Happiness and doing what you love in life.

[davedove]

Dread, as others have said, you're on the right track.

There are different categories of jobs, and the same job would fall into different categories for different people.

There are the jobs you hate, but for whatever reason you feel you can't quit. My advice for this type of job is to get out as soon as you can. They will only lead to self destruction.

Then there are jobs that you don't really have any feelings about. You just go in and do them. There's nothing really wrong with these jobs, as long as you have something else in your life to bring you joy.

There are jobs that you are good at, but don't really inspire you. Just because you have a talent for something, doesn't mean you want to make a living at it. My current job is like that. I'm real good at it, but sometimes it gets a bit tedious. It pays pretty well though. I developed the attitude many years ago that this isn't my life, it's how I PAY for my life. I plan to retire as soon as I am eligible though.

Finally, there are those jobs that really bring you joy. If a person finds a job like that, they are truly blessed. I haven't found that job yet, because even if I like something, once I'm doing it to support myself, it becomes a JOB.

If a person has a job in any category but the last one, he absolutely has to have something else in his life: family, friends, hobbies, whatever.

Good luck Dread. I hope you've found your joy.

[Dreadbelly]

I have accepted the fact that I will never be self supporting making hats. I mean, I do not believe that is possible, even under the best of circumstances.

I do hope however, that I find something that brings about similar feelings and that I can use that somehow to find a means of self sufficiency. Whatever that is. Making Hawaiian Jacobite shirts or highlandwear for dogs. (Look, don't ask, ok, we're probably all better off if I keep my ideas for that to my self)

What there needs to be is a change. This is the internet era, where everything globally is connected by the net. Yet some things, like little cottage industries, are still playing by the old rules. You get a couple of craftsmen together in one physical location and they go at it together and maybe make a business together. Or one man goes at it alone. Either that, everything goes belly up, and one unhappy fella goes back to working for the man. Life becomes miserable.

There needs to be a better way of doing things, where those same men could work together, as a business, in different corners of the world, different time zones, all of them bringing something to the table so they can all be successful somehow. Sort of a 'virtual workshop.' Like, for example, X Kilts USA, where one employee was in LA, another in Portland, the third in New York, and the last in Dallas or something. One online showroom, one business, all of them working together as a unified force, the whole strength in numbers thing, all of them doing whatever it is they are good at. People would have better chances at doing what they love, doing what makes them happy, if there was a means for them to work together to reduce the chances of failure. Instead of going to work in a factory or a production plant, or some workshop in a physical location, why shouldn't it be possible for a multi-member business to be able to produce the same sort of output from home? People are still thinking and doing stuff the old way. People telecommute from home for certain jobs... Why can't jobs that produce a physical product be done from home as well? Why can't Bob, who lives in the middle of nowhere with no jobs and no economic future make product X which is he is good at, and then send it off to Gus, who lives in a completely different corner of the country to sell... Bob has the manufacturing ability, Gus could sell icemakers to polar bears... Alone, neither one of them has much of a chance, together, they could have a business. I am sure some folks are trying to do this... MORE people need to be trying to do this.

No. Instead we live our lives slaving away to make other people rich, trying to keep up with this lifestyle of consume consume consume. I think a lot of us, my self included, that we are susposed to be doing this thing called living.

I am completely and utterly amazed at some of the work I see on here. Kilts, sporrans, belts, all these things. An entire line of products is being hammered out by some of the most clever and industrious people I have ever had the pleasure of rubbing elbows with. I can't help but think all of our efforts individually being used together as something greater than the sum of its parts. Or something. I don't know.

This has been floating around in my mind for a while now, at least in different incarnations and various forms. I still don't know if this idea has fermented enough to be fit for words, but there it is.

[Caradoc]

Was it like a lightbulb went off in your head?

More like a flashbulb.

I've been playing with computers for about 30 years, now. The biggest difference is that I've gotten paid for it for about 20 years...

My other hobby is photography. I've got stacks and stacks of images that will likely never be shown anywhere, but now that I've gone totally digital most of it's ending up on my Flickr account.

The best part is that playing with computers and photography are both fun, both interesting, and both pay fairly well if you're good at them.