Customer Reviews

Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a remarkably interesting book about how to approach self-employment. It is not a cookbook or listing of readymade businesses, but rather a guidebook about the entire process of moving into self-employment.

Published in 1993, some of the information is a bit dated, but since the primary thrust of the book is not to provide the reader with specific current opportunities, the book holds up very well over time.

There are many examples of people building different types of businesses, and advice from some well-known success stories. The book is broken into five parts, each with two or three chapters. Each chapter starts with a relevant quote, and treats a specific area of focus, such as; Doing First Things First, Uncovering Your Assets, Creating Multiple Profit Centers, Marketing On A Shoestring, etc.

While there is plenty of advice on creating and starting a business (or multiple businesses), the thing that I think is most important in this book is how the author deals with the psychological issues. Most books on starting your own business will mention the emotional and mental obstacles involved, but seldom give the reader much in the way of concrete methods for dealing with them. This book gives you the tools for dealing with the most difficult part of running your own business - your own habits and attitudes. Winter spends a great deal of time covering the psychological groundwork necessary to succeed at being your own boss. She does this in a clear manner, with examples from the real world. There is also a booklist in the back with resources for different areas, such as Personal Growth, Marketing, Entrepeneurial Inspiration, and so on.

I found this book one of the most useful in working on my attitude about being self-employed. It is a positive, uplifting read without being unrealistic and full of fluff. This may well be one of the best books around for preparing a person to start their own business. While there is not a laundry list of business ideas nor a lot of technical detail like legal issues and such, I think that creating the kind of mindset that allows one to succeed is the first and most important step in reaching that success, regardless of the venture. This book will be a very great help in establishing the kind of mindset that will allow one to succeed. I think the author's approach will also allow this book to be of use for decades to come, regardless of how technologies and markets change. This information is basic to all business ventures.

My work history has ranged the spectrum from Corporate Clone to short-term contracting, and even when I was employed full-time at a "real job" I always had one or two other businesses going on the side. But, like most Americans, I'd been brainwashed into thinking everyone should have a well-defined and well-thought-out CAREER, so I didn't take my "sidelines" seriously. And, after thirty-plus years in the work force, I was still searching for the One Perfect Job that would best utilize my abilities and satisfy my soul. This book changed my thinking: Barbara Winter shows how to evaluate your talents, interests, and skills, and turn what you already like to do into multiple income streams. She gives inspiring examples, provides tools for self-analysis, and offers encouragement; she doesn't give specifics on how to create your perfect work, but she can't because everyone's combination of abilities and knowledge is unique. The book started me thinking on how I could create income sources from the things I enjoy doing, and convinced me that I don't need to find that elusive Perfect Job after all. I recommend it highly to anyone searching for a better way to work.

I read this book from cover to cover in no time, great writing that inspires as well as informs. Not only does the author provide excellent advice drawn from her wide range of experience, she also includes the stories of other successful entrepreneurs to show the reader that regardless of you financial situation or life circumstances, you can chuck your boring job and make a living doing something you love! Get ready to throw out lame excuses as the author dispels all the myths that surround starting your own business. You can do it and this book will show you how.

My mission (writing and training) is in showing workers that there is money missing from paychecks (over $16 million dollars) and how to find it. A key in the formula for finding and getting this missing money, without losing your job, is to not have a fear about losing your job. And, that's where Making a Living Without a Job steps in.

I picked this book up several years ago and love that it isn't a quick fix, be a millionaire in thirty days, book. It's offers up a system (a life plan) that is both practical and imaginative, safe and bold. The best part from my perspective, and how I've compelled dozens of people to add it to their library -- you don't have to quite your job to become joyously jobless. . . you only have to realize your job is JUST one of your profit centers. When you sneak up on independence by creating one or two little profit centers outside your "regular" job it's amazing how the stresses of the day job can be reduced.

If you think you are paid less than you deserve, then you owe it to yourself to explore the ideas in Making a Living Without a Job. And, by the way, Barbara is a wonderful writer with a lively voice. If nothing else you will enjoy her insight and humor.

I first encountered "Making a Living Without a Job:.." by Barbara Winter about 9 years ago. I had bought it for my husband, who was in between jobs, and ended up reading it myself. By the time I was done, I had determined to leave a 20 year career in computers and go to massage school. I now own my own health center in New York state.

