Barbara Winter - Making a Living Without a Job

I was a public school teacher and he was a lawyer. We both had many difficulties fitting into corporate systems because we wanted to improve them with our creative ideas and tell the truth about what was happening in those places. Not welcomed by those systems! Well, our creativity and nonconformist attitudes serve us very well now, and we both feel we are uniquely suited for the services we provide. Yippee!

You’ll discover more advantages of self-employment throughout the book, but you may still be wondering if this is an option that would work for you. So that leads us back to the second question: Can anybody be an entrepreneur? When that question comes my way, I always think of two of the most unlikely entrepreneurs I’ve ever known.

Dianne and Jean are longtime friends who were both elementary schoolteachers. I met them when they were looking for an editor for a charming book they’d written called Motorcycling Through Menopause. The book recounted a spur-of-the-moment, completely out-of-character motorcycle trip they’d taken with their husbands. This wasn’t so much a memoir, however, as it was a challenge to other women to step outside of their comfort zones and embrace new experiences.

Right from the start I loved the concept, but I recognized that work needed to be done to get it ready for publication. Besides editing their manuscript, I also guided them through the self-publication process. During this time, we had numerous meetings and phone conversations.

I would often come away from these meetings thinking, “These are the least entrepreneurial people I’ve ever worked with.” When we began talking about marketing, my ideas were greeted with trepidation. In one conversation I suggested to Jean that they could prepare a little talk and give it to women’s groups. “Oh, I can’t do that!” she exclaimed.

“But you’re a teacher,” I pointed out. “You talk to groups every day.” She was not convinced.

Then there was the fear of failure that seemed to loom at all times. I lost count of the number of times I was asked, “Do you really think this is worth doing?” If I hadn’t liked them both so much, I would have abandoned the project.

After months of work, the book went off to the printer and my job was done. One afternoon I got a phone call from Jean, who sounded breathless. “I just did a book signing at school today, and it was so much fun,” she crowed. She went on to tell me that everyone loved the book and she’d been surprised that it opened conversations with people she’d hardly ever spoken with before.

Several weeks after that call, the three of us met for lunch so they could give me a copy of the finished book. Jean and Dianne arrived at the restaurant bursting with enthusiasm and several success stories they were eager to share. Before we even placed our order, they—the same women who were terrified of marketing—had sold a copy of their book to our waitress.

I followed their progress over the next several months, through interviews in the local newspapers and occasional updates from Jean. During the Minnesota State Fair, they showed up on a local show wearing T-shirts with “Motorcycle Mama” spelled out in rhinestones. When I called Jean to give her some marketing ideas, she startled me by saying, “We’re getting absolutely no rejection.”

To hear Jean and Dianne talk about their entrepreneurial adventure, you get the feeling that it’s as much fun as taking the motorcycle trip. These once-timid teachers discovered that when we take our ideas and move them ahead one small step at a time, we can end up with something significant. Best of all, we can enter the world of enterprise at any time in our lives.

I still haven’t answered the question that has come my way so often in the past few years: Why in the world did I move to Las Vegas? It wasn’t because I’m a gambler. Partly, I moved because I always wanted to live in different places. What could be more different than Vegas?

But that’s not the whole story. I came here because this strange and wonderful city is a testament to the power of human imagination. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, visionaries defied the odds and built a major tourist destination. Bold dreamers like Steve Wynn added an artistic flair. The stunning Cirque du Soleil demonstrates daily that art and business can coexist. (Cirque considers both equally important.)

This also is a city that is about second chances and reinvention. And about craziness, excess, and tackiness. It’s a place made up of parallel universes, and everyone can pick which universe they want to participate in.

There are also certain requirements that I have for running my business. At the top of my list are access to an international airport and a good library system. Las Vegas has both. However, it’s the creative spirit that I find fascinating and, yes, contagious.

Not yet forty, Tom Breitling has already been involved in building two successful businesses in Las Vegas. This cofounder of Travelscape.comand former co-owner of the Golden Nugget says, “There are an infinite number of ways for an entrepreneur to impact someone’s life. When you give someone an incomparable moment or a chance at a dream, that’s when what you’re doing borders on art.”

While politicians argue about the best way to solve our problems, small-time operators are busily and calmly finding creative ways to deal with changing times. After all, the soundest economic stimulus plan may very well be the one you build for yourself.

A word of caution is in order here: If you’re a high roller, if you love a long shot, making a living without a job may not be right for you. On the other hand, if you’re ready to exercise your independent spirit, generate new ideas, use the tools in this book, and commit to your success, the odds are in your favor.

Even Las Vegas oddsmakers would bet on that.

Think of someone you know who is joyfully jobless.

You say you don’t know a soul who qualifies? Of course you do. Many jobless earners are highly visible. If you don’t personally know someone, consider those whom you’ve read or heard about. Look at any issue of Architectural Digest or House & Garden. Their pages are filled with splendid homes belonging to the self-employed. Your local newspaper probably features interesting self-bossers in your own backyard. The Internet is loaded with stories and websites from folks around the world who make their living without a job.

Or turn on your television. Five days a week you can observe success in action by tuning in to The Oprah Winfrey Show. This program, the highest-rated talk show in television history, has made Winfrey one of the best-known and wealthiest women in the country. Besides owning the production company that produces her show, Winfrey’s Harpo Productions also owns the studio where the show is taped. In addition, Winfrey has diversified her business by starting a magazine, producing an off-Broadway play, and making films and other television programs.

She frequently shares her experiences in the course of her program and tells viewers about her own personal growth and setbacks. Yet Winfrey credits her personal philosophy with generating all this success, reminding her audience that inner beliefs and attitudes are as important as hard work. “The Bible has taught us, metaphysics has taught us, myth has taught us,” she points out, “that if you get into the flow, if you do what you’re supposed to do, you’ll be rewarded with riches you’ve never even imagined. And so what I have received is the natural order of things. You always, always, always reap what you sow.”