Can One Make a Living Without the Rat Race?

Rat race is defined as ...

"The rat race is a term often used to describe work, particularly excessive work; in general terms, if one works too much, one is in the rat race. ... A rat race is a fierce competition to maintain or improve one's position in the workplace or social life." [Wikipedia]

Or as ...

"any exhausting, unremitting, and usually competitive activity or routine, esp. a pressured urban working life spent trying to get ahead with little time left for" leisure, contemplation, etc." [Dictionary.com]

The rat race is often thought of as being associated with the corporate environment where the company tries to squeeze the most productivity out of its workers.

With a definition like that, it is no wonder that many people in our frenetic modern life begin to question our attitudes about work and begin seeking better alternatives to escape the rat race. See what people are saying about rat race in previous article.

Can one make a living if one is to leave the rat race? How?

One way is to become self-employed and work for oneself -- such as a freelance writer, web designer, consultant, etc. Another is to switch to a less demanding job, to a job where one is following one's passion, or to a job that requires less hours or a shorter commute.

Many tried and left the rat race. Some succeed and make more than before. Some end up making less, but happier. Some failed and have to return back to the rat race. Upon searching through the internet and books, one will find many who have found ways to make a living without the rat race. However, this does not give an accurate percentage of those who succeeded versus those who failed, because it is typically those who made it that are the ones in the news and media.

The short answer to the question of whether one can make a living without the rat race is that it is possible.

Found from Internet and books are some ways some people have found where they can make a living without the rat race. This is by no means inclusive. These are just some examples found.

Nathan Sawaya was a corporate lawyer making a six-figure salary. However, what he really loves doing is building with Legos. After winning a Lego contest, he left his lawyer position to move to San Diego to work at Lego company as a master-builder -- at $13 a hour.

With his skill at Lego building, he then moved on to work for himself building commissioned one-of-a-kind Lego sculptures and art. Nathan says "The worst day being an artist is still better than the best day being a lawyer."^[ref]

He has since had art and museum exhibitions including one called "The Art of the Brick". Nathan Sawaya is certainly one who have left the rat race to follow his passion and had made it. Read about Nathan's story here.

Like Nathan, Michael Gates Gill was also making a lot of money in the corporate world. Michael was an advertisement executive. But unlike Nathan, Michael did not leave the corporate world by choice. He was laid off. Michael's encounter with Starbucks was purely by chance. And he eventually went to work at Starbucks.

No, Michael did not go to work for Starbucks Corporate as an executive. He worked as a barista serving coffee. He found that at Starbucks, he enjoyed his work and is happier than when he was an executive. Obviously, Starbucks does not pay Michael the same salary as his executive position. But being happy is what counts. You can read more about Michael story in this article linked here or in his book How Starbucks Saved My Life.

Jonathan Coulton used to write Visual Basic computer code. But now he is a musician that writes songs -- including his popular "Code Monkey" song. Read more about Coulton's techie songs here.

Vienna Teng graduated from prestigious Stanford University with a degree in computer science and had worked at Cisco Systems. She is now a singer/songwriter.

These are just two examples where individuals have left the corporate world behind to follow their passion. Read more about them in the article From Writing Code to Writing Songs.

Tal Ben-Shahar almost became a computer programmer.  He started out at Harvard University as a computer science major.  As he mentioned in his DVD Happiness 101, he wasn't happy.   So he switched major.  He now teaches Positive Psychology at Harvard University which became Harvard's most popular course.  

Ben-Shahar was featured on NPR's 2006 radio program titled "Finding Happiness in a Harvard Classroom" where he said ...

"It's not natural; it's not right. We weren't made to be in the rat race. Not even rats were made to be in the rat race."

Perhaps that is why he decided to step off his tenure track and teach instead. Because teaching makes him happy. Academic publishing does not.

After reading about Jonathan Coulton, Vienna Teng, and Ben-Shahar, you might think that there must be something wrong with going into computer science. No, that would not be true. To be sure, there are many people who enjoy computer science and for them it is their passion and therefore it would be where they should go into. It is just that it happens not to be for the three examples mentioned. It is what is known an coincidental examples.

But for those who want to write computer code, wouldn't it require them to work for a large company like Microsoft, Apple, or Google? Wouldn't that require them to be in "the rat race"? In a competitive industry like high-technology, wouldn't joining a small tech company be still in the rat race environment?

Quite possibly. However, there might be an alternative. One can still work for themselves. One can do freelance programming, or build websites for small businesses by yourself, from your own home, over the Internet. This applies to freelance web designers, and graphic artists, content writers, and others as well. Take a look at the types of projects that are in demand on the many freelance marketplace websites such as Guru.com, eLance.com, GetAFreelancer.com, etc.

Although, it might be true that one can make more in the rat race of a large company. It is hard to say if one can make a living from freelancing. Perhaps some can not. But with so many freelancers on those sites, I'm sure there are some that can.

Take the example of Tammy Strobel was according to New York Times article was on a "work-spend treadmill".  She was not happy.  So one day she decided to step off, downsized her life, and took to minimalistic living.  Three years later in 2010, Strobel is happily working from home as a freelance web designer and freelance writer.  She said "The idea that you need to go bigger to be happy is false. I really believe that the acquisition of material goods doesn’t bring about happiness.”

What about being a writer where one can escape the politics of the corporate work and work in peace in one's own home? Is it possible to make a living as a writer?

Certainly you have heard of best-selling authors like Steven King, J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter books), Terry Pratchett, and others. But how many of us can be among those top selling authors?

