Escape the 9 to 5 with a dream job! When you have a passion for what you’re doing, it no longer has the hallmarks of a dreary, dead-end, passion-less career! Instead, you look forward to working. Days are filled with passion rather than indifference and this brings a whole new quality to your life. When I was in my early 20’s I met a stuntman who had worked on the James Bond films. I thought this was so inspiring I decided to become a stuntman myself. At the time, I was drifting from dead-end job to dead end job.
To join the Equity Stunt Register (Now the British Stunt Register in the UK), I had to train in a number of disciplines. In fact I needed 6 skills to instructor level, which I could choose from a broad range of appropriate activities. These included Martial arts, Gymnastics, SCUBA Diving, High Diving, Trampolining, Swimming, Racing, motor cross, horse riding and so on.
I cobbled together work which helped me train pretty much full time in the 6 disciples I needed. It took four years of intensive training, and mostly being completely broke in order to achieve the tickets I needed to join the stunt register in the UK.
Escape 9 To 5 With A Dream Job
In 2002 I joined the stunt register but it wasn’t until a couple of years after that I started working. I was completely broke and all my training had maxed out my credit card and my lifestyle of “trainee” stuntman had caught up with me! Although working for free was the advice I got, or “observation” work, I couldn’t afford to travel to London and do this. So I took some work as a taxi driver. To juggle the stunt certifications training schedule I had picked up work on building sites, worked in offices, got my taxi licence, whatever I could.
While this might not sound attractive, it’s the struggle which gave the journey some meaning for me. I had a purpose underlying all the crappy meaningless jobs I was doing. I’ve done crappy jobs without a purpose, and it’s far worse. When you don’t have a plan, the reality of your situation seems more permanent. When that reality is facing another 10 years of a job you despise, with no escape plan, it’s soul destroying! But when you have a plan to escape 9 to 5, everything is much easier to endure – especially a job you hate.
Escape 9 To 5 With A Dream Job – When The Magic Fades
In my 20’s being a stuntman was all I could envisage. But later, in my late 30’s the reality of the situation was far less exotic. While I had managed to get work and on certain occasions made a good living, I wasn’t as free as I wanted to be. I was hanging on the phone waiting for the jobs to come in all the time. There wasn’t enough work a lot of the time, so had to fill in with part time and temporary jobs. I didn’t plan holidays because I didn’t want to miss a job. Plus, a lot of the time I wasn’t secure enough financially to do it!
The “dream” job, I once envisaged, soon became just another job! By the time this happened, I was trapped by the money, and the lifestyle.
Freedom – Lifestyle And Money
By the time I was in my late 30’s I was still driving HGV’s to fill in the gaps of unemployment between the stunt jobs. It was a wake up call. I hadn’t “made it”, as they say! I was still struggling to get the work I needed. Trouble was I didn’t want it as badly now I was approaching 40! The stunt business is competitive too. If you don’t want the work, you’re soon forgotten! There’s plenty waiting in the wings to bite someone’s arm off for the work! So when you’re indifferent, it shows!
I knew I needed an escape plan from my previous escape plan! Trouble was, I couldn’t foresee anything as good as the stunt work. The pay gave me loads of free time, and was good enough to keep me going for months before needing another job. In some ways I was already free from “the man”. But in others, I was trapped on a sinking ship. I took the work when the phone rang, but knew my days were numbered! After a couple of injuries, I was losing my fearlessness! I didn’t bounce as well as I used to! I didn’t want to bounce any more!
So I looked to the internet as a solution. I tried Forex marketing for some time, but managed to mostly lose trades. Then I tried some buying and selling online using eBay. But it was ultimately an ebook which turned me on to making money online.
The Internet – The Ultimate Escape Plan
I bought an ebook about a strategy for buying and selling on eBay. After a while of trying out the strategy I realised there was more to the ebook idea. I had bought the ebook from eBay and downloaded it. It was an instant transaction without anyone being there physically. I knew if I could get on the other side of this transaction, I could earn income from selling hands free!
So I set about creating my own ebook and trying to sell it from a website. However, things didn’t go according to plan. While the setup was simple and straight forward, getting people to my site was the problem. So I put myself on an online business course, with the intention of selling more of my books!
What I discovered was a clever business model called affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing lets you sell other people’s products online and make 10%-40% commission on each sale you generate. Because you can automate sales online, I thought this had to be the best business model to escape 9 to 5 with! If you want to learn more about starting your own online business, checkout the free videos available on this website.
Summary
To escape the 9 to 5 with a dream job, you need a dream! If you don’t have a dream job, or you’re too old to be chasing long term ambitions, an online business might be the answer.