By The Hour

For as long as I can remember, I thought the goal was simple: work for myself, make a living doing something I love, and have control over my time. And I’ve done that. No boss. No office. No punching of the clock.

But the more I do this, the more I see the trap I’ve built. I make most of my money as an hourly wage based on the hours I move stones around. There’s no leverage in that. I haven’t built a business, I’ve built a job. If I don’t move those stones around, I don’t get paid. I can decide when and where I work, but I’m still locked into the same equation: an hour of labor for a fixed dollar amount.

I love stonework. I don’t just want to keep doing it, I want to keep learning and getting better at it. And I want to do it on my terms.

Maybe that means taking a break from stonework during the long cold winters and working on other types of creative projects.

Maybe that means having weeks or months away from stonework between large projects to focus on other creative endeavors.

Maybe it means laying stones 3 or 4 days a week and exercising other creative muscles with that newfound time.

I don’t know how this is going to play out yet. Or even what, exactly, I want to do with that “other” time. Work? Yes. Definitely. But on what?

Something that doesn’t pay by the hour.