I have no objection to making money. Since I graduated from college, I have chosen not to, for various reasons I won't go into here. I believe there's something noble about working pro bono publico -- for the good of the public.
My first job out of college was teaching in a small Christian school. The school was affiliated with a small church, where I preached. I received room and board, but no salary for either position.
I nearly single-handedly established a law library for a small Christian wanna-be law school, physically moving vanloads of books while I was studying for the Bar Exam. I also worked for the Legal Aid Society in a volunteer capacity. I was not allowed to obtain a license to practice law because my allegiance to God is greater than my allegiance to the government. I have explained this here:
After passing the Bar Exam and during the time I was reading hundreds of court cases and law review articles in an attempt to get a law license, I rented a 12-room house in a bad part of town with a couple of fellow "extremists" and let recovering homeless drug addicts stay in the extra rooms. I helped them write resumes, get to interviews, and stay clean and sober. I had an average of 19 homeless people in my home 24-7, for the better part of a decade. Also served tens of thousands of lunches to the homeless in my dining room, and gave thousands of bags of groceries to neighbors. We got food from grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, and other sources. More people were served than in agencies with budgets ten times larger. They took government funds; we did not. I did not take a dime in salary, though my extremist colleagues and I always gave ourselves a $5.00 stipend each week to see a movie (adjusted upward as prices increased).
I used my legal knowledge to create a dozen non-profit agencies. One now owns several million dollars in property. I have never been compensated.
Now that I have had cancer, I anticipate some medical expenses as life goes on, and I believe it is now time to start making some money. I'm hoping you can help me, because I lack skills in this area.
But my main desire is not to make a huge income, but to have a huge impact.