I’m not sure there is such a thing as a safe job any more. Nevertheless, some jobs are safer than others. The world will always need accountants and sales people and civil servants – or at least for a good few decades yet. And for some people, numbers are a fascination and accountancy really appeals, or selling just fits their sense of competition and interest in people.

Suppose, however, your real passion is winter sports, or films, or wild animals. A lot of people (most of them older than you) will tell you that you’ll never get a steady job as a tobogganist or an actor or a wildlife photographer. They’ll urge you to choose a career where you can find a job with relative ease, which you can stay in for a long time. Your dream, they’ll tell you, is impractical and unrealistic and you’ll never get a decent job – or if you do, it won’t last.

Many people view any form of freelancing or self-employment as inherently too risky, and they’ll advise you to get yourself on someone else’s payroll so you’re more secure.

My observation, however, is that while this works very well for people who long to be retailers or nurses or teachers, it just doesn’t work for people who don’t. A few years down the line you won’t feel safe and secure and relieved you didn’t become an astronaut. You’ll spend your life frustrated and feeling hemmed in and trapped in a job you increasingly resent for being the opposite of what you wanted. It may be that you already are some years down the line, and feeling just that way.

On the other hand, I’ve never met anyone who regretted having followed their passion. Even when it didn’t work out, or they worked it out of their system after a few years and moved on, they’ve always seemed happy and fulfilled. Yes, even if they had much less money and job security than they could have had.

Like anything else, you have to work at following your dream. There may not be many people who make it as rock stars, acrobats, explorers, MPs or pyrotechnic technicians, but some do, and you could be one of them. If you put enough work into finding out what it takes and then making sure you fit the bill, why not give it a go? What’s the worst that can happen?

Listen, even if you end up in a job that doesn’t inspire you, you’ll be far more content if you tried for your dream job and didn’t make it than if you never tried.