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How to Turn Your Hobby into a Business

You know that thing that you love to do? The thing that you would do when you have some free time? That thing that you enjoy doing and you see time just fly away when you are doing it? What if you could make money doing it? You could join others who learned how to turn your hobby into a business.

What if the money you could make from your hobby was many times what you would make working a regular job? Many people are doing just that, right now, turning their hobbies into wealth-generating machines and having so much fun doing it.

Most people think that making an incredible income doing something you love so much is just not possible. Anything is possible if you know how to turn your hobby into a business.

You might have a hobby that you love to do in your free time, like archery, playing guitar, web site design, woodworking, painting, baking, interior design, landscaping, quilting, dog training, or horse riding, just to name a few.

Why don’t more people take the steps necessary to make a business out of their favorite hobbies? The two biggest reasons are fear and unworthiness. Mostly fear of failure and unworthiness, such as not feeling as though you are qualified enough, do not have a teaching certificate, not formally educated, or any of the other things your negative self is whispering in your ear.

Maybe that would dissuade the average Joe or Jane to avoid pursuing such a dream, but not you. You got this.

Start from the start and create a plan that will account for taking you from ground zero to where you want to ultimately be in your wildest dreams. Your plan should include a starting point where you provide your product or service in exchange for cash part-time. If you are going to self-finance make sure it includes a method of handling finances in such a way as to be able to continually expand your business so that you can serve more people.

And the end of your plan, include a vision of your hobby as a massively successful business, and what you are going to do with it. Will you sell it? Or pass it onto your heirs? Write it down.

Do not take this too seriously nor let the details keep you from moving forward. Your plan is not written in stone and is subject to change along the way.

Sell Your Product or Service

Your dream does not actually start until someone has paid you for our product or service. The first sale is the hardest, then it is downhill from there. If you are just getting started, you may have to offer a free trial to gain interest in your offering.

If you are selling a product, you will need to place some advertising in inexpensive classified ads or use Internet resources, such as online stores or social media.

This is when you start selling your product or service and grow your sales exponentially.

Manage Yourself

Essentially you are your own boss, and there is an incredible amount of freedom you can gain from being the boss of you but remember this is not a hobby anymore It is time to put your hand to the plow. No one is going to keep you accountable but yourself.

Make time to grow your hobby into a business even if it means getting up before the crack of dawn or working on your dream into the late hours of the night, if necessary.

Web Presence

If you are going to do business in today’s marketplace you need to have an online presence. This is the least expensive and most effective method to build your brand and identity. To start off, you will need a web site.

Go to GoDaddy and buy a (insert-name-of-your-hobby-business-name-with-no-spaces) dot com. Keep in mind that if your first choice is not available, GoDaddy will recommend alternatives to dot-coms. Don’t fall for it. Dot-coms are the preference, and people will type “.com” simply out of reflex, and you don’t want to send your traffic to someone else’s web site.

GoDaddy will give you a free limited website, which is good enough to get you started, or you can install and use a WordPress-powered website. They are easy to figure out, and they are nearly limitless in the things that you can do with them. If setting up your web site seems too complicated and you are not able to figure it out, you can find someone to do this for you.

People will need a way to find your contact information and the first place they look these days is online, so if you expect to be found by anyone you must be there.

Once you have your dot-com and basic website in place, you can expand into branded social media, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube (yes, post videos about you and your product or service). These are the places where your audience is spending their time, and you can hang out there for free. Of course, advertising on these platforms is also an option.

Word of Mouth

The most truly organic method of promoting your business is word of mouth. That means as a new hobby-business owner you will need to get out there and talk about what you do. To effectively communicate what you do in any situation, you need to have your 30-second elevator speech down pat.

That means having a script that spells out your story in 80 to 90 words only. Your elevator pitch tells who you are, what you do, and why people need or want what you do in half-a-minute. Once you have this memorized you can maximize your exposure to anyone you come across in no time (well, in less than a minute).

Write it, memorize it, practice it, and change your elevator speech as often as necessary. Next, you will need to get out there, where your potential clients might be in the real world, and when you are not where your people might be, connect with other business owners, go to meetings where they are at, join associations and clubs, and get to know them.

