Just step over...

Hi Dan,

We have a few things in common. We are either the same or age or very close to it. I play the guitar as a hobby and like to fix things. Years ago, my friends use to refer to me as the tinker-man. That's what I liked to do. I tinker with things and fix them. Specifically... I like to tinker with things that are electric. Whether it is a guitar amp, a stove, hot-water heater, TV, etc...

I always liked most of my jobs, but resented the fact that I had to be employed. Being employed dictates to you when you get up every day, when you work, when you don't, how many vacations you have... and by the wages they pay you, they pretty well dictate what kind of car you can afford to drive, where your kids go to school, and even how far and how long you will go on vacation.

Then in the mid 90's I developed a health problem, which meant I wasn't going to be able to work at my job for too much longer. At the same time, I tinkered with web development. You see, most people don't think of web development as having anything to do with electricity. But it does, because the programming is basically working with switches built from digital gates that use hexadecimal or binary inputs. This isn't important - but there is a connection there, abstract as it may be. Since I was fascinated with everything that had to do with electricity/electronics -- programming/web development was a good match for me. It is always changing, so I always get to learn new things -- which is really cool.

It was also a good match for me in another way...

I could only think of so many sites to build for myself. It was to the point where I didn't have any challenges. So I used to help other people solve their web related problems for free. This gave me a lot of new challenges, and a lot more experience. And the closer dooms day approached (when I wouldn't be able to work at my job anymore because of this nagging health problem), pushed me even more. I would have to replace the income from the job with another means. So I started to learn a little something about marketing, and eventually hung out my shingle as a web developer.

In 1999, a year after an operation, which didn't help a whole lot, I was making more money online than I was working for a living. I had to quit my job. It was to the point that I couldn't finish out a week of shifts.

But the web development also gives me job satisfaction and makes me feel like I've accomplished something. Helping others in this manner, makes me feel good about what I'm doing. Last Fall, I did a call with Dr.Paul Hartunian, Bob Serling and Pamela Yellen. If you want to you can hear it here and through the course of the call you will hear how these people have been really happy with my work.

These days, I never set an alarm clock. Summer is coming up. I will spend long weekends at my cottage on the Bay of Fundy. I will go on weekend bike tours and invite friends down to the cottage for jam sessions.

I'm not rich. LOL -- probably never will be... but I'm living where I want to live, doing what I want to do, and make enough to be able to enjoy it.

Dan you're unhappy with your job. A bit of a difference here; I was slowly being forced out of mine. But I've been where you are; in the position where things had to change. These are your options as I see it

• Drift like a log stuck in the tide
• Understand that change is needed and be prepared to control that change

Neither one is easy... but then nothing ever is. The point is, you have the capability and the resources to control your future. All you need is a strong enough desire to activate the initial change.

Reminds me of a story.... some of you are no doubt sick of hearing it:

When I was a kid, my folks used to offer pony rides in a field down by the main road. Yep... the town was so small it only has one road.

We had several ponies at the field. The ones that weren't working were kept in a small roped off section of the field. We shoved a few poles in the ground and looped a single piece of rope about knee-high through the poles a make-shift fence.

If you have ever ridden a pony, you know that when you are finishing your ride and turn the pony toward home, it will try and run as hard as it can to get there. If you have never ridden a pony (LOL) please understand that a pony just wants to go home :-)

So being all of 8-9 years old, and pretty savvy about ponies (heck... I could saddle one myself) I said to my Mom, one day by the roadside, "Why don't those ponies just step over the rope and run for home?"

She said "Because they don't know that they can..."

People are the same way.