Does the thought of having a work-life bring you down? Do you despair about a stressful workload, daily commute, or just looking for a new job? There are plenty of people who hate the idea of working and just wish they could get paid for doing something they love. If you’ve ever thought, “I hate working,” this is the post for you.
As a career consultant, I worked with hundreds of clients who were looking for a lifestyle that would add meaning to their lives. A common theme among them was avoiding spending years of their lives doing something they hated. I walked them through a process to accomplish their personal goals without the dissatisfaction of a horrible work day.
Here I’ll take you through the same process.
You’re Not Alone
There have been huge shifts in the average work environment in the past few years. Telecommuting, remote work, and working from home are new vocabulary the pandemic gave us. Despite these changes in more flexible work arrangements, employee engagement is still down, especially among millennials.
According to a huge study in the UK, more than a third of employees are unhappy at work, and a Gallup report found that 60% of workers are emotionally detached at work and 19% are miserable.
You might have something against bosses or dealing with coworkers, or hate the thought that you’d have to ask for time off when you want to go away. So, if you hate your job or don’t want to get one because you hate the idea of working, you’re not alone. There are people all over the world who feel the same way.
That might bring a little solace to you, but what you really need is a solution.
Somehow, you must make enough money to live without making yourself wholly miserable and feeling like you’re wasting your life. You might enjoy the occasional Big Mac, but working at McDonald’s might not be your idea of a fulfilling life.
Different Ways to Make Money
The default way most people think to make money is to get a job. Find a company, hand in your resume, and hope they accept you. The problem with becoming an employee, however, is you likely won’t have much say in what you do, where you do it, and when you have to be there.
Is there a better way?
Become Self Employed
What exactly does it mean to employ yourself? The simplest way to think of it is offering a service to other companies; many consultants operate this way. If you worked at a company as an accountant, IT specialist, or some different position, you could quit your job and offer the same type of service to multiple companies.
You may be able to decide when your workday begins and what your work hours are, but if you hated working the job, I wouldn’t recommend continuing to do it as a consultant.
Instead, see below how you could become self-employed doing something you enjoy with a work-life balance you can control.
Build a Business
Similar to becoming self-employed, building a business is an excellent idea if you don’t want to get a job. By creating a business around something you love, you can wake up and make money without feeling like you’re stuck in the rat race.
You don’t need a considerable investment to build a business today; below, I go through some examples that you could use to start a business for next to nothing.
There won’t be anyone to complain to about job satisfaction when you’re in charge, but if you find yourself hating being told what to do by managers or supervisors, become the boss. It will certainly be a big change from the dread you feel hating your job.
Live Differently
If you want a lifestyle that includes a lovely apartment in the city center, a new car, and designer clothes, you must figure out where all the money will come from. By settling for a more frugal lifestyle, you can massively reduce the amount you need to work. And depending on your personality type, you may even be happier too.
- Find a small house in the countryside
- Live off-grid, using solar power rainwater
- Grow your own food and sell the excess
There are plenty of ways to reduce your expenditure without living like a hermit. Meal planning and creating a spending budget is an easy way to start.
Or move to a country with a lower cost of living. I’ve spent my entire adult life (nearly 20 years) as a digital nomad in Asia. Most countries here are much cheaper than the U.S. or Western Europe, especially if you are earning a wage back home. It will completely change your life!
Start with Your Passions
When you’re at work, what do you wish you were doing? Do you spend all day dreaming about getting into the gym or your latest coding project with the new Raspberry Pi?
Whatever it is you wish you were doing, that’s your passion, and it could become your dream job.
Finding your passion may not be that easy for everyone, though. If you’re thinking, “I don’t know what my passion is,” or, “I don’t have a passion,” keep reading.
These three questions will help you find a new interest you can turn into a passion project.
1. What Am I Good at?
I find this easier to do with a pen and paper or my favorite note-taking application. Just write down anything that comes to mind; don’t limit yourself by thinking, “I could never make money with this,” write it down and figure that out later.
For example, at school, you may have been great at history. Can you turn history into a business and make money while having fun? Possibly. Plenty of podcasts, YouTube channels, and blogs focus on different periods of history.
