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Summary: A Note to the Unhappy Cubicle Dwellers
Review: I read this book about 5 years ago. It said everything I had always felt, but thought was irresponsible. I have gradually worked to become "joyfully jobless." I absolutely love this book. I usually read a book, glean from it what I want into a notebook and pass it on. Not this book, I have kept and reread it a number of times. I have also referred many an unhappy cubicle dweller to this book. We have so many talented, skillful, gifted people in the world who are "wasting" their lives working in businesses for other people. I enjoy so much listening to people who have chosen to walk the less traveled path. The story of their lives is so much more enriching to the listener. Someday, I hope the listener to my life stories will feel that way about me. Barbara Winters has given those of us who thought working a job we hate, living for our days off, as being responsible, to understanding that doing what we love and making money for it as being much more responsible. Because we are teaching our children, family and friends, that God gave us abilities and talents and we should use them, and it is that which makes us responsible. Especially when we use them to help enrich the lives of others.
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Summary: Inspiring, Informative, and Practical. Must Read!
Review: I read this book from cover to cover in no time, great writing that inspires as well as informs. Not only does the author provide excellent advice drawn from her wide range of experience, she also includes the stories of other successful entrepreneurs to show the reader that regardless of you financial situation or life circumstances, you can chuck your boring job and make a living doing something you love! Get ready to throw out lame excuses as the author dispels all the myths that surround starting your own business. You can do it and this book will show you how.
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Summary: Inspiring and Uplifting
Review: I read this book in one stretch. This book gave me the inspiration I needed in planning my own jobless living. After getting freed from the shackles of corporate America, when I tried to start something on my own, I experienced the same kind of enthusiasm and burst of ideas as described in this book. I have never felt so healthy and upbeat in my life. As a self-starter, I could relate to this book immediately. It gave me the reassurance that the idea of making a living without a "real job" is believable and true. This idea is complemented in the book, by the numerous references to now famous names like Body Shop, Weight Watchers, personalities like Oprah and Laura Ashley.
The author explains why many people think corporate America is the only way to earn a good living. But at the same time she provides many statistics to show that a large percentage of successful Americans are self-employed. Winter gives helpful ideas like creating multiple profit centers and the $100 method. This book is an easy read and freshens your mind. It stimulates you to think and act upon your childhood dreams.
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Summary: This is a great book with ideas that have changed my life.
Review: I read this book several years ago and I am currently rereading it to refresh my memory of all the wonderful ideas in it. Barbara's writing style is very much like her speaking style, which is funny and inspiring and full of intelligent ideas and insights. This book makes you think about your assumptions about work and what's possible for your life. It challenges you to believe you're worth developing into the type of person you always wanted to be. Her seminars are even better when you have read the book first, because you are then able to build on what you've already learned from it
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Summary: Great Book
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It helped me look at making a living on my terms. She explained how you can do what you love and still pay the bills. For me, the MPCs (multiple profit centers) was an "AHA" moment! It makes so much sense!
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Summary: This Book Makes You Think About Your Attitude About Work
Review: I'd like to recommend "Making a Living Without a Job" by Barbara J. Winter. This is the first book that really put a bee in my bonnet that maybe I can take my financial future into my own hands. It explains how at the turn of the century, most people were self-employed, but then came the industrial age, and people made more money working for a corporation.This created a generation of people who didn't believe they could make it on their own, people who didn't know how to work for themselves because they had no examples to go by. The part of this book that caught my eye was the chapter on creating multiple profit centers. What that is, is whereas the employee thinks in terms of the single income source, the entrepreneur develops multiple income sources, like a portfolio that encompasses all of your different skills. I would recommend this book just for the encouragement it gives. It doesn't answer a lot of questions, and I haven't taken the plunge yet, but it certainly gives ideas about how a person can make a living without being employed.
