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217 of 235 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun To Read Book About Not-Working For Others, September 11, 2002
If you want to chuck your job and you're looking for a good self-help book to help you become an entrepreneur, consider "Making A Living Without A Job: Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love" by Barbara Winter.Winter says people can be "joyfully jobless" by developing "multiple profit centers." Rather than depending upon a single source of income, Winters says people should diversify their sources of income. Winter likes the variety of doing different things. In addition to being an author, Winter publishes a newsletter, gives speeches and seminars, and finds other creative ways to earn a living. Because she has an interest in tea, Winter earned money teaching people how to have afternoon tea parties. Winter writes that many people find "producing a tea a mysterious process." (Don't you just put the little bags in a cup of water?). In addition to enjoying teaching tea, it gave Winter the opportunity to travel to England and deduct travel costs as tea research. One of Winter's goals was to travel to England. She emphasizes that we should merge our personal goals with our business ideas, if possible. In addition to discussing her own profit centers, Winters discusses many other entrepreneurs who earn money in creative ways. For example, one entrepreneur earns money by running a cattery, which is a cat boarding service. Of course, the cattery owner finds other ways to supplement income, such as founding Critter Communication Consulting, which helps people relate to their pets. Winters writes: "Landlording is, of course, one of the oldest ways to make a living without a job. In earlier days, widows frequently took their only asset [a house] and turned it into a profit center." Another entrepreneur merges fighting seasonal forest fires with writing and odd handyman jobs to earn a living. So, why don't people quit their jobs and become joyfully jobless? Fear of not having a regular income is one reason. Winters writes: "Too often we confuse fear with bad ideas! It's far healthier to accept that you are feeling fearful about a new plan-and determine that you'll act anyway... . stop and give yourself positive reasons for doing what's scary. Write out a list, if necessary... . Life shrinks or expands in proportion to your courage" Winters says many people are afraid of looking foolish for not holding a job. We tend to draw a sense of identity from a conventional job. Quoting movie reviewer Roger Ebert, Winter writes, "'Set up your life so that your personal goals are their own reward... . What you do instead of your real work is your real work.'" Winters says Ebert is a good example of someone who merged his early passion (for watching movies) with a career. Others only later discover their true calling and choose to pursue it. Winters tells the story of a cardiologist turned country western singer. To me, it seems that being a cardiologist would destroy the country western perspective. What sort of lyrics does the guy write? "You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille. With four kids in Harvard and stocks of low yield... ." I'm waiting for his hit single, "You Broke My Left Ventricle." Winters says we tend to be work snobs and feel that the work we really want to do is beneath us. If it's fun, it can't be real work. Without steady income, we might need to come up with something quick to earn money. Winter offers a list of suggestions for generating emergency cash. For example, she says we could offer to clean something, possibly an airplane. An airplane? I picture a guy standing in front of a 747 with a squeegee. I guess she means Cessnas and Pipers. Either way, this joyfully jobless sounds like it could become real work. Don't forget to wash under the wings.
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