15 People Who Quit Their Office Job to Follow Their Calling

Is a hobby a waste of time? No way! Many people find salvation in creating something with their own hands. Hobbies and crafts not only help to distract from the burdens of life, but also to find our place in the world, open new opportunities for earning money and turn unusual skills into a profession.

In the bonus section, you’ll find a story from someone who moved from manual labor to the cozy office chairs and coffee with cookies.

• I envy my friend, a former co-student. I started working in my specialty. He also worked like this for 5 years, but then realized that programming was not his thing, so he started monetizing his hobby.
  Since childhood, he has loved restoring furniture. Today he has his own workshop and is busy doing what he loves. And I work remotely in an IT firm.
  And I’m so sick of it all, I’m sick of computers. But I know nothing but programming, and I’m afraid to start from scratch at 35. My salary alone is 5 times my friend’s monthly income. But he is happy, and I am not. © Overheard / VK
• I’m a programmer at a tech company I founded, but I like to build all sorts of stuff in my home shop. I particularly like building and restoring old musical instruments. A couple of years ago, I built a busker pipe organ.
  This was built completely from scratch out of basswood (pipes), aircraft-grade plywood (casing), cherry, brass, and rosewood. This was done for an auction to benefit the local childcare center, and it went for $3,300. Was really happy with the way it turned out, so I built a second one for myself. © cobra7 / Reddit
• I got into balloon art and made some pretty good money, but magicians have it better. They can charge more than I can, and their supplies aren’t a one-time use.
  For a 30-minute show, I’ve seen magicians charge $125. In areas with higher populations, magicians usually get away with charging quite a bit more. Learn magic and make bank. © Harasoluka / Reddit

• I’ve done all sorts of things in my life. For example, when I had an office job and wrote texts for websites, I started writing short stories. When I worked as a courier, I had an opportunity to visit shops, doctors and other organizations I needed during working hours.
  So to speak, I combined business with pleasure. And when I took care of plants in greenhouses, I got stronger, toughened and haven’t been sick for many years. © Work Stories / VK
• I did office/travel work for 20 years, went through 3 corporate buyouts and 4 mass layoffs. It was fun and exciting to do in my twenties. But got old after that. Gave it all up after going through my last mass layoff at 41. Had to downsize a lot.
  Now I work on sports cars. Always liked working with my hands, I make a lot less now, without most of the benefits as a corporate job gives. But I am home every evening and feel more relaxed and sane. No real stress or bosses standing over me, and no office political nonsense. © DarkWingDuck74 / Reddit
• I have a neighbor, a great guy. He got injured on the job, became disabled. But he hasn’t given up! He fixes everything from knick-knacks to appliances.
  And recently he opened a shoe repair shop near his house. But I can’t understand our neighbors who whisper behind his back. They say, he works at home and in the workshop, why does he need so much money? To hide under the mattress?
  These people make me feel disgusted. How petty some of them can be. © Work Stories / VK

• I do calligraphy. It requires a lot of practice, but the tools are not as expensive as you’d think. You can address wedding envelopes and make a few bucks. I’ve seen people charge different rates, but I’d say the average around here is $1.50/envelope. © MaryJane_Holland / Reddit
• I know someone who has couple of fish tanks in his backyard with around 100 fish, he gets baby fish, feeds them till they are somewhat big and then sells them, has a nice side income and he loves fish. © ielts_pract / Reddit
• I grow carnivorous plants. Been interested in them probably since I was about 8 years old. A few years ago, my video of one of my plants eating went viral on a popular website. Got a bunch of comments, most of them negative.
  But at the same time, it helped me find my audience. I have about 600 plants and I started to earn money from selling them. I also sell guides on how to care for the most popular species.
  But the best part is when I see the same excitement in people’s eyes that I felt as a child. It’s an incredible feeling when people come into my greenhouse with hundreds of plants and see in person what they’ve only seen in photos. © evenflow86 / Reddit

• I always liked “non-feminine” activities, I was drawn to them with a terrible force. My brother was given robots, and I was given dolls — I protested. Everyone said, “You’re a girl, you have nothing to do with wood and a rasp!”
  But my dad still had to teach me to work with a lathe when I secretly broke into his workshop to turn a rolling pin for my mum as a present. Of course, I got in trouble, but dad realized that it was useless to forbid me. Now I can operate both a lathe and a welding machine.
  I am now 36 years old. And I earn my living working manually. If it were not for my childhood fascination with a craft that is supposedly not a woman’s thing, I would be working at an unloved job somewhere in the office. But I do what I love in my own carpentry workshop. © admin / Y-story
• I knit clothes. Tried to sell them without success. I was already losing heart. And then suddenly orders flooded in! Even a couple of popular bloggers bought knitted items from me.
  And why? I raised the price 3 times, previously the price was minimal. I had nothing to lose anyway. I really don’t know how it works, but it’s a miracle! © Work Stories / VK
• I have a higher education, but I work in construction. I spent the first 10 years of my working life in an office, and it was incredibly boring. I had to force myself to get out of bed every morning, knowing that this day would be exactly the same as the last 500 days. 10. Years.
  And now I’m a builder. I’ve loved LEGOs since I was a kid. I love looking at power tools in the shop. I’m fascinated by everything in construction: from planning to the final touches, when you can step back and look at the finished object. I like to know that what I do really benefits people.
  Manual labor is not primitive work. You need engineering thinking and ingenuity when force majeure happens. You don’t learn that in any school.
  Yes, you often have to work in heat, cold, or heavy rain. But it’s still better than being trapped in a gray office box all your life. I’ve been there, I know. © Kevin C / Quora

• I make flutes. Not the typical flute, NA aboriginal flutes. About 3 feet long, played from one end with a fetish on top. It takes me about 3–4 weeks to make one, the majority of the time is on the block that sits on top.
  I gravitate towards animals — bears, ducks, deer etc., those take a while to carve. I carved a deer out of cherry wood once, the antlers alone took me a week to finish. The shaft and its components are relatively straight forward, so that and the finishing are usually only a few days to a week. A lot of people paint theirs, but I find more beauty in the simplicity of finished wood. Realistically, it should only take a few days in total, but I prefer to do most things by hand.
  I once carved a flute out of a chunk of wood blown from an oak tree that was hit by lightening — until it found its owner, it was never touched by a power tool or another human besides me. It may sound weird, but it seemed important at the time. © BobNoel / Reddit
• I’m a costumed character/ monster maker at a small amusement park. We work 13 nights around Halloween, and 12 between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have made 16 Halloween and 8 Christmas costumes. I don’t make much, but it is so much fun! © Phantom_Scarecrow / Reddit
• RV technician is what I ended up doing. You do carpentry, plumbing, propane systems, AC and DC electrical systems, fixing appliances, basic welding and cabinetry, suspension and brakes on trailers and more.
  It’s a recognized trade in some, but not all areas. Areas that it’s not, it seems like they can get away with paying less generally. I’ve really liked it for the most part. © Roy565 / Reddit

Bonus: An outlook from a man who changed his job to an office job.

• Even 35 years later, I can drive by a house or building I helped to build and there it stands. Sure, everything I ever worked on will one day return to dust. But likely not in my lifetime.
  When I switched to IT, I made a lot more money, worried a great deal more, worked much longer hours, slept a great deal less and suffered fools constantly. I worked on hundreds of projects over the years. I doubt that any are still functioning. © Bruce Zeuli / Quora

And these people bring breathtaking crafts to life.