You will be surprised by how supportive business owners to other business owners with whom they are acquainted. They can help you build your business from the inside out by giving advice, and may even participate in a promotional effort with you, if they like you (so please try to be likable). If you haven’t read it already, get and read the classic book, “How to win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.

Be Diligent

Being diligent means you are taking this seriously. You are going to treat this business, even though it is based on a hobby, just like a real business. That means, doing the work, just as though someone else was paying you to do it. Even though you may not be being paid in the beginning you are building sweat equity which will allow you to reap financial rewards in the future.

This is how you will build your hobby into a business that will free you from your day job, or having to compromise your life by bowing down to an employer who doesn’t truly appreciate you and everything you could potentially give to the employer or the world.

Ince you have achieved a certain degree of success with your hobby, you may be looking for other opportunities to build other businesses as well.

It is Never Over

For most business owners, it is never over. One successful business is not satisfactory enough, plus you never know when the bottom might fall out of your hobby, and people just don’t want to do that anymore.

Diversification, having more than one business, will help protect you from the ups and downs of running a business, especially if you have a business that is seasonal. Having an anti-cyclical business as well, one that is also seasonal but is busy during the slow times of your hobby business is your key to true independence.

Keep doing your research, learning new skills, and expanding your knowledgebase.

 

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Start Your Business with No Money

You have an award-winning idea, and you are ready to take the world by storm, but you are on a budget or you may have no budget. You could just turn your back and walk away from this moment of inspiration or you could pull yourself up and start your business with no money.

The first thing you might tell yourself is that this is impossible, “I can’t start my own business with no money.” That negative voice inside you has a point, but tell it this, “Half of all businesses that are funded with all the money in the world fail!” They crash and burn in a flaming heap, leaving behind only dust.

On the other hand, many businesses are started with very little financial means and explode into huge financial empires. Is there a risk in trying to start a business from scratch with no money? Certainly, but there is risk in starting any venture, or anything for that matter, that you have not tried before.

There is nothing wrong with starting out small. In fact, it is a great way to test your idea to see if it is feasible with the least amount of risk.

Let’s say you want to open a craft store. Start with your own handmade wares and sell them at work, to friends and family members. In this way, you can test your market and work some of the production bugs out of your process. Then, you can test your offerings in the world by placing your items for sale on Etsy and eBay, and if you fare well there, branch off with your own web site. In this way, you can prove your idea and self-fund your business as you go, reinvesting your own profits as you are working to opening your store and building your empire one step upon the other.

There you have it. It is happening every day, and you can apply this principle of starting out exceedingly small, testing out your market approach, working out the kinks, building one layer upon the other, reinvesting your profits, and continually moving to the next level, until you reach your intended destination.

Use Free Business Startup Resources Online

You would be surprised to find out how many free tools there are on the Internet that you can use to test and build your business.

Simply think about what you might need to get your business going, and instead of thinking that you need to have it in the real world, like hiring somebody, or buying equipment, think instead of ways you can apply these principles to your virtual business that you are building online look for resources that are free to use – and use them!

Almost everything is there. Use Facebook, Etsy, and eBay. Need a graphic artist for marketing materials? Check out Canva and do it yourself. And the stuff that it looks like there is just no way around having to pay for it? Trade for it. More surprises will appear as you open yourself to opportunities you did not even know were there for the asking.

And you will also be impressed with what people are willing to do to help you out for as little as $5.00 on fiverr.com.

Next, you have to focus on building your business for nearly nothing.

 

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You Have a Great Idea

“I got it!”

You have a great idea. What are you going to do about it? It is undoubtedly the best idea in the world. You could do what other people do, that is to file it away, hoping that someday someone who is capable will pick up your idea and make millions of dollars and give you a piece of the action (royalty money). If you do that, you can be pretty sure that you will have the same experience that others have had; which is to be watching TV or surfing the Internet to watch your idea or invention to be all over the media for sale. How does that make you feel?

Why does that happen?

Because if you do not follow through with your idea, the source of all ideas, which seeks to see these advancements given to the world, will find someone else who will proactively take it to the market and the world. The universe is ever-expanding and will not wait for you. If you don’t do it, someone else will.

What if you do?

