Quick: which sport is more popular, golf or fishing? If you picked fishing, you're right. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, people who fish outnumber golfers two to one. 

Anglers enjoy the sport so much that last year they spent a whopping $40 billion dollars.

That got me thinking about an article I read few years back in Entrepreneur magazine about a nuclear physicist who lost his job in a lay-off. 

He could have hunted for employment in his "field," but instead entered the entrepreneurial program run by the state of New York's unemployment office. 

An avid fisherman, the guy now runs a mail order fishing tackle business and leads fly fishing expeditions in South America.

Then there's Ted and Barbara Lefkowitz. The couple peddle's adventure on wheels from their log cabin in the picturesque hills of Conway, Massachusetts.

Their company, Student Hosteling Program, sets up bike trips throughout New England, Nova Scotia, cross-country and throughout Europe. While Barbara, 53 and Ted, 57, no longer lead tours themselves, over the last 29 years they've put some 12,000 teens on wheels.

Think you might want a piece of the exploding adventure travel market? Sign up for the Adventure Travel Society's popular How to Sell Adventure Travel seminar. For more information, check out this association at adventuretravel.com

There's still plenty of creative alternatives to working 9-to-5 that don't involve live bait or mosquitoes.

What if you're a lover of the arts but you're not artistically inclined? You could always do what Jeff Hayward did and conduct research for museums.

His firm, People, Places & Design Research in my own hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts gauges audience reaction to exhibits for museums and other interpretive institutions, such as aquariums, historical societies, parks and botanical gardens.

Museum research isn't the only way to make a living from the great indoors.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal profiled another creative self-bosser, niche publisher, Robert McFarland. 

Working from the mountain hamlet of Jefferson, North Carolina, Mr. McFarland has built a profitable career printing unusual titles that big publishers wouldn't touch, like The Condom Industry in the United States and Unsold Television Pilots (which USA Today hailed as "a must-browse").

Indoors or out, opportunities abound. If a special dream is calling you, isn't it time you heed your inner summons?

   ~ ~ ~

Reprinted with permission from the Changing Course newsletter; copyright 1999

Former cubicle-dweller Valerie Young happily traded panty hose for sweat pants when she launched Changing Course - a bimonthly newsletter for people who want to live life on purpose, work at what they love, and follow their own road.

~~~~

Barbara Sher, best-selling author of Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was and, It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now calls Changing Course, "a wonderful, inspired and informative newsletter."

~ ~ ~