This is a spinoff of Morphy's "Did You Follow Your Dreams" thread.  What were your dreams?  What did you want to do with your life?
     When I was  a kid for many years I wanted to be an Entomologist. I was fascinated with insects.  I could tell you anything and everything about them.  From my teens on I wanted to be a successful musician/singer.  I got close a few times but things always fell through. 
    These days my goal is to hit the lottery.

https://www.prageru.com/video/dont-follow-your-passion/

see this is the real problem.
I've never really had one goal in life.
well there was the become a biochemist and develop an immortality serum.
Pretty much always wanted to live forever - still do.
Ad I'm pretty sure I know how to do it.

But discovered at college, that you can't do that kind of research without killing an awful lot of animals, in fairly nasty ways.
So that went by the wayside.
Then thought I'd be an author.
Man is that a hard gig to make a living in.
Got fair bit of stuff published in the late 80's early 90's in small press magazines and couple short stories on hardback compilations.

But I lack the day to day discipline to ever make a living at it.

And pretty much stumbled from one thing to another - based on which of my pastimes I could make money from.
Been doing the  computer thing for about 25 years. That's petty much died a death this year.
So currently starting out anew as 3d printing consultant and 'making and selling stuff on a laser guy'.
My wood working and 3d printing skills complement this really well - so there's definite promise.

Did the first craft fair this weekend.
Not really the right type of crowd as the fair was in a garden centre.
But we didn't make a loss and learnt a whole bunch of stuff.
And I'm now 'the guy who wears the horned viking helmet'.
Well for one thing it kept my head warm, and for another - figured any gimmick is worth a try if people remember you and what you do.
Weirdly almost nobody commented on it.
There was me thinking it would also be a conversation starter - nope.
But it's a thing now and I'll stick to it

We're back there 16th & 17th november for their christmas fair - for which we will be fully stocked with christmas stuff.

The cheap stuff I thought would sell - didn't, still puzzled by that to be honest.
I'll have a card and contactless payment machine running by the next one (soon as bastard paypal show me how me where to upload the 'who are you' verifiCation info to).

More importantly got some cards handed out and did a fast overnight custom job for someone, and that kind of thing is worth gold in 'word of mouth' currency.

All in all could have gone better, could have gone worse.
I'm still in the nascent stages of 'man makes things with fire' laser area.
So a whole bunch of stuff to learn and try, lots of marketing to do locally.

But I can see it really working.
With one thing and another it's been a shitty year, so it's pleasant to have something to look forward to

So am i following a dream ?
well I've always made and sold things and I really enjoy making and selling things, and I have that perfectionist gene that means I won't sell something I don't think is aas good as I can make it.

I guess as I'm not going to live forever (but I'll damn well die in the attempt !) making and selling stuff is probably as close as I'll get.

At some point I'll finish at least one of the three novels that have been on the go for the last 30 years. And I'll be an overnight sensation and stinking rich ! (these are dreams, remember

@CA
I’m surprised you haven’t gotten into building Wordpress sites. That’s a fairly natural extension of the computer business and there’s still quite a bit of demand. The writing industry is a lot different now too. You can build your own audience on social media and sell print-on-demand books without a big publisher or contract.

NooneOfConsequence wrote on Oct 20^th, 2019 at 9:06pm:


I actually hate any online web building software. I still do my websites the old fashioned way. I write them off line and then upload, That way I have total control.

The thing is I spend so much time sat at computers anyway - that I just don't want to go anywhere near them if I don't have to.

Plus i lack discipline. I work best under extreme pressure and really short deadlines