If you are the recipient of an original idea or concept which has not been released, you have had a great gift bestowed upon you. If you get that, you do whatever you can to take your gift to market. So, you put your heart, soul, and everything into it. You cherish the idea, loving and caring for it as much as if it were a newborn child.

You answered the call, and you did everything you could, but you did not achieve the results you expected. It is your baby, and it does not make you feel very good to have your baby rejected by the world. Regardless, you have stepped out in faith and been faithful.

Why?

Rarely, if ever, do you hit it out of the park, the first time you swing the bat. Now, most people walk away dejected. They give up and never try to play again. They are disappointed and feel as though all their hopes and dreams were crushed in one fell swoop. And these people miss the real thing that is happening at this moment.

What is really happening?

The universe is so proud that you picked up the bat and took a swing at the ball that was lobbed over the base in your direction. The universe has another ball ready to throw to you as you are increasing your skills and readying for the next game. The universe is ready to take you to the next level. That is, unless you walked away from the first game and have sworn off playing ever again.

By staying in the game, you are rewarded. Either your original idea goes through a metamorphosis and emerges as an even better or idea, or it fails completely, and you are given an even better idea for your next game.

The moral of the story?

You are given a calling and purpose in life. You may be afraid, but you have been gifted an opportunity to reach out and make a big move. You may accept the gift and do something with it, or not, walk away and let it go to someone else. No judgment here. No one will blame you. We are all doing the best we can with what we have. If you accept the challenge, know this may not be your homerun but your efforts will be rewarded if you are diligent and hang in there. Prepare yourself for the journey as well as possible, keep a focused eye on all the details, and track everything. This information will be invaluable as you press on.

And keep on keeping on.

 

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Does Starting a Business Sound Stressful?

Starting and running your own business can be stressful. You can reduce the stress by educating yourself about your business in advance. Learn about your market; what products they are currently buying? What are the weakest links in your target market? How can you, your product, or service fill in the gaps in the market? What skills and abilities will the need to make it happen?

Does Starting a Business Sound Stressful?

Isn’t it stressful to be working for someone looking over you, and managing you to get you to meet their expectations?

I would gladly trade the stress of socially acceptable slavery for the stress associated with starting a new business from scratch any day. Plus, doing so, gives you the possibility of achieving a level of freedom that could never be accomplished working from someone else.

But I Love My Job

You may love your job. It is doing a good job of taking care of you and your family, good enough, anyway. You feel like there is challenge and room for growth and expansion with the company. You can imagine feeling fulfilled for life or at least until retirement. That is, until your company is bought out and you are forced to prove to yourself worthy of your job, or worse yet, you come into work and are greeted with a pink slip. How do you like your job now?

You are Worth 5-times What You are Being Paid

The good news is, there is a good chance that you can still do all the things you love about your job working for your own company for five-times what you are being paid to do your job now. (Did you catch that?) If the company that you are working for is successful, they operate on a profit and loss formula, which dictates that every employee must have a value of five-times their pay, in order for them to survive.  So, you could easily start your own business and charge two-and-a-half times what you are being paid now, and still be a bargain.

Can be Scary

Granted there may be fear associated with starting your own business because you have never thought of it before or you thought the idea of stepping into entrepreneurship was too far out of reach. I hope it helps to ease your mind, that right now is the best time to start a business of your own. In fact, more people are starting new businesses now, more than at any other time in history.

10% America Staring New Businesses Now

Ten percent of the workforce in America started new businesses last year, and there is no slowdown now. It’s like today is the new frontier.

Of course, you will have doubts about your ability to pull this off, as anybody, even the most experienced serial entrepreneurs, have doubts, but they do what is necessary regardless of what they feel. Even if you just charge ahead, it is good to do what you can to manage your efforts effectively by getting the maximum results from the least expense of cash or energy. By managing your energy exertion in your business building efforts, you can minimize your potential for unnecessary stress or burnout.

Self-promotion

You will need to promote yourself and your business to increase your success rate. Many people are afraid of sounding like a salesperson (probably because they don’t like salespeople). There’s a good chance that if you don’t like salespeople, you were probably the victim of a predatory salesperson who took advantage of you. You will have to get over that and let it go. Just because you have had a bad experience doesn’t make you a predator. You can promote yourself and your business with integrity. Don’t worry, staring and promoting your business will not turn you into a snake in the grass.

