|
I arrived at a very similar spot after having spent about 10 years in tech. Many of the jobs I'd found myself in seemed to be comprised of busy work, or work that didn't actually contribute much to society as a whole. It was pretty disheartening, and I'd jump from position to position, looking for something "better". Eventually I decided that my world was going to be of my own making, and that I didn't want to spent it unhappy. If anything was going to change, then I alone was responsible for initiating that change in my life and my perspective. I ended up quitting my job and going to Europe, where I worked with traditional cheesemakers. I learned how to make cheese, milk and to take care of livestock. When I arrived back in NA, my wife and I moved to a more rural location, bought a small herd of livestock and began building our own dairy. For me, working with the animals, and producing these rustic, old-world styled cheeses brought a lot of fulfillment to my life that I hadn't found elsewhere. It's now almost 10 years later and we've just expanded our operations again. Our production will likely be 4-5x what it was when we started, and we have an incredibly supportive and dedicated customer base that love our cheeses. Being able to talk with them, make them happy, and get their feedback on our cheese is one of my favourite times of the week. The last 10 years have held some of the most challenging periods of my life. I've had to learn and master entirely new skill sets - marketing, plumbing, veterinary skills, MacGyver'ing equipment to work for just another day before we can get it fixed properly. We've also had our share of the bad times - in farming, the unexpected happens frequently, and we've teetered on the financial brink a couple times. Certain aspects of what I'm doing now have also become, "just a job" - I don't really want to scrape livestock poop in the pissing rain, but someone has to do it. (And sometimes that turns out to be someone we hire to do it for us.) I still pick up the odd tech contract during our slow periods, though those are getting fewer and further between. Turns out that tech wages pay for things a lot more quickly than farm wages, and a 2 month contract can pay for some shiny new farm equipment much more quickly. I often joke with my wife that our decision to strike off on our own and start our own business was either the best-worst decision or the worst-best decision in my life; I just haven't picked which one it is yet. :) Link to some of our cheeses and ladies: https://imgur.com/a/VC2aire |