Travel Tips

You Could Never Make a Living Doing That

It is not uncommon for me to talk to someone who tells me that they know precisely what they want to do and then they add, "But I couldn't possibly make any money doing that." Why are we so certain that love and money cannot coexist?

Part of the problem is that many of us have too few role models of creative ways of making a living. That's the conclusion drawn by college students Mike Marriner and Nathan Gebhard, who set out to uncover exciting careers. The result was their book Roadtrip Nation and a college course called Road Scholars.

It's good for the imagination to notice unusual businesses and let that knowledge stretch your own creative spirit a bit. Here are a four businesses that challenge the notion of what is viable and what isn't. Start your own list and collect unusual, one-of-a-kind enterprises to remind yourself that nothing is impossible if you love it enough.

• Picture a stage with a ton of ice and three guys with chainsaws, fancy lighting and music and you've got a description of Fear No Ice, a business that turned Scott Rella and his two partners from chefs into performance artists. They now dazzle audiences around the world turning blocks of ice into temporary works of art.
• Then there's Rhonda Fahleen-Pillager, who every week rents out her 150 mud turtles for the local turtle race in Nisswa, Minnesota. She took over the business from a local minister who sent his kids to college on the money he made renting out mud turtles.
• Nobody could earn a living building treehouses, right? Ask Jake Jacob about that. He's just one of several designers who create treehouses for grown-ups who have never gotten over their childhood desire to go out on a limb.
• Howard and Amy Waddell have found a unique way to share their knowledge and passion of history. Howard began making swords when he was 9 years old. Today the Waddells own Abalon Armors, a company that makes historically accurate ancient armor. They sell about 160 pieces every month to collectors from around the world.

There's more where this came from.
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At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and then inevitable.

~ Christopher Reeve

Copyright © 2003-2005, Barbara J. Winter. All rights reserved.