Saturday, November 10, 2012

More Living Free Revenue Generating Ideas


The last post about revenue generating focused mainly on things I do to generate revenue to support my living free lifestyle. Those ideas only represented a very small spectrum of the opportunities that are available. Since each of us has our own unique and individual definition of what living free is all about, there is no single revenue generating method that fits all. Additionally, there are a number of variables that each of us has to consider.

Allow me to list some of the variables we must each consider:

How do I define living free for my life?
How old am I?
What is my gender?
What talents was I born with?
What specialized training and education do I have?
What jobs have I had and what skills have I developed?
What hobbies and avocational interests do I have?
What do I love and enjoy doing?
Do I have some other form of income (Social Security, pension, trust fund, inheritance, etc.)
Where do I live?
Will I be in a fixed, permanent location or will I be a nomad of some kind?
Do I want to work with my hands, my mind, both?
Do I have any physical limitations - wheelchair bound, blind, deaf, require a cane or crutches?
Will you require and are you willing to obtain more education or special technical training?
Do you prefer to be self-employed, work for someone else or be a contractor?

You may have some other questions that are more personal to yourself and your own unique situation. Add them to the list and answer them. Each of these questions and your honest answers to them will help define and focus your interests and reveal the right opportunities for you. If you're like most people you've only worked in as few as one field to as many as several, but none of these may have been something that would have been you first (or second, third or more) choice that your passionate about and that you want or wanted to do for the rest of your life.

Of course, there are all kinds of individual circumstances that have held priorities in your decision to accept whatever you've done in the past and may currently be doing. If you can be honest with yourself, the chances are that most of your decisions were determined by economic pressures. To be more specific, you needed a revenue source to pay your rent or mortgage, car payments, put food on the table, clothes on your back, cover medical expenses, insurance and other necessities. If you had/have a family, those pressures are even more defined and restrictive.

But, if you're reading this blog, you have some definitive interest in changing your life in some significant manner. I believe the bottom line is that we all want to be personally free. I believe it's a basic human instinct and drive. Unfortunately, we live in a society and at a time in the continuum of human development where we have changed from free-ranging "hunter-gatherers" to very much, niche defined "hunter-gatherers."

We no longer have to take our bows and arrows, spears and sling shots out on the hunt to procure our meat. We simply go to the supermarket and pick it out of the meat case already slaughtered, cut up and packaged. The same holds true for our vegetables, fruits and berries. We don't have to go out to find and pick them or till the soil, plant and harvest them. That's all done for us. We each have some form of defined niche that we call a job (or a business) where we do something productive for the good of the collective and that allows us to generate revenue to acquire the necessities of life including food, clothing, shelter, transportation, etc.

There is certainly much positive to say about our modern society and the myriad methods of providing the large variety of meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruits and berries. It goes without saying that everything we once had to do individually to sustain our lives is now done by efficient, effective methods and industries. You fill one of those highly defined niches as your part of the collective. Of course, this has redefined the definition of personal freedom and what it means to live free.

Unless you live in a very isolated location with little or no contact or access to the advanced, contemporary society that has spread around the planet, your personal freedom is greatly diminished. One of the many expectations of modern society is that everyone will, in one manner or another, be a productive, contributing member of the society and that is how it should be and must be for everyone to survive and hopefully thrive. It requires that we have at least one means of generating revenue to function in the society to purchase the meat, vegetables, clothes, shelter and so on. We become very judgmental and view anyone who chooses not to be productive, as we have come to define it, as anti-social, a non-conformist and a thorn in the side of society.

The question is, at this point in time, if you're doing one or more things you've chosen to do in this niche defined society that you don't enjoy doing, why are you doing it? Would you not feel freer and happier if you were able to do something that you'd love doing? It would have to be something that you'd even consider doing for free, but are able to generate some revenue from it. Yes, there actually are millions of people around the world doing exactly that. There are, of course, other questions and considerations that may enter your picture, but life is all about choices anyway, so why not choose to be freer and happier.

Here is another list of opportunities (as opposed to calling them jobs) to consider:

Writer                                                         Teacher                                              
Trainer                                                        Dancer
Music Composer                                     Music Performer
Carver                                                          Sculptor
Painter (art)                                                Inventor                                              
Architect                                                     Construction Worker
Sales Person                                               Consultant                   
Speaker                                                       Voice Actor
Actor                                                            Theatrical Director
PowerPoint Specialist                             Graphic Designer
Web Designer                                            Book Designer          
Handy Man/Woman                             Home Care Giver
Nurse (Travel or Fixed Location)       Food Server             
Cook/Chef                                                  Interpreter
Travel Consultant                                    Tour Guide
Tutor                                                            Ebay/Amazon Marketplace Sales 
Tour Bus Driver                                       RV Ferry Driver                
Truck Driver                                              Taxi Driver
Child Care                                                  Pet Care                                        
Pet Groomer                                              Pet Photographer
Photographer                                            Nature Photographer                           
Industrial Photographer                        Videographer             
Documentary Maker                              Computer Technician
Mobile RV Repair Technician              Vehicle Detailer                                   
Oversize Load Pilot Car Driver            Conference Recording Tech
Paralegal                                                     Court Reporter
Nature Hike Leader                                Editor
Delivery Driver                                         Mechanic                                           
Inventory Taker                                       Shelf Stocker
Financial Planner/Consultant            Treasure Hunter/Salvage Diver

This is a diverse list of avocational opportunities, for sure. They are off the cuff. I put them on the list as I thought of them. Most all of them can be done at a fixed location for those individuals who don't have nomadic tendencies. However, most of these opportunities can be employed by nomadic travelers to find opportunities as you travel from place to place. Obviously, some require special training or education. Others require certain skill sets and some require specialized tools or equipment. Some may require special licenses.

This is only the first of a number of lists of ways to generate revenue. Some of these ideas may not be very appealing at first glance, but there are many facets to most of them. You may also look at them and say, "Hey, I'm a lawyer or a doctor or a college professor, do you know how much money I make and how much I'd have to give up to do any of these things?" Of course I do. As noted previously, I have both a bachelors and masters degree. Both degrees allow me to work in careers that are considered professional and could earn me a nice income.

Once again, the choice you have to make is whether you're happy and free being a lawyer, doctor, professor or whatever it may be that you're currently doing. If you are, then you don't need to read any more of my posts on revenue generating for a living free lifestyle. If you're not happy and you're reading these posts, then you're searching. I'm simply providing ideas.

I knew an attorney in New York. He was not happy providing legal services. He lived well and had most of the trappings of success, but he wasn't happy and he didn't feel free. One day a small greasy spoon style diner became available. He bought it, closed his law practice and became the short order cook in his own diner. He was happier and felt freer then he ever did as a lawyer. He had found his passion. And, no, he didn't make as much money nor did he have the status he had when he was a lawyer, but happiness trumped money and status for him.

In future posts I'll explore many of these and lot of other revenue generating ideas and opportunities. Here comes an old cliché, the mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open.

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