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Well, not exactly. That's one way to look at it, but the more time needed to write "for work" the less time you get for writing "for you." Not that occasionally you can strike a balance between both, but it's highly unlikely that happens often unless you just happen to love the hell out of the stuff you have to write for work.
Plus, I don't enjoy the idea of making something I love my JOB. Nevermind that after a while if you keep working on writing stuff you'll run out of material or forced into just recycling stuff. It's impossible to expect anyone to be always creative on-demand. Bach himself couldn't do it, nor could Haydn arguably.
I'm for the Ives, etc approach personally. You can also work teaching if you have a good enough education, which is fine by me too. I'd also be OK actually playing an instrument for a living, which a lot of composers have also done.
But for me composition has to remain "my thing." Otherwise, I'd get into fistfights with people daily (happened already) over stuff I want, and like I said, I DO and WILL have the final say on what I write (which has gotten me into problems before, but bring'em on!)
Just like when you write something and the musicians who are to perform it suggest changes and want to "play composer." I find that musicians have the right to an opinion, sure, and I like to hear it if they got it. But from that to actually changing what I wrote, is not something I do. I may do that if I'm writing something in conjunction with a musician, where we can exchange ideas and then it's fine. But after something is done, for me is done. I don't do "corrections" unless they're technical or for the sake of practicality (score clean up, etc etc.)
But I digress, lol. Derail.
PS: The whole "hearing music" thing is really hard to describe properly. The stuff I hear in my head always sounds better than the real performance anyways, hahahaha. Though, I've been positively surprised by performances where things were different than I intended. I like that aspect of performance as the main reason why I'd want something performed at all, so I can see how other people actually see/play the thing and how different it is from what I originally intended.
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