’re doing (and money may be the least of it!)…
If it’s a price you can afford then go for it. If you can’t afford it, or can’t afford parts of it, either you find a way to make it “affordable” or step back before you hurt yourself and those you love.
An unacceptable balance of time/money/commitment/etc. in your life will just be a set up for pain & suffering later.
“Work was suffering, family was suffering and our relationship was suffering”
Sounds like there’s a bigger issue than simply just the spending money on the costumes, training, etc while balancing another job.
If WHAT you love to do is destructive to WHO you love, you may want to rethink things.
-Joel
I was thinking about Bill and Steve Harrison @ the Reporter Connection. Other things they might consider that they can start “right now”…a facebook fan page using FB ads to reach out to other Latin dance lovers. Also a series of YouTube video snippets to use for posting on the FB page, for future promotions, for advertising on the content network and to build a following while they are developing their marketing plan around a product (a series of video lessons, on site group training sessions, paid performances, etc.).
I don’t see the problem being answered by trying to marry the 2, job and passion/addiction that is. Trying to monetize simply puts a dollar sign on something very special and thats always a mistake.
Separate the 2 things in your mind.
“WORK TO LIVE, NOT LIVE TO WORK”….so determine if you just want to dance, if you want to dance until you win 1st place or what but CHOOSE and commit to it. Then figure out how to achieve the most in your business in the least amount of time to financially support yourself as you work toward your goals. If you set your dancing as your most fulfilling goal then your business efforts are a means to an end – freeing you to live your dream.
The incentive to be the best you can be in your work to free you to spend as much time living your dream of competition dancing and training for that will be a super powerful focussing lens.
You can be awesome at both things but determine your priorities and ultimate goals and plan your trip in life.
Remember……WORK TO LIVE. Then live it well with no regrets.
Greg
Providing dance DVDs, books does appear to be a saturated market. However, I agree that there are many instructors that would appreciate great marketing advice on how to grow their businesses, so that I think would be the best direction for instructional stuff. The joint venture opportunities would be tremendous for many.
Getting customers can be hard, and I have come across some marketing from dance instructors that really needs a boost.
Perry,
As for Tristan & co, all I can say is, follow your heart. Oh yeah, you know you can’t dance forever, so if you want a life in and around dancing, then just come up with something that lets you do that, and not even really thinking about it too much, I can think of many such ideas, as well as the other readers here. But if you follow your heart, the rest will fall in its place. Trust me on that.
Either find a way to turn this passion into a business, i.e. training, selling books, consulting, etc. which will allow you enough time to chase your dream. Or, just do it for fun and don’t worry about being tops in the world. Sounds like you need to close down your current business and find a way to do option a.
Go for it. You owe it to yourself and your country need you. This country and this economy need people being creative and following their passions.
As a society, we grapple with an obsolete industrial age attitude about what people need to learn in school. Thristan, it is essential that kids… everybody see people following their passion with a level headed determination to find their own success.
You can help instill the idea that yes, you can pursue your dreams and succeed by taking a rational approach to success. Artist do not have to starve. Artists, in fact, are model entrepreneurs ready to help our new age economy find its legs.l
If I can take guitar lessons over the Internet (If I was coordinated) then there is a way to teach salsa dancing in video.
Perry has said it all before. Perry has laid out all the tools before. Your passion and your joy is essential to creating the energy and vitality to carry through to success.
People need exercise. Why not salsacizing to trim the buttocks? People need great ways to find their perfect match. Dancing is always a great way to meet new friends and take the home with you.
Hmmm, I can’t dance a lick but a lot of husbands could really make some points with some wives that don’t get enough attention… Salsa dancing is like some kind of perfect storm of virtues…
You can find the local skills of people ready to collaborate with you. You do not have to master every skill. The Perry Tribe has talent ready to help too.
Affiliate partners ready to help. Add a few drops of Glenn Livingston to find your message to keyword matches and Perry has laid out the treasure map for creating the dominate position in the Adwords stack to win the traffic.
And Tristan, you and your gal have a certain compelling allure. You will look great in video. Twitter is your friend and your Facebook fan page with be hotter than Jalapeño.
Absolutely, this is your niche. Just be rational with your approach to your passion. Test and find the strain of gold and follow it up.
WOW, this is great. Make sure you have your head ready to have a bulging wallet. Easy money is a sure path to a variety of temptations.
