What do you think?
Rate this book
Do The Work You Love
Taking the reader on a journey from discovering a marketable passion to generating an income from it, this book is a practical guide to tackling one of the key questions of our how to make a living doing the thing you love.
Aimed at all those who want their work to be fun and fulfilling, and who feel they might have a unique gift or message to share with the world, this is an amazingly effective guide to making money doing what you love. It is the only book to take readers through the whole process of creating an income from a passion, identifying which interest they could monetize, choosing a bespoke path and learning how to become an expert in their chosen field.
Part 1 explains how to discover a marketable passion with the help of the Dream Job Chart, which guides you in assessing your business ideas, skills and the causes you are passionate about. Once you have clarity on your passion, Part 2 describes the three possible paths to creating an income from it, offering inspiring examples of both famous and everyday people who have successfully followed each path. The Adventurer's Path is for those of a braver disposition and with few family commitments. The Strategist's Path is for those with patience, flexibility and a lower tolerance for risk. The Grinder's Path is for those who feel a need to continue with their present work while also pursuing their dream. Finally, Part 3 explores the four stages to becoming an expert in your chosen field, so that people will pay you for your skill or product. Along the way you will Why bad luck can't stop you the right time to quit your job how to use freelancing or consultancy to help you reach your goal how to make progress with your passion even if you are working full-time what to do if you're over 50 and want to create an income from your passion and much, much more!
Aimed at all those who want their work to be fun and fulfilling, and who feel they might have a unique gift or message to share with the world, this is an amazingly effective guide to making money doing what you love. It is the only book to take readers through the whole process of creating an income from a passion, identifying which interest they could monetize, choosing a bespoke path and learning how to become an expert in their chosen field.
Part 1 explains how to discover a marketable passion with the help of the Dream Job Chart, which guides you in assessing your business ideas, skills and the causes you are passionate about. Once you have clarity on your passion, Part 2 describes the three possible paths to creating an income from it, offering inspiring examples of both famous and everyday people who have successfully followed each path. The Adventurer's Path is for those of a braver disposition and with few family commitments. The Strategist's Path is for those with patience, flexibility and a lower tolerance for risk. The Grinder's Path is for those who feel a need to continue with their present work while also pursuing their dream. Finally, Part 3 explores the four stages to becoming an expert in your chosen field, so that people will pay you for your skill or product. Along the way you will Why bad luck can't stop you the right time to quit your job how to use freelancing or consultancy to help you reach your goal how to make progress with your passion even if you are working full-time what to do if you're over 50 and want to create an income from your passion and much, much more!
256 pages, paperback
Published February 11, 2020
7 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Joe Barnes
4 books7 followersJoe Barnes is the author of the book, Escape The System, and due to be released in February 2020 through Watkins Media, Do The Work You Love. He is also a speaker, giving talks at various personal development groups throughout London and running his own group, Success Club, which meets every month.
Joe also works as a tennis coach and hypnotherapist and has done so for over 15 years. Since leaving university (Manchester, Politics), he's walked a far from conventional path. He follows his inspiration, rather than making decisions based on financial considerations or what society deems acceptable. Using the experiences this life philosophy brings, he then writes books and coaches people on how to make a living from their passion and live their dreams.
He also runs a popular website, https://www.escapethesystemnow.com/ where he blogs on the mind-set, practical tips and tools, inspiration and rebellious spirit needed to escape the system and live the life you want. You might also want to check out his YouTube channel 1350 Days. Here, he documents his journey to becoming a best-selling author with updates every Monday and Thursday. .
Show Less
Joe also works as a tennis coach and hypnotherapist and has done so for over 15 years. Since leaving university (Manchester, Politics), he's walked a far from conventional path. He follows his inspiration, rather than making decisions based on financial considerations or what society deems acceptable. Using the experiences this life philosophy brings, he then writes books and coaches people on how to make a living from their passion and live their dreams.
He also runs a popular website, https://www.escapethesystemnow.com/ where he blogs on the mind-set, practical tips and tools, inspiration and rebellious spirit needed to escape the system and live the life you want. You might also want to check out his YouTube channel 1350 Days. Here, he documents his journey to becoming a best-selling author with updates every Monday and Thursday. .
