I followed a link today and found myself reading about an experiment where people took a $100 gift and used it to creatively make a difference, a smile, a connection. It’s much deeper than all that, and I encourage you to read the post here:

Seeing How Far $100 Can Go

I found this link, thanks to a referral from Barbara Winter, known as @Joblessmuse on Twitter. She wrote a book titled “Making a Living without a Job” which I read years ago.

I have read it over and over, even when I was still an employee. (My book has a 1993 date in it.) I guess I just knew where I was going, but her book helped me see that it could really work.

One need not train for a job where there are millions of positions available in the world. One might make income on very special things which make their own talents really sing.

For example, I have made/sold over 150 “Hershberger Art Kazoos” (including the one I sold to hubby Brian, one year before we started dating). And in April a few years back, I was flown to Dallas to teachTurkish Socks, Toe-Up Socks and Polymer Clay buttons, for the Dallas-Ft. Worth Fiber Festival. I don’t know anyone else teaching Turkish Sock design right now, though Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Anna Zilboorg have both written books on the topic.

Why not be the only Kazoo artist or one of a handful of Turkish Socknitting teachers? I don’t need to be an accountant or secretary to pay my bills. I *do* have to work, and I *do* have bosses (they are my clients). But I adore what I do and my bosses are lovely.

Barbara’s sane but new-to-me ideas changed my inner world first, my outer world now (I have been self employed for 10 years). You might like to check out her website here:

http://www.joyfullyjobless.com/

Thank you, Barbara! Your book changed my life. Much appreciated.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 12:49 pmand is filed under Miscellaneous Artforms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.