Most of humanity survives because they are bound by natural delimiters, a general lack of money and have to quit having fun on Saturday and show up for work on Monday.
Don’t make assumptions, test everything and build on success.
Good luck!
Ask your fiance if she is ready to stop being a doctor. Have you figured on the loss of her income, too? If she says yes, and you say yes, you said yes to dance. Or, is she going to work part time while you book engagements?
If not, here are three ideas:
1) Short story has a point. I got a degree in music ed and music therapy, instead of going to Manhattan School of Music (for performance) or Berklee School of Music (for recording and music tech) because my teacher advised stability. Not everyone needs that. Maybe, he thought I did. These are very personal choices, though.
My point to mentioning this is that you want to take your time to make such a decision. It will form the shape of the bridge to the next part of your life. As if you are doing tai chi where you must empty yourself so that you are not distracted while making your decision. Be slow, without any impulse so that you are pleased with your decision in a year or 5 or 10 – so that your decision complements your life vision.
2) Take a personal inventory survey, where you mark down the pros and cons of each decision. If you and your partner are willing to sacrifice her career and yours for dance, do it!
3) They say the hardest thing for any addict is moderation. Speaking from experience, always being extreme in what I do, I agree. So, I take you back to what I did. I taught music for years and was around music every day in some way. And I am about to launch a music promotions coaching program after having been away from music for 15 years.
Being in the limelight, in the performance circuit, whether amateur or pro, makes the dance your life. If you want it and the doc wants it, do it! If you might like to set up some internet site for dancers, then you would be around it all the time and could more easily create a way that you could dance part-time. But would you enjoy that?
Best of luck. Big decision.
I feel for you, so here’s a song by the same name.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aXArByYsuE
D
http://www.OvernightMusicStar.com
music biz experts guide musicians to success
If Tristan has a university degree, had been an engineer, runs his own successful marketing firm, has a fiance, but “feels like my whole life has been about becoming a better dancer ever since” then I think he is very confused and being overly dramatic.
I would guess that he is at least in his late 20’s. He is not getting any younger and the competition will get tougher.
Get married, have kids and then see how much time he has to compete. Maybe he can teach his kids to dance but THEY may want to play soccer.
Listen to what he is saying. He looks like he is looking for a way out.
If work, family, and his relationship are suffering due to his addiction then he must establish his priorities and stop over dramatizing how much of his life revolves around dancing. He may have to manage his addiction like any other junkie. And STOP cold turkey.
Now he may get the sweats when he hears Salsa music – but he must be strong and know that he gave it up for the good of his family. Good luck my friend,
Follow your passion and don’t give it up for anything.
Become an expert in your field and teach others!
I’d tell him not to wear that outfit to any of his consulting gigs.
My first inclination is to say monetize your dancing and keep doing it as long as you can. But this may not be such great advice, because there are two people involved here and two careers, Tristan’s and also his fiancee’s. Both of them need to think this over very carefully — it may be that one would like to continue competing and one has had enough — which would mean either both quit or else find a new partner for the dancing. Difficult. I don’t really see monetizing the dancing as the big problem — finding a solution for satisfying different career, family and dancing goals for both parties is most likely the real issue. And that may be tough. The two of them are going to have to do some serious talking to work it out so that both are happy.
Tristan is on the verge of an opportunity that will explode his business. Dance provides him with a huge competitive advantage – or at the very least a very memorable differentiator. Dance provides great metaphors for life and for marketing. I would urge Tristan to make dance permeate everything he does in marketing. Here are just a few of the parallels he can use in positioning, promoting and presenting his message to his clients.
Latin Dance is seductive – so is marketing.
Winning a dance competition requires strategy and tactical execution – so does marketing
“Memorability/a “USP” is critical in dance – and so it is in marketing.
Three other thoughts:
Everyone respects and is drawn to excellence – and he has danced at a very high level.
A competitive advantage that is not used is wasted – don’t waste it Tristan!
You know in your heart that you really have no choice – so enjoy it.
Tristan, this is going to be a wonderful way to integrate what you love with what you wish to achieve. I am excited for you and all of your possibilities. Best, Bob
Tristan,
From your pictures you and your fiance look extremely excited and happy and not to mention sexy. Would the look on your faces look the same if another picture were taken if monetizing your talents were the main motivator? I used to farm as a hobby and loved it because I didn’t have to worry if I made money or not as long as the veggies and fruit were good. When I turned it into a business the veggies and fruit took a back seat to the cash flow. I believe you can have both, just keep a good balance. Hope that helps.
