I’ve been trying to get myself free from 9 to 5 job mainly by thinking of a business I can create and grow, but there are other ways. One that I’ve touched upon is to really love what you’re doing. If you can find a job you are passionate about, it won’t feel like a 9 to 5 job. However, I feel this isn’t the right path for me to take. I’ve had 4 jobs in 8 years, and at every one, I started feeling the boredom and futility at the 6 month mark. You might say I’m in the wrong line of work (software), but I don’t think so. I really like writing software, especially embedded software, where the programs I write actually cause something physical to happen like move a motor or cause an LED to light up or scan in a bar code. I would be writing software even if I didn’t have to. So I think I’m in the right line of work, but the wrong environment. I value my time and would like more control over it.

Another way I would feel free from a 9 to 5 job is to work part-time, but have passive streams of income, where you have money coming in with little or no work. I would include things like an appreciating stock portfolio or selling digital goods over the Internet in this category. Pick the right stocks, grow my investment and sell. Or set up a website selling something that can be downloaded and just administer the site every now and then. But picking stocks is HARD and I haven’t been successful at that. And I’m working on the digital goods idea, but haven’t come up with anything viable so far.

An extension of selling digitals goods is for me to write a software product and sell it myself. A little more work than just selling an e-book or some other digital information, but this would probably be the business that holds the most promise for me as a software developer. But again, the initial idea is what’s missing. So I’m still reading, exploring, studying and hoping. Waiting for that spark of an idea that might lead to my freedom from a 9 to 5 job. Apparently, I am not alone.