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Summary: This Book Makes You Think About Your Attitude About Work
Review: I'd like to recommend "Making a Living Without a Job" by Barbara J. Winter. This is the first book that really put a bee in my bonnet that maybe I can take my financial future into my own hands. It explains how at the turn of the century, most people were self-employed, but then came the industrial age, and people made more money working for a corporation.This created a generation of people who didn't believe they could make it on their own, people who didn't know how to work for themselves because they had no examples to go by. The part of this book that caught my eye was the chapter on creating multiple profit centers. What that is, is whereas the employee thinks in terms of the single income source, the entrepreneur develops multiple income sources, like a portfolio that encompasses all of your different skills. I would recommend this book just for the encouragement it gives. It doesn't answer a lot of questions, and I haven't taken the plunge yet, but it certainly gives ideas about how a person can make a living without being employed.
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Summary: Inspirational!!!
Review: I'm 22 years old, and just finished up with college, the prospect of sitting in an office nine hours or more a day and making money for someone else just makes me ill, and this book really helped me search myself for what kind of company/business I am capable of creating, and hearing other peoples reasons, ideas, and motivations was very helpful. I don't have a business yet, but I'm on it, I read this book in about three days, and I only graduated 2 weeks ago though, so the sky is the limit!!! Thanks Barbara!!
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Summary: The best book I have read in 1999 (and I read many)!!
Review: If you feel stuck in your career, wishing you had ideas for how to start developing something on your own, then this is THE book to read!! I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Fun To Read Book About Not-Working For Others
Review: If you want to chuck your job and you're looking for a good self-help book to help you become an entrepreneur, consider "Making A Living Without A Job: Winning Ways For Creating Work That You Love" by Barbara Winter. Winter says people can be "joyfully jobless" by developing "multiple profit centers." Rather than depending upon a single source of income, Winters says people should diversify their sources of income. Winter likes the variety of doing different things. In addition to being an author, Winter publishes a newsletter, gives speeches and seminars, and finds other creative ways to earn a living. Because she has an interest in tea, Winter earned money teaching people how to have afternoon tea parties. Winter writes that many people find "producing a tea a mysterious process." (Don't you just put the little bags in a cup of water?). In addition to enjoying teaching tea, it gave Winter the opportunity to travel to England and deduct travel costs as tea research. One of Winter's goals was to travel to England. She emphasizes that we should merge our personal goals with our business ideas, if possible. In addition to discussing her own profit centers, Winters discusses many other entrepreneurs who earn money in creative ways. For example, one entrepreneur earns money by running a cattery, which is a cat boarding service. Of course, the cattery owner finds other ways to supplement income, such as founding Critter Communication Consulting, which helps people relate to their pets. Winters writes: "Landlording is, of course, one of the oldest ways to make a living without a job. In earlier days, widows frequently took their only asset [a house] and turned it into a profit center." Another entrepreneur merges fighting seasonal forest fires with writing and odd handyman jobs to earn a living. So, why don't people quit their jobs and become joyfully jobless? Fear of not having a regular income is one reason. Winters writes: "Too often we confuse fear with bad ideas! It's far healthier to accept that you are feeling fearful about a new plan-and determine that you'll act anyway... . stop and give yourself positive reasons for doing what's scary. Write out a list, if necessary... . Life shrinks or expands in proportion to your courage" Winters says many people are afraid of looking foolish for not holding a job. We tend to draw a sense of identity from a conventional job. Quoting movie reviewer Roger Ebert, Winter writes, "'Set up your life so that your personal goals are their own reward... . What you do instead of your real work is your real work.'" Winters says Ebert is a good example of someone who merged his early passion (for watching movies) with a career. Others only later discover their true calling and choose to pursue it. Winters tells the story of a cardiologist turned country western singer. To me, it seems that being a cardiologist would destroy the country western perspective. What sort of lyrics does the guy write? "You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille. With four kids in Harvard and stocks of low yield... ." I'm waiting for his hit single, "You Broke My Left Ventricle." Winters says we tend to be work snobs and feel that the work we really want to do is beneath us. If it's fun, it can't be real work. Without steady income, we might need to come up with something quick to earn money. Winter offers a list of suggestions for generating emergency cash. For example, she says we could offer to clean something, possibly an airplane. An airplane? I picture a guy standing in front of a 747 with a squeegee. I guess she means Cessnas and Pipers. Either way, this joyfully jobless sounds like it could become real work. Don't forget to wash under the wings.
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