If you think about it, you have been selling and promoting your whole life. You have been promoting the company you work for, you have sold people on how to think of you as a person. If you are a religious person, or a member of any group or affiliation, you have probably presented them in the best light. If you are in a relationship, it is likely it took some salesmanship on your part to close the deal on that one. These are also considered sales, marketing, and promotion efforts, where you are already experienced in.

Believe

The more you believe in your own products and services, the easier your sales, marketing, and promotions will be. You can also find inspiration in believing that you are actively doing something good for others or in making the world a better place.

This is your time to shine and be all that you can be.

Spread your wings and fly to be free.

 

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Time to Unleash the Real You

Everyone came to this planet with a unique set of skills, abilities, message to deliver, and purpose for this life. Once you align with your purpose, your life makes sense, though most people do not recognize that they have a purpose or a mission to accomplish in this life. Thanks to the pandemic lockdown, many people are awakening to the idea, and they are embracing their individual callings and taking this time to change their lives fully engaged and on purpose. Maybe it is time to unleash the real you.

In this process of awakening, people have the wherewithal to think freely. They are thinking about their jobs and how they came to work there. Someone, a normal person just like you and me, decided to carve out their own path, to engage in his or her purpose in life. This gave you and others the opportunity to work for a living in exchange for supporting their dream.

Now, more than ever, people are waking up and saying, “Why shouldn’t I be the boss?” And millions of Americans are reaching out and launching their own businesses, organizations, and starting projects, more than any other time in history.

15% of working Americans are starting new businesses right now, and the number is rising, while more than half of the workers feel like they could run a business better than the people they are working for. You could be part of the rise in people taking advantage of this incredible opportunity.

Should you be one of the new start-ups that takes advantage of this opportunity to start your own business?

Some people react differently to being sheltered in place for long periods of time. Some will see it as involuntary imprisonment and they will get depressed, sick, and tired, developing mental illness and disease, while others will see it as an opportunity to think, plan, create, incubate, and launch something amazing. In a perfect world, they will create an expression of their own individual message, mission, and calling.

So, what is holding you back?

If you are like everyone else who has the idea to strike out on your own but are hesitant to, it is likely that you are suffering from the same blockages as others who are not taking action on their inner calling to take action and claim their independence.

Therefore, it is perfectly normal if you start second-guessing yourself. This is common, normal, and it is no surprise because since you were born, you were programmed by your family, caregivers, friends, teachers, mentors, and society in general, not to reach to high, not to expect too much, and not to overstep your bounds, because the best you could hope for would be to be lucky enough to get a good-paying job working for someone else.

Then there is your inner voice, which is doing everything it can to protect you. It wants you to stay small and safe. Your inner voice will pretty much tell you anything to keep you from taking a risk and spreading your wings to fly.

Plus, you are afraid. It is risky enough to trust someone else, a company that you do not control, to “be there” for you today and into the future. Things are uncertain enough now, working for someone else. What if there was no one to rely on (or to blame) but yourself? Then, where would you be?

What if you fail? How embarrassing would that be, to have all your friends and family laughing at you because you believed in something or tried something that everyone else was too afraid to try, and you flop? So, you convince yourself that it is better not to try at all, than to risk failure.

You don’t have the money to start a business. Maybe you are not thinking that one all the way through, because many businesses, especially now, can be started on a shoestring budget (or less) if you can reconfigure your idea to be mostly digital and taking advantage of all the free (or inexpensive) tools that are out there that you can use to launch your new business.

Listen to your higher self, not your whiny inner voice. This is the time to unleash the real you.

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How to Turn What You Love into Cash

You have a good idea what you love to do, but how do you turn what you love into a cash machine?

First off, do not let yourself brush this project aside because it sounds ridiculous or too good to be true. I have seen so many people turn the things they love into successful businesses, things that you would have never imagined would turn into successful business ventures. So, hang in there.

And don’t forget the job market that already exists. If there is something that you love to do, there is a good chance that there is someone else out there getting paid to do it, who probably doesn’t even like doing it. That is another opportunity for you either as an entrepreneur or as an employee.