One year I gave 10 of these books to people who were 'stuck' in their jobs/careers but who were afraid to change. As a result 14 people ended up changing their jobs/careers because the people to whom I gave the book also passed it on.

I find, as a massage therapist, that much of the stress people have is due to a poor fit in their career. What might have been right at one time in their life, no longer is good for them.
I recommend this book to someone at least once each week and have now decided to have it in stock.

I recently gave copies to two friends who might need to leave high executive positions in an international corporation.

ANYONE at any LEVEL in ANY JOB can find the step-by-step analysis in this book the most helpful thing EVER in helping them to find the job that will really be fulfilling for them!

Connie Wehmeyer

I highly recommend this book. While it is not a book which gives you step by step instructions for starting your own business, there are plenty of those books out there. However, for people who are working through personal issues of dissatisfaction with their current job or working environment, and thinking that there must be some better way, this book is invaluable.

This book lets you know that you are not alone in your thinking, and that there are many alternative ways to use one's skills, interests and passions to achieve a more interesting life balance while still making a comfortable living. And it shows you that once you free your imagination, there are limitless possibilities. Before reading the book, I was mulling over one small germ of an idea, which I was trying to muster the courage to act upon. As I was reading, many other potential money-making ideas came to mind, and I am excited to move forward.

While I am content to read most self-help books free in bookstores or libraries, I actually bought this one.

This book is amazing, and that's because this woman is amazing. The book has been around for years, but Barbara is still out there, traveling and promoting the joy she has derived in her life for working for her favorite person -- herself.

I met her in Washington, D.C., at a seminar she gave, and in a desperate moment, I contacted her personally and she immediately gave me a wonderfully encouraging response. She practices what she preaches -- she warns her audience that there are a lot of people out there who are altogether too happy to burst your bubble and try to convince you that it is your civic duty to work at a job or company you hate -- and it's because people are jealous and maybe even terrified that you will succeed and leave them to be miserable the way you used to be.

Recently, I left a job and am freelancing. It's tough; there's just not enough work to cover my bills right now. But I am doing it on my own terms, and I would say that reading this book and talking with Barbara gave me the courage in myself to know that, if I want it badly enough, I can make it happen. She is full of ideas of what you can do and how you can use your strengths, and she's more than happy to give you her thoughts on untapped markets -- because, let's face it, she knows that keeping her thoughts to herself won't make a difference in the world.

I recommend this book because of its content that never loses its timeliness. I urge you to find your dreams and run after them, and do it knowing that a truly amazing person helped to blaze the path for you.

It has been said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. "Making a Living Without a Job" is the kind of book that will appear to help you when you are ready to seriously consider stepping away(or when you are pushed away)from the security of a regular job as an employee. Perhaps I liked it so much because I was just very ready. My employer of 27 years is going through yet another downsizing, with all the anxiety and stress which accompanies the process.. In any case, Barbara Winters does a good job keeping her advice upbeat and uncomplicated. The book is an easy read. If you are expecting a book on how to make a quick million, this is not it, but if you want some philosophy about life, money and getting personal satisfaction from the work you do, this may be a book you are ready for !! I found it inspiring to me in many ways.

I'd like to recommend "Making a Living Without a Job" by Barbara J. Winter. This is the first book that really put a bee in my bonnet that maybe I can take my financial future into my own hands. It explains how at the turn of the century, most people were self-employed, but then came the industrial age, and people made more money working for a corporation.This created a generation of people who didn't believe they could make it on their own, people who didn't know how to work for themselves because they had no examples to go by.

The part of this book that caught my eye was the chapter on creating multiple profit centers. What that is, is whereas the employee thinks in terms of the single income source, the entrepreneur develops multiple income sources, like a portfolio that encompasses all of your different skills.

I would recommend this book just for the encouragement it gives. It doesn't answer a lot of questions, and I haven't taken the plunge yet, but it certainly gives ideas about how a person can make a living without being employed.

I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of "self help" books, seminars or TV shows. I find them pretentious and a huge waste of time.

BUT, this book is different. Aside from suggesting daily affirmations (which I do not do), everything else was just well written, good, down to earth advice.

Don't expect this book to tell you how to make money. Treat it more as your muse that will assist in you finding your way.

I read this book at a particularly low time in my life; fired from my job and cancer spreading through my lymph nodes and yet it still made me smile and actually encouraged me enough to make lists of the skills I have, etc so I could try to move on...and start living again.

Life is still hard, but I love to go back to this book for inspiration whenever I need it.