Ken
Please don’t do “all or nothing”. If you stop, you’ll pretty much lose it. Take a partial leave of absence, but continue to practice for two hours a day or even one hour a day, both to stay in shape and to be ready to “pick it back up” if you change your mind in the future and want to go back full time. This will be difficult–just like my daughter who used to speak Japanese fluently. She knew she could keep it up with just one hour a day with her tapes, books, etc., but finally just quit. She now wishes she hadn’t completely quit!
I don’t know that they would have the proper time to develop a video/teaching business while pursuing their dancing passion. That could come later. I agree that they would have a limited time to go for their passion and I would strongly suggest they do it now.
Well what about the money? I would write about it and monetize that. Who wouldn’t want to follow the lives of two successful people who put their “careers” on hold to follow their dreams. That’s a story for the ages. The joys, the fears, the frustrations, the excitement, the exhilaration and much much more. That’s a life we would all love to live,to tell, and to read about.
Do what you love– live your passion! If you make money by living out your passion-then it’s a bonus but if you settle for “making money” at something you don’t have a passion for, you’ve sold out! I love the idea of making DVD’s -teach others and sew into others the passion you have for dancing. Sew into the greater good and your return will come 10 fold! Never turn away from your true passion- passion is that deep rooted feeling you get when you “do that thing” –the place you go that makes you truly feel like no other place! Never sell your dreams for money! Either fund your passion / hobby / past time through your passion or make provisions to fund it through your vocation but NEVER EVER EVER give up your dream!
To your life and love…
Theresa
This is REALLY inspiring
This isn’t a rehearsal
We each have only one life.
Decide what you (both) want.
Write down the goal
Set a time limit
Identify the obstacles, whose help you need and the steps you need to take….. Go for it!
Bon chance!
It’s better to have tried blah blah blah
I have to agree with the prior comments about blending – the “4hr work week” does come to mind. He already has committed enough time to be successful at adwords and that is working for him.
Make enough money to support what you really love to do. Shutting down on the passion for dance is only going to cause the breaks to go on for the business …even if he chooses to focus just on the business, it will never grow big. I know, I’ve tried to go after the money and let my passion for process sit idle – it cost me BIG time.
His heart is in his legs. Follow the heart.
In short I would tell him to..
– Follow your passion
– Own your passion
– Show your passion to the world
– Monetize your passion
– Enjoy your life,(and your passion!)
And if at the end of the day you win or lose – you’ll never lose!
John
Go for your dreams every time. If you have less money – so what? Happy people need less money.
My now ex went self employed, and it was a leap into the dark for us both. When I started to give a hand (I had to, he had no time to run around and sort out the snags) our relationship bloomed.
We were not richer but far, far happier. It gave our lack-lustre marriage a real phillip which lasted more than 10 years.
There are ways for a talented couple like Tristan and his girl to develop an income, it is a matter of finding them, that is all.
It is always *EASY* to give another person advice because few ingredients are missing in the exchange. Things like who they are, their feelings, love, needs, wants and other necessities of the living mortals.
But advice for advice, here goes it:
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As for me, we have to be realistic. Dancing on these levels is not for long time. Passion or not, it will finish after some years. I would continue to dance till that moment. If job and money allow me it. Both have good jobs -and can than continue to work as trainers, if they want, too.
Keep things in perspective. Sometimes taking something you’re passionate about and trying to make a living from it, ruins it. Work hard, play hard (dance). Learn to balance your life and you may find you can do both and still feel good about it. If this doesn’t work have your Dr. wife examine your testosterone levels. You may be going through a mid-life crisis.
Tristan and his fiance may be excellent candidates to model your Bobsled Run and conferences model for the Latin American dancing niche; something like Fast Track All Star Dancing.
if i were him, i will take this into a new level.
Making it a dancing business!
With a idea of blending them together [Youtube, Flickr, facebook, etc] Things will get better plus they are so passion about this. They will make it.
They can actually turn this passion into teaching as well! Create CDs, seminars, videos, radios,etc all kinds of ways that they can monetizes it.