2. What Do I Enjoy?
The whole point is to find something you can do that doesn’t feel like work, so it has to be something you enjoy. Again, don’t worry about how you make it profitable; just jot it down for now.
Maybe you enjoyed learning martial arts at home when you were young or studying Latin at school. Teaching is a fantastic way to turn something you take pleasure in into a workable business. You don’t need to be an expert; teaching kids martial arts is more about getting them to move about and have fun than teaching them deadly striking techniques.
3. What Else Might Be Cool?
So there are things you’re already good at and things you enjoy, but those are all things you’ve done in the past and have some experience with; there are also other activities you’ve never tried. So, what else might be cool?
Think outside the box, don’t start with “what could make me money,” begin with “what would be fun to do every day,” Perhaps you always wanted to build furniture with wood, so write it down!
If you’re starting something new, there will be a period of learning and development before you can start making money with it, but it’s likely much shorter than you think. You don’t need to be a master craftsman to build simple wooden picture frames, for example, a few days of practice is all you need.
Start wherever you are and develop as you go.
Turn it into a Business
By now, if you did the little exercise above, you should have a list of ideas, like a huge brain dump, some that you already have skill in and others that are new or just things you like doing. Here’s where we can turn those ideas on the paper or notes app into an actual business.
Traditionally, starting a business was costly and time-consuming; you needed premises, employees, and lots of investment, but today, you can create a business from home for almost nothing.
Let’s figure out how your passion can become a money-generating business. Start with the product. What are you selling?
Some ideas lend themselves to creating a product, like the woodworking idea above, because you make a physical product that you can sell, but you may need to get more creative with others. Here are some helpful tips.
- Can you sell a physical product?
- Can you teach others to do this?
- Can you create content about this (video, audio, or written)?
- Can you help others who are already doing this?
Obviously, you can sell a physical product, you just need to work out how to market it. Teaching is also easy to get into, you can look at tutoring platforms like tutor.com (mostly for academic subjects and languages,) or rent a venue nearby to hold classes (e.g. for yoga martial arts or juggle classes.)
Creating content is all about getting eyeballs to look at what you create, then ads make the money for you. Bloggers, YouTubers, TikTok stars and professional tweeters all use this model. Finally helping others as a consultant or assistant is all about networking, so go visit some people and pick up the phone, Start with anyone who is doing what you want to do.
There’s always someone who says, “All I like doing is watching TV, how can I make money from that?” It is doable. Perhaps the thing you enjoy most is watching UFC. You know the fighters and never miss an event. Look at the four questions above and see how they can turn a love of the UFC into a money-making business.
- You don’t need to create a new piece of training equipment. Start with making some cool MMA T-shirts with a service like
- If you have experience with MMA, you could start a class, find a small venue and start advertising. You don’t need a fully equipped gym and octagon – start with a boxing class.
- There are lots of opportunities to create content here. Either news-style content about recent fights or content teaching MMA techniques. Both lend themselves to long or short-style content; think X (Twitter) to blogs, TikTok to YouTube, or a podcast.
- Reaching out to people already making money from MMA is a great way to get started. Whether that’s helping teach at a martial arts school or helping someone create content for their blog or channel. You get to learn the ropes and get paid.
Work on Your Passion
Whether your passion is something you are a complete beginner or something you’ve been doing for years, you need to improve. Keep learning and keep practicing. As your skills increase, you’ll find even more ways to monetize your hobby or pastime.
If you’re starting something from scratch that you want to turn into a business, don’t get discouraged that you’re not yet where you want to be. A simple plan to make progress every day will be more powerful than anything else. Start slow if you need to but build up quickly to the point that you are spending 3-5 hours each day improving. The opportunities will soon start to come.
Do Something Today
Don’t wait. I know it’s tempting to start all of this when your life is a little simpler or when you have some savings, or when you finally get the new laptop or car you’ve been saving up for. But don’t give in to the temptation. No matter what it is you want to start doing, you can work towards it today.
Use this guide to make a simple quarterly plan for progress.