You would be so much better performing that thing than anyone else who thought they were just doing a job for someone else’s business. You could get that job or start a business that provides this service to other companies.

There’s nothing wrong with getting paid to do what you love to do, while working for someone else, but consider this: If you are doing what you love for someone else, your employer is making five-times what you are getting paid off of the work that you do. By starting your own business, you can easily double your income by offering your services to others.

How to Turn What You Love into Cash

Take the leap: Create your own dream job by starting your own business offering your unique skill, service, talent, gift, or teach others to do what you love to do.

If you were to take a look at the most successful people in the world, you would find them doing what they love, and enjoying every moment of it, while watching their bank accounts grow exponentially.

You could be doing the same thing, too.

If you have no experience in running your own business, do not worry. You can stick your toe in the entrepreneurial water to give it a try inexpensively with little or no risk. In fact, this is the preferred method of trying out your idea on others before making the big leap.

You don’t need a license to do business under your own name, so just use it to test your idea out before you get distracted by the business if doing business. Just keep track of your income and expenses while you are testing the waters.

Your primary goal is to present your idea to someone and to get someone – anyone – to pay you any amount of money to do what you would like others to pay you for, which would be the focus of your business venture. This is how you vet your business idea.

While vetting your business idea, spend as little as possible advertising your service. Use community bulletin boards, leave flyers in offices, place small, classified ads, use craigslist.org, advertise on Facebook marketplace, you get the idea. Get free business cards (yes, free business cards are a thing… Google it). Make phone calls to businesses or individuals who might be likely candidates for your services(s). Spend very little and the idea is only to get one paying client before you proceed.

If you are unable to get someone to pay for your service, put this idea on the back burner and try the next idea.

If you have a paid client, you are to perform the service and request that your client gives you a positive review of your performance. With this/these review(s) in hand, you are ready for the next step.

 

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Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow

You have heard that phrase, “Do what you love, and the money will follow,” and it might make you wonder, “What does that even mean?” and if you could understand it, “Could it apply to me?” It may mean more to you now, more than ever. This year has brought us the most business startups than ever, and yours might be the next one to make its debut.

If you do it right, you can stack the deck in your favor and enjoy making a successful venture based on doing the things that you love to do. The things that love more than anything and enjoy yourself immensely while people are paying you handsomely to do it.

So many people (millions of them) are taking this opportunity of being on unemployment, or just being unemployed, or unemployable, to start their own businesses based on their passions, gifts, and special abilities.

Can you imagine, doing what you love and being able, not only to get paid for doing it, but possibly making even more that you might ever make working for someone else? What an incredible way to finance yourself and/or your family. Right?

This is better than winning the lottery. Most people who win the lottery are broke not long after the win, but not you. If you convert your passion to an income-generating machine, the money keeps coming in month after month.

Regardless, if you are like the rest of us, you have been told that you were never destined to be a business owner, now is the time to let go of that dark programming, reignite the passion that you may have denied yourself in the past, and start to see the world of opportunities that is all around you, right now.

You came to this planet with a distinct purpose, mission, passion, and message to share with the world. Even though the societal engineers of the industrial age would like you to believe that your only function was to work for someone else.

On the other hand, you have heard of those incredible rags to riches stories where someone with minimal skills, talent, and. or financial resources breaks through the barrier from ordinary life to join the rank of the “one percent.” Could you be one of them?

One thing is for sure, if you do not try, you will not be one of them.

What do you love?

Make a list of all the things you love to do, those things that when you are doing them, time just slips away. What activities did you get lost in when you were a child? Might you like to do them now?

Do you look up to someone? Anyone? What do they do for fun? Would you like to do that? If so, add it to your list.

Has anyone ever told you that you were particularly good at something? Did it seem so natural to you, that it did not seem noteworthy or magical to you (but it did for others)? Write it down.

Are people attracted to you and ask you to help them? Is there a particular theme that resonates throughout their requests for assistance? If so, that’s a clue.

After a few days of creating this list of “My Favorite Things,” go through them and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being that you would love doing the most.

Next, you will have to figure out how to turn what you love into cash.

