Custom Frame builder, Brian Chapman, on working towards what you love to do. Lots of great little bits in there but here are some highlights.
"The eight secrets to making a living as a custom framebuilder (you ready?): Paint your own bikes, live at your shop, eat ramen with peanut butter, learn to lay a perfect fillet, be nice, ride often, cut up your credit cards, meet delivery dates. That's about all there is to it... sort of."
Thoughts on this: first of all, you can sub in anything for "framebuilder," same goes for the specific tasks of his trade for the tasks specific to yours. You have to be good at what you do and live it, cut out the rest. Live simply and kick ass at your thing.
On working for himself:
"It feels like a fake job sometimes. I suppose we should all be doing something we love but when it finally happens, it feels wrong. It feel like I'm cheating the system. I had to make a lot of sacrifices to get here though. That's what life is about though, right?"
Finally, as a daily biker, I love this:
"I am also a firm believer in plain clothes riding. Not entirely anti-lycra but it has to be a long ride before I'm in a full kit. I really just want more people on bikes, custom or not. Looking like an alien with flashy colors racing down the street just contributes to the 'us vs. them' / 'car vs. bike' mentality on the streets. From personal experience, I find that I get more respect from drivers if I follow the rules of the road and am wearing jeans and a T-shirt."