"You can't eat a badminton bird in Canada."

 Like many other players in my country, I dream of playing badminton internationally. But coming to my club and seeing players like Derrick Ng struggling so much just to make ends meet can make even someone with a passion like myself question Canadian "Pro" badminton. Let's take a look at the positives of this "Job".
  Do you like travelling the world? Yes! Do you like playing badminton six days a week, twice a day? Most definitely! Do you want to play international tournaments and meet the world's best players? Oh holy Keanu Reeves YES!
 If we only look at pro badminton from this angle, obviously it's going to look amazing to anyone and everyone. But the reality is, the negatives out number the positives. Firstly, yes you will travel, but only if you can afford it. Being from Canada, you will likely do pretty well in the Pan-American region, as our badminton level is pretty high up in Pan Am play. But it's also true that you will likely travel to high level badminton areas such as Denmark or most of Asia, where the top players there will likely toy with you on court and not even have to take the game seriously. Don't believe me? Name one Canadian player who won a world championship title. Go ahead, I'll wait...
 You can't can you? The fact is no Canadian has ever won a world championship, or even a Super Series. And I believe I can tell you why. Let's look at Lin Dan. I think he is the greatest player badminton has ever seen. And he has the results to back me up. He is from China. And in China, the government pays for everything for their national team. Lin Dan will never have to worry about paying for flights, hotels, etc. So all he has to worry about is kicking butt and taking names. This is why badminton is so developed in China, as compared to Canada. In China "Professional badminton" is exactly what it sounds like. You get paid to play. And the better you are, the more money you make. That would be more than enough motivation for most players.
 This reminds me a lot of Canadian hockey. Basically, just re-read the above paragraph, and replace "Badminton" with "Hockey", "China" with "Canada", and "Lin Dan" with "Sidney Crosby". It is exactly the same. That is why Canada has such a high level of hockey. It makes me wonder if hockey players in China (If there is such a thing) are going through the same thing as Canadian badminton players.
 If you are planning to choose badminton as your career (Like me) expect to make no money. The government of Canada, and the province of BC will only give our top ranked Men's Doubles player  $1185.00 a year. That won't even pay for a flight to an international tournament.
  So we must all be creative in making money, because if you want to do well internationally, you will definitely not be able to work a "Normal" full-time job. I'm not saying that you can't play high level international badminton and lead a normal financial life. But it is going to ridiculously hard unless you have rich parents supporting you, or you win the lottery. I'm hoping for the latter myself.
This video done by CAN Fund, basically illustrates my point quite clearly.