Can you do what you love while making plenty of money?

The goal of this thread is to put this question to rest once and for all.

When I was a teenager I lived in a neighborhood of quite successful lawyers. I wanted to be very successful as well. At the time I envisioned money as the largest part of success. Now enjoying my life and making money are both a large part of how I envision success. Sometimes it's make more money, sometimes enjoy life more.

So back to the lawyers. These were people that for the most part enjoyed life, had plenty of money, and had it all - so to speak. So I went and asked them all if they actually did enjoy being a lawyer or were they just faking it? I mean who could actually enjoy being a lawyer with how society craps on them all the time. Sounds like marketing . . . anyway, the vast majority of them answered that they truly did enjoy what they did. And I also got some very insightful answers as well.

Some of the more successful lawyers said they enjoyed most of their job and just did the other parts because it was required. That's what paychecks, weekends, and boats are for, they said.

One lawyer gave me the best answer ever. He said he learned to love being a lawyer. He had gotten into it for the money but learned to enjoy the work. He was very social so he became a court attorney. (If you can't beat'm - join'm, eh!) It was over the years that I also learned how to "appreciate" work.

Only one or two lawyers said they hated their jobs but only did it because it paid a lot of money. I don't know what ever happened to them as I followed most these people for several years. They went away. This one guy was so miserable and RICH.

So the question is can you do what you love or learn to love what you do AND it obviously also has to be doing something people are willing to pay top dollar for? I can't believe people are still saying screw what you love, just get a job that pays a lot of money. That basically means you have to spend a majority of your life miserably scratching around the crap. I see a lot of very rich people who are quite miserable. And you know what? I see also a lot of miserable people who don't have very much money either.

Combining the two - joy and being rich seems to be a little harder than we first thought, ya?