New Hobby, New Opportunity

My friend has been unemployed for about six months. And without the regular schedule that a typical 9-to-5 offered, she often found herself unoccupied. She is a PR diva, so she figured that this period of joblessness would allow her to focus on her passions and strengths as a writer. It did. She started working with clients and crafting PR capabilities presentations for them. She sealed a few deals and was moving in the right direction. But she hit another lull when the work started to decrease.

Used to being an active, always on the move, schedule always full person, my friend didn’t know exactly what to do with herself and all of this idle time. She tried reading books, writing and pitching articles and catching every newly released movie. These all helped but proved only to be temporarily solutions to fill her time. So, her mind would drift periodically and focus on boy drama or the overall stress of her situation.

Then one day, my friend dug out some old paint that she had tucked away in her closet. She figured she would start painting again, something she hadn’t done for nearly five years. But instead of painting on canvas, she decided she wanted to try her hand at painting wooden bangles. She did, and a new hobby was born!!!!

Her new hobby not only serves as another creative outlet for her, but it also fills her idle time and provides an opportunity for some cashflow. That’s right, my friend decided to sell her bangles on Etsy, an online community for crafters.

My friend is so committed to her new hobby. We recently met up at Borders to hang out. She was wearing two of her bangles and had a bag full of other ones in her purse ready to sell. Sound silly? Not at all, she almost sold one off her wrist to this little old white lady in the store.

Moral of the story: opportunities are everywhere—sometimes they just need to be discovered and coupled with a little hustle.

*****CLICK HERE to check out her bangles!!!