As everyone mention, live the dream! :)
Research Product Idea
Squeeze Page
Mock up a sales letter
Run traffic
See if it converts
Kinda hard to build a back end into an info course like this unless you start a dancing school…
Or the info product becomes the loss leader to get people to the dancing school for lessons.-Google Ads, Facebook ads etc…
Either way test it out on adwords first. Much better to test an idea first to see if it has legs before you create a product that you cant market.
Funny story….
I dance too! I’ve been a salsa dancer for 6 years now. I’ve been teaching for 4.5 years (longer than I’ve been with you, Perry!). Along the way I’ve picked up west coast swing and blues dancing too. (never seen those before? It’s worth your time to check out on YouTube. Absolutely delicious.)
As I was looking for businesses to start, one of my first thoughts was dance. But then I started doing my research. Selling dance instruction, either in person or via information product, is totally saturated as a market. And the “free” line to get an opt in to a list is high. Everyone offers a video series plus this or that.
Now… There are two other niches though.
One would be teaching dance studios and instructors to market themselves and doing it for them. That’s a good niche.
Another would be an info product for ballroom competitors (easily extensible to other dance forms) on how to move up in the rankings. I gotta figure THAT exists already. A follow up could be how to monetize your skill as a dancer by teaching.
A sponsorship, as someone suggested, is a maybe – but honestly the competition circuit doesn’t work like that, from what I have seen. There is n’t that much corporate money floating around. There’s some decent retail/wholesale money to be made, and the right info product would sell like gangbusters (the addiction he described is COMMON, myself being among the stricken).
I wish Tristan luck! Talk to you soon,
Patrick Klima
BraveDog Marketing
I spend tremendous amounts of time with my family and dogs and have zero interest in reducing that time, monetizing it or changing it in any way. Everyone gets the same 24 hours to spend as they want and many other things interest me outside of money.
The real problem for them is perspective. They can simply enjoy the activity and their own amazing progress, not spend pointless time comparing themselves to other people. It’s very likely they wouldn’t like the trade-offs required to improve further. Or finding out that they’re unlikely to get much better in the end.
Getting better in one area always means sacrificing time in other places. C’est la vie.
I’m in a similar situation only I’m addicted to surfing. So much so that I am considering a move to Oahu. Surfing the net for a living in the mornings and early afternoon and surfing large waves in late afternoons to sunset. Story of my life. How can I just surf waves? I wanna do that full time LOL.
Perry,
It’s very Simple.
Tell him to take your 4 man bobsled class, read your google adwords books
and sell his Latin Dance Class ebook with a backend product, personal latin Amercian dance coaching.
Steve
I’m going to take a different angle and assume that the guy wouldn’t love selling videos about Latin Dancing. He doesn’t sound like he loves teaching Latin Dancing either. My guess is that what he loves is the rush of the performance and thriving in an extremely competitive environment of other dancers.
No matter what he’s doing to fund the venture – to compete, it’s going to have to be their life – because it is the lives of their competition.
So, What To Do? Well, to be cliche – you can have anything you want, you just can’t have everything you want.
My life experience with these choices of two competing positives is to choose one and re-frame all of the passion you had for the one you cut out into making the one you stuck with 3 times better than it normally would have been.
You’ve got to choose one and make it a 5 Dollar Job.
http://www.teenhelponline.com/pdfs/parents/The-Countess-and-the-impossible-lawn.pdf
One foundational life choice done astonishingly well is at the top of any one human’s accomplishment.
On the other side of it however – I remember very vividly Steve Young (former 49ers Quarterback) explaining why NFL QB’s often tend to overstay their prime playing ability and retire and then come back over and over.
“Imagine being not even 40 years old and knowing that no matter what else you ever do in your professional life, you’ll never be able to perform at this level again.”
He went to say that he’s now a businessman, but he hasn’t one the superbowl of business yet. He’s a sports broadcaster, he’s busting his butt at getting better, but he knows he’s never going to be in the top 1%. Football was his thing, and now it’s over. And no amount of commenting, coaching, whatever is going to give him the rush of running out of that tunnel and throwing a 4th Quarter touchdown pass.
It may be over for this guy – and sometimes there’s nothing but time, grit, and constant reminders of the things you have that will never leave you (family, friends, beliefs) that can make that okay.
Nick, not sure what to say, first off, your comments just hit me deep, but I tell you, after reading “Countess” it put tears in my eyes. At 59, it was just so overwhelming to realize what I had missed in my life, combined by the fact that “it ain’t over ’til it’s over” so I am going to work on my very own lawn, and make it a 5 dollar job. Thanks!
