This series of articles aims to seek out individuals who have sought out ways to make their work life a joy by following their fun, and listening to their hearts. For me, it’s always an motivational, inspirational story of success when I hear that someone was able to be successful earning a living by doing something they truly love and enjoy.
Inspirational Story #1:
How loving and enjoying pets turned into making an income
In 2006, one dog-loving family got an adorable golden retriever puppy who they named Augustus (nicknamed Augie). Soon after he settled into his new home, his owners set up a website in his honor, and called it www.augiedoggy.com. As the owners rejoiced in their cute puppy, they shared his cute photos on their website, they added fun captions to the photos to bring a smile to their readers’ faces, and generally, they were having fun whilst loving and appreciating their dog.
The view count for the website rose as more people wanted to check back in and follow this sweet dog and feel uplifted by the photos and words on the website. The owners set up a facebook fan page which today has over 7000 fans, and every other day the owners post a cute photo with fun caption of Augie and their second golden retriever, Ti.
Fans started asking where they could get photos of Augie and Ti that they could keep around the house, and the owners found a website, Zazzle where they could sell postcards, cards, posters, calendars and other products featuring their doggies. In 2011, Augie Doggy Store was set up on Zazzle and within 2 years, the owners had sailed past the esteemed “proseller” category, straight into “bronze proseller” due to their exceptional sales. Usually people only achieve “bronze proseller” status once they have around 30,000 or more products in their store but AugieDoggyStore did it with only about 100 products in theirs!
What started out as appreciating and loving their pets, ended up being a way of earning a nice stream of income too. To me, this story’s message is that when you’re following your fun and loving what you do, you attract people who love and appreciate what you do, and who even want to pay you for it! You can end up making a living from what you love even if it wasn’t your initial intention. I loved this story. 
Here are some of my personal favorite items from the Augie Doggy Store:
Inspirational Story #2
How a joy of making art ended up being a way of earning a living
Ever since she could remember, Sarah loved drawing. Alongside her joy of art, she was also a very talented student at school and her teachers encouraged her to make use of her good brain by choosing a route like Medicine or Law. Trusting her mentors, Sarah settled on the Medical route and left her love of art as a hobby, However, she didn’t really love the idea of working in a hospital or doctor’s surgery, though she felt it was the “right” choice since she’d be helping people, even saving lives, and that seemed like good justification to continue along this route.
After getting all her qualifications, Sarah worked for a year or two in Medicine. Every day she found herself stressed and generally not enjoying herself. She concluded that this job, no matter how honorable, just wasn’t for her.
She quit her job and felt lost. What now? All she’d ever studied seriously was Medicine – what else was she qualified to do to earn a living? Whilst mulling over this question, Sarah relaxed as she often did, by drawing. One day a thought popped into her mind: I wonder if I could sell my art as a means of making money until I figure out what I want to do…
A quick internet search revealed several websites where amateur artists could put their artwork on t-shirts, mugs, postcards and other products. Sarah joined Cafepress, Zazzle, Spreadshirt and a few others and started adding her artwork there. She so enjoyed seeing what her artwork looked like on products – it looked so professional! Soon she was making drawings especially made to suit a particular product, and she was having a lot of fun!
Making no progress on figuring out another line of work, Sarah focused her attention on her art completely and within about 6 months, money started rolling in from her artistic efforts. Within 2 years, Sarah was earning more from her artwork than her first entry level job in Medicine. AND she was doing something she enjoyed and found stress-free. Sarah now considers herself a professional graphic designer and artist despite not having any qualifications in this field and to this day she continues to joyfully draw and create like she’s done since she was a little girl, only now she also earns a living from doing it!