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Something More in This Life

Ever have that feeling like there was something more in this life? You may have found yourself with some free time on your hands since the pandemic, and you may have found some peace and quiet, enough to hear a still small voice say,

“There is something more in this life.”

You could do what most other people do when they hear that little voice, brush it aside as a silly thought, “It must have been something I ate.”

Only there is nothing silly about it. It is your truest most high part of yourself, reaching out to you. This voice knows who you are, who you really are.

You are so incredibly special, and part of you has forgotten. Oh, you knew who you were. You knew you came to this planet with a purpose, message, passion, and mission. There was a time when it was so very clear. Then slowly, your birthright was beaten out of you by the social construct, and by the time you were seven years old, any remembrance of it was gone.

Have you had the thought that maybe it is time to strike out on your own, to take the reins of fate into your own hands? You have not missed a thingThere is no better time than now to spread your wings and fly, but to achieve your highest and best, the best thing you could do would be to fully embrace your purpose, message, passion, and mission.

Everything you do when you are aligned with your sacred and highest good, especially if you are considering an entrepreneurial venture. Imagine how powerful your adventure could be empowered by your full power potential.

What is your purpose? The answer is the key to your massive successful endeavors.

A look back at your life, everything that has led to this moment, is a rarely looked at map that leads you here and into the future. Once you look at your life from the vantage point of your higher self, all the chaos, drama, and trauma, all makes perfect sense.

Can you remember what you wanted to do with your life before you were seven? You might be surprised how it all lines up so perfectly, pointing where to go next.

Now you have to prepare to launch the new you, your new enterprise in harmony with your powerful authenticity.

For the first time in ever, you can use technology to access the world with your unique message, even under pandemic lockdown.

There has never been a better time to start a movement and align with like-minded people just like you who share a passion for what you are feeling led to do, and help others that need to hear your message. There are people who desperately need to hear what you have to say. You could be saving lives this year.

You were meant for more than this.

You are the light in the darkness.

Let your light shine.

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Now is the Time to Start Your Own Business

Maybe now is the time that you took your own survival into your own hands. At any other time, it might have been too frightening a concept to consider starting your own business, but now may be the best time ever, as more people are starting their own businesses than ever before in history.

If you have been waiting for a sign, here it is:

Now is the Time to Start Your Own Business

And it makes sense, when faced with the growing seriousness of the pandemic, people are either content with telecommuting or not, and others are tired of resigning themselves to unemployment, so they are taking matters into their hands.

If in the new economy, you are going to be working from home, you might as well consider working for yourself, right? Be your own boss. No one else’s arse to kiss. The buck stops with you.

It is time to put yourself in the driver’s seat.

Of course, you are concerned about not knowing how much revenue you will be able to accrue in your own venture, it is uncertain, but you could make far more working for yourself than working for someone else. And think of the advantages of not having someone tell you what to do “or else.”

Almost immediately, if you have never thought about going into business for yourself, you will start to talk yourself out of the idea, thinking thoughts of unworthiness, “but I don’t have an MBA,” or other negative self-talk designed to keep you from exerting your right to independence. Do not let that hold you back.

Millions of Americans are starting new businesses right now, and half of them have no experience whatsoever.

Or you might think that you do not have what it takes, like the investment seed capital to start your business. That should not stop you either, because there are so many businesses that you can start with little or no investment, especially if you take advantage of digital and business support services to help you pick up the slack in running your own venture.

Right now, we are seeing that the businesses that are thriving are those with little or no overhead. Brick and mortar businesses are cashing in their leases and embracing online technologies, and your new business could be one of them.

The key is finding the right marketable product, skill, or service that is something that feels so good to you, that pursuing a self-made career in that thing would not even appear to be like work at all. Ideally, your business venture would be something that you are really passionate about as you share it with others and rake in the cash for doing so.

You came to this planet with a unique set of skills and abilities. Now is the time to embrace the gifts God gave you and let others pay you for doing so. This is the way life was meant to be lived, each one of us fulfilling our own destiny. Industry has tried to make us believe that there is nothing to look forward to other than trying to get a good education and a good job (and they have done a really good job of that over the last 150 years, but we’re not taking it anymore).