There is no choice, the only way for them to make money is to follow their passion and finding ways connected to their passion to make money. You only have one life and you need to live it accoridng to the talents you have been given. I am sure there are dozens of options, teaching, writing, opening dance schools, associating dancing with health, etc.
If Tristan is a customer of yours and a good student, he should already have the answer. I believe the Perry Marshall story and philosophy developed over the years has the building blocks well established. Something is missing from this picture, and only Tristan can fill in that piece of the puzzle.
Take a sabbatical and reflect on your goals.
MikeR
Make an internet business out of your dancing! Sell training videos, free email tips etc. Video tips on youtube. After each competition run a one-day course in that town, with discounts for people on your list. Write a book about the amateur dancing competition circuit and sell it on your website. Sell advertising space for dance products. Google ads. Affiliate links for dance products. Use existing business contacts to promote the new business. Utilise GP skills to talk/write/sell about health benefits of dancing, exercises for dancers, food/nutrients/vitamins for dancers, emotional well-being/overcome depression by dancing, care of muscles while dancing, benefits of gentle dancing exercises for the obese etc. Use GP contacts to promote health benefits of your materials to patients who are depressed or need exercise.
I would say that family has to come first. If they want to continue to dance then try staying local and have fun with it. I think the more fun you have the easier it becomes, and it shows at a dance competition. Also, to make the money back that they have spent is to market their passion and give dance lessons. I don’t know about the children in the family but they really need your time and attention to grow up without resenting them for not sharing their time and love with them too.
Carol
It’s obvious :
As you cannot compete AND teach at the same time (at least you can’t in the UK), compete and “share information” with others via a great online resource. Then, as a coincidence, the consumer may just happen to “obtain” (aka purchase) an affiliate product or two as a small way of saying thank you for the free online resource.
Hell, they may even click on a Google Adsense advertisement that pays them a few pennies (literally).
In short, turn the “passion into payday” (but be careful in the danceworld as stated previously).
Mark
Obviously this guy is an expert, with great credentials, in a niche. So if he knows how to market (and you do say he’s a great student), he should create a product for that niche and make back all his expenses and then some.
Find a way to monetize your passion. Dance coaching from videos, advice on how to compete, consulting and so on.
I would like five minutes of your time, no hurry. Any time.
David Lee
310-463-5029
Hi, Perry.
I’d suggest to him and his fiance that they consider making their avocation part of their jobs. If they love it, they should be able to relate to others who love it. He has the internet skills, & she can speak to the medical needs of dancers, etc. On the other hand, a time may come when they want to have children, and that will definitely slow down their music a bit. So maybe they learn how to make a business out of facilitating the “addiction” for others. Just a thought.
Don’t chase the dream -> Live the Dream!
I’m just making the same transition from labour of slave to labour of love.
Read “The 4 Hour Work Week” and then make dancing your life! You can do it. :-)
I would find a way to marry the two. The love of dancing and the need to make money. I am sure there must be a way to do it. Why not create make how to videos from how to dance to how to become a contender to what is the mind set of a dancer? Google Latin dancing, find out what is their burning questions, see what you can do to find ways to feed their need and make money at it. There is nothing wrong making money at something you yourself love to do.
Tricky. Because, ultimately, it’s going to be up to them to decide whether to follow their passion….or stick to their jobs. Emotionally, that’s not a decision anyone can make for them.
If the issue is only that they’re spending tons of money on dancing and they can’t afford to continue doing that…..then the solution is fairly simple (although not necessarily “easy”). They just need an asset that will pay for their liability.
(Quick primer: an asset makes money; a liability costs money.)
So, what if Tristan began to create ‘how to’ materials for other people who want to learn Latin dancing? What if he and his fiance produced some DVDs on how to learn Latin Dancing at home? As someone who’s achieved what they have, they have the qualifications to teach others how to do what they do.
I can imagine that it’s possible for them to create a business within their hobby….so that their hobby doesn’t cost them a dime.
Of course, if their other interests really are suffering from their absence, then it’s basically an emotional decision.
Beyond that, there’s almost always a way to monetize an interest so that a hobby doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
Find a Sponsor, and go all they way.
Or
Quit and just dance for fun and develop your business.