In today’s world, the word ‘career’ generally is taken to imply the principal type of remunerative work we perform throughout our adult lives. When considering the broader course of human history, the very idea of a career has only surfaced in recent centuries; a curiosity, or aberration if you will, that only reared its head since the founding of major corporations.

With the continual development of telecommunications and resulting decentralization of workforces, who know how long it will continue to exist. If you are honest with yourself, you will see that all ‘career’ ultimately describes is our progression through a list of skills and opportunities someone else has made available to us, where someone else is telling us where we fit in, and what our value is.

I always thought it interesting that ‘care’ was in the word career. It is as if these corporations have agreed to take care of us during our working life. They have agreed to baby sit us, so we do not make decisions, progress in our own time or decide our own value. Apparently we cannot be trusted with our own development and cannot be trusted to measure our own worth. This is why we need our ‘carers’ to map our way and only let us proceed when they believe we are worthwhile (and when they can afford it, and only if they can find another person to fill our current role)

No wonder so many people are dissatisfied with their jobs. Its all work, its all someone else’s decisions, its all for someone else’s goals, and its all building someone else’s life. Yet so many people talk about career as if its the most important thing in their life.

I remember back to when I was a child: being babysat on the evenings when my parents would go out was never my favorite moment; what really got me going was getting to go outside to play with friends and siblings. What changes so drastically for that no longer to be the case as adults? At what point do we resign ourselves to letting someone else determine our value and degree of success? Why do we choose to yield the driver’s wheel to another? What on earth convinces us that having a ‘career’ is so incredibly important?

‘Making a living’, now that’s more talking my language. I’m not sure if you noticed, but the term is simply about life. And that’s what careerists often forget I think. We are on this earth to live. Not to be babysat. We are here to learn our own lessons, in our own time. We are here to experience, grow and love. We are here to find and define our own value, not have someone do it for us. That is what making a living is about, its making life.

And that is the thing that I really love about internet marketing. Sure, you need to learn some skills for writing successful webpages, optimizing on the search engines and the like, but they are just technical skills which anyone can learn.

The main thing I love about making a living on the internet though is that the only type of business that works on the internet, are businesses about things you are passionate about. The reason is simple. Every topic in the world carries to some degree, its own language. It is only when you are passionate about a topic that you will understand this language. It is only when you know this language that you will be able to reach the people who share your passion and sell them the real value you have to offer. This, for better or worse, is the internet way.

All of which is what makes this industry so wonderful: success can only be found after one finds a passion. And it is in that sense that I consider myself to be somebody making a living, not pursuing a career. My work is my passion–even including writing this article. I no longer have the early morning blues, that contempt for having to get up in the morning to go into the office, instead I leap from the bed with energy for the new day. No more of the worrying about ‘making it’ in the typical rat race. I measure my own success based on my own creations, how they enable me to support myself, and the lifestyle (rich in family time) I get to live.

In light of all this, I could never see myself working in a different field.

As a recent father, Damian Papworth recognizes the constant battle for time, which rages between his career and his home. He always endeavors to invent a way to improve family life. Recently he researched baby high chairs, doing some specific analysis of portable high chairs.

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