Career Change Can Be Very Rewarding

I am in the Berkshires at a golf resort with a friend, and client, who publishes a golf and resort guides. He started his career as a lawyer and had developed a successful practice. A friend of his needed a favor. She was the editor of a monthly regional lifestyle magazine. They were doing a special edition with a section that covered all the major golf courses in the region. Their writer had just pulled out. My friend was a good golfer, a good writer and had previously helped another friend, a professional golfer, write a golf book. She asked him if he would take a little time off, come down and write the section for her. She, of course, offered to pay him.

He called me for advice. He wanted to do it, but financially it did not make any sense for him. While he wasn't really happy with the work he was doing, it certainly paid much better then working as a freelance writer. He was thinking about doing it anyway, as a favor to his friend and because it sounded like fun. We talked about it for a while. Then I suggested a way that he could write the piece and make money. Since we were dealing with a magazine that was not in the guide business I knew that they only intended to use what he wrote one time, when the monthly magazine was published. So I suggested he sell the magazine the right to first publication and exclusive rights thereafter for 90 days. Then the rights to what he wrote would revert to him. Since that was all the magazine was going to use the material for anyway and because they were in a bit of a bind, they readily agreed. After the 90 days he republished the material, along with a map of the courses, some additional photo spreads and some articles about other attractions in the region as a golf guide. He was able to get advertisers to run ads in the guide and the golf courses and resorts to purchase reprints. In that way he was able to make a nice profit.

The story does not end there. He was so successful, and enjoyed it so much, that he gave up the work he was doing and began to publish golf and resort guides internationally, using that same formula. He now travels all over the world, stays in fabulous resorts and has published guides in such exotic places as Thailand and the Dominican Republic. What started as a lark became a fulfilling and financially rewarding second career for my friend.

Everything started with a single project that he did for two weeks while on vacation from his regular job. If you do not find fulfillment in what you are doing, you don't have to quit your job. Start small. See if you can turn a hobby into a second career. Moonlight. Try things out on weekends and when you have vacation time. You never know where it will take you.