During my teenage years, my dad had a job he hated. He woke up every morning, drove an hour in city traffic, and sat in a tiny cubicle doing paperwork for nine hours a day with bosses he couldn’t stand. We all knew how unhappy he was, but there weren’t a whole lot of options. We needed the money, and my mom was still job hunting. Then, he decided to start working from home– and the change was instant and extremely noticeable. While I’m relieved that he’s happy now, it sometimes got really upsetting when he was commuting. My dad and I have extremely similar personalities, and if I learned one thing from that experience, it’s that I never want a job like that. Sitting in a cinderblock cubicle, doing nothing but staring at spreadsheets and getting yelled at by egomaniacs– I can’t think of anything worse for a job. I’d honestly rather be flipping burgers again. Luckily for me, I’ve found something better than either of those: I work from home as a writer. Seriously, it’s my dream job. If you feel trapped in the “rat race,” and would like to transition to a work from home career, read this inspiring post by Bob at Christian PF:

“If you won the lottery and the first thing you would do is quit your job, then you need to quit your job.” – Dave Ramsey.

Now that I have spent over a year working for myself I can’t imagine doing anything else. For as trapped and held down as I felt before, I feel the opposite extreme of the joy of freedom. Just to be clear, self-employment has its own challenges and difficulties, but I honestly think they pale in comparison to what I went through while spinning my wheels in the Rat Race.

The rest of the post details exactly HOW he started his own business, and took the chance to become his own boss. Definitely worth the entire read!

Photo Credit: Kevin Dooley