Jennifer On Writing addresses the question in her blog. And she says yes, it is possible to make a living as a writer. She says in her post "I'm sitting here making a living writing, and I can't say it's a bad life. It's hard, yes."

Making a living as a writer can indeed be difficult.  Career expert Marty Nemko says wrote the article Making a Living as a Writer in which he says ...

"The odds are probably at least 1,000:1 against a first-time, non-celebrity novelist earning as much per hour from their novels as they could from flipping burgers at McDonald’s."

Writing poetry is even more difficult.  U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, said this in Chapter One of The Poetry Home Repair Manual:

"You'll never be able to make a living writing poems. We'd better get this money business out of the way before we go any further.  I don't want you to have any illusions.  You might make a living as a teacher of poetry writing or as a lecturer about poetry, but writing poems won't go very far toward paying your electric bill".

This was also mentioned in an NPR program with Kooser.

Kooser also says "I'll venture that 99 percent of the people who read the New Yorker prefer the cartoons to the poems. [from chapter 1 of The Poetry Home Repair Manual]

So the public's market for cartoons is much better than poetry. Two cartoonists that had multiple books published are Scott Adams and Jorge Cham. They both had been engineers.

Scott Adams is a computer engineer that left Pacific Bell during its corporate downsizing.^[ref] Now Scott Adams is most famous for his Dilbert books. The main character Dilbert is an engineer. The comics make humor out of some of the insanity that is the corporate world which many office workers can relate.

Here are some of Scott Adams' books...

Jorge Cham is an engineering graduate student and got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He creates comics at PhdComics.com which pokes fun of the life of the grad students and the academia environment.

Some of his comics are compiled in the following books....

Okay again, after reading about Scott Adams and Jorge Cham, do not think there is something wrong with being an engineer.  Some people like being an engineer, and there is nothing wrong with that.   It just happens that Adams and Cham likes cartooning better.

People are buying less and less books in favor of reading free material on the internet.

So how about blogging? Blogging is writing, but just online. Can one make a living from blogging? If one had to guess, one would guess that most causal bloggers can not make a living solely from blogger without other supplemental income. Of course there are exceptions and some top bloggers can make a living from doing just that.

Darren Rowse is a "six-figure blogger" at ProBlogger.net. And he has pictures of his earnings to prove it. Rowse is now a professional blogger.

Leo Babauta said in his book The Power of Less that ...

"Only a few years ago, I was over my head in debt, with a work schedule that rarely allowed me to see my family and had me stressed to maximum levels every day. I was overweight and unhealthy ... I was unhappy at work and going nowhere fast. My life was complicated, and I didn't have time for the things I loved."

He decided to simplify his life using the techniques taught in his book. He made healthy and positive changes to his life. He quit his day job and now works from home.

He now blogs at ZenHabits.net and says ...

"I’m lucky — I’ve found my passion, and I’m living it. I can testify that it’s the most wonderful thing, to be able to make a living doing what you love."^[ref]

Leo is a writer and has written for print and magazines. Now he is a blogger owning several blogs. ZenHabits.net is one of the top 100 blogs and was listed at the top of the list as Time.com's Best Blog of 2010. For Leo, it is possible to make a living blogger -- and he has six kids!

And what is Leo's advice on how to making a living doing this? Read his post where he says ...

"This doesn’t happen overnight. You need to do something, get good at it, be passionate about it. This could take months or years, but if you’re having fun, that’s what’s most important. When you get to the point where someone would pay you for it, then you’re golden — there are many ways to make a living at that point, including doing freelance or consulting work, making information products such as ebooks, writing a blog and selling advertising. In fact, I recommend you do a blog if you’re not already — it’ll help solidify your thinking, build a reputation, find people who are interested in what you do, demonstrate your knowledge and passion.

I told you this wouldn’t be easy. It’ll require a lot of reflection and soul-searching, at first, then a lot of courage and learning and experimentation, and finally a lot of commitment.

But it’s all worth it — every second, every ounce of courage and effort. Because in the end, you’ll have something that will transform your life in so many ways, will give you that reason to jump out of bed, will make you happy no matter how much you make."

Kevin started the blog 20sMoney.com. He is not shy about revealing how much he makes on his blog as you can see it in detail in his online income reports (complete with traffic stats). He is only twenty-something and it looks like he is already well on his way to making a living blogging.

There are other top bloggers besides those that was happened to have been mentioned.

Some of whom are mentioned in Scott Rosenberg's book on blogging called "Say Everything".

Chris Ballard wrote the book The Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People Who Found Their True Calling Way Off the Beaten Path which tells of true stories of individuals in unusual jobs that they enjoyed and where they had followed their passion.

There is a story of about a mushroom picker and a butterfly hunter (of which the title of the book is based)

As an example, picking mushrooms is hard work and long hours and is not exactly a high-profit profession. However, he is his own boss. And the book says in the introduction ...

"Perceived autonomy trumps actual autonomy. The ideal of being "one's own boss" isn't really so much about freedom; it's about one's perception of freedom, an important distinction. In other words, working fourteen hours at something one loves is more liberating than spending nine hours at something one doesn't, even if the first situation actually provides less tangible freedom."

I'm sure there are more examples of people out there making a living without the rat race. There are just too many out there to list in this limited article. And these people can be in fields of all types -- from hairstylist, hot dog cart owners, and even dog walker.

Happy Hounds for example is an doggie daycare featured in this YouTube video started by one woman with the help of advertising from AdWords. But be careful of becoming too successful. Otherwise, your single-person free-from-the-rat-race business can become a large company and would then put you back into the rat race again.