Life is where the heart is

Hey Matt,

The slogan of a company I used to work for in the old days, was: There is no road to happiness, happiness is the road.
Great motto, I feel.
What you are saying, however, if I read you well: The fun part of a project is finishing it and cashing in. To me that´s a bit like saying: The fun part of life is dying and going to heaven.
I don´t mind at all that I might be the only one who is saying: To me, the fun part of life is living it. And the fun part of a translation project is aiming for perfection. Again, to me. Not particularly for the clients´ sake, I must admit. It is for my own sake — I just like to feel good about my work.
You are right, Matt, it involves “wasting time”, fiddling around with words until I come up with a satisfactory solution. I pride myself in the fact that my translations read as if the text were written in the target language in the first place.
Is that bad?
Yes, I hear you say, because you are losing money while wasting time.
My dear Matt, I fear the next words will be hard to stomach for you, but… to some (weird) people (like me) money is just a nice by-product, not the main thing.

Best regards,
Jaap