Show Less
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 12, 2020
I really enjoyed this book and got so much from it. Firstly my friend is debating her options in going back to work and thinking about the dream job table & what her passions are it helped her think about some options for work she’d never considered before.
For me I got most out of the 3 options of actually working on the business. One of the appealing things about the book is it isn’t a get rich quick book. There’s honesty in this which helps the authenticity. Sometimes you read these books and yeah they’re multi-millionaire businessmen but it doesn’t fit with little old me who is looking at how to get early retirement from the day job and yet be doing enjoyable things that will either supplement a pension or give an enjoyable second career choice. The author talks of how it took him a long time to be where he is and one of the three options covers the route he took. It’s also the closest one to what my original thinking was for my own ideas so it really resonated. There’s a section at the end of the book that covers starting businesses at 20+. 30+ and 40+ which again lets me know the book is written by someone who hasn’t lost touched with the average person on a journey.
I ended up with confirmation of what I want to do, lots of ideas on the how and even a couple of advertising ideas. My journal is overflowing with notes.
If you are thinking of turning something you love into paid work then this book will give you so much in how to do that. Highly recommended.
For me I got most out of the 3 options of actually working on the business. One of the appealing things about the book is it isn’t a get rich quick book. There’s honesty in this which helps the authenticity. Sometimes you read these books and yeah they’re multi-millionaire businessmen but it doesn’t fit with little old me who is looking at how to get early retirement from the day job and yet be doing enjoyable things that will either supplement a pension or give an enjoyable second career choice. The author talks of how it took him a long time to be where he is and one of the three options covers the route he took. It’s also the closest one to what my original thinking was for my own ideas so it really resonated. There’s a section at the end of the book that covers starting businesses at 20+. 30+ and 40+ which again lets me know the book is written by someone who hasn’t lost touched with the average person on a journey.
I ended up with confirmation of what I want to do, lots of ideas on the how and even a couple of advertising ideas. My journal is overflowing with notes.
If you are thinking of turning something you love into paid work then this book will give you so much in how to do that. Highly recommended.
November 18, 2020
If your job is boring or you are burning out and want to do the work you love, I would recommend you read this book. There are three interesting paths you can follow.
March 24, 2020
Many people will spend their entire lives at uninspiring jobs wishing they could be somewhere else doing something they love. Joe Barnes shows them the way out by offering sound strategies anyone can use to break free from their unsatisfying careers and make a living doing what they love.
The book is highly practical and well researched including many examples of people who successfully design their own career path. Add to that the personal experience from the author and you have a winning formula for a book that could help countless people finally design the career they deserve and live the life they want.
The book is highly practical and well researched including many examples of people who successfully design their own career path. Add to that the personal experience from the author and you have a winning formula for a book that could help countless people finally design the career they deserve and live the life they want.
October 12, 2020
Do the work you love is Joe Barnes’ second book, released shortly after his first one titled Escape the System, where the author gave a detailed description of the system that is holding us back from achieving our dreams, and also explained the nature of its potentially stifling power over us, but only if we let it...
He follows it up by providing encouragement to his readers through real-life inspirational examples of famous individuals and others from different walks of life who have successfully escaped the system of a dreary boring and uninspiring life to pursue the life of their dreams.
In his second book Do the work you love, which can be viewed as a sequel to his first book, the author provides us in the opening chapter with a very useful Dream job chart. This chart is a great tool to help us identify and rank our passions. It helps bring clarity to our life choices and makes it easy for us to decide which professional activities to pursue in priority among competing choices.
More importantly, Joe Barnes provides us with a great service by subsequently outlining three concrete strategies on how to actually break out of the system to pursue our passions and attain the life of our dreams. He provides useful and immediately actionable blueprints, and as such, he becomes our own personal coach supporting us through our journey, as well as being an entertaining and optimistic writer packing his book with many entertaining examples of people who have changed their destinies through utilising these strategies.
The three avenues outlined by the author for us are the adventurer’s path, the strategist path and the grinder’s path.
The adventurer’s path is the boldest among them, and contains the greatest risk as it involves quitting our job immediately by jumping head first into the wild ocean in pursuit of our passion! Meanwhile, the strategist path takes a more gradual approach, advocating the gradual phasing out of our main professional activity in parallel with concomitant increase in the time we commit towards pursuing our passion before switching full-time to it. Finally, the grinder’s path is the slowest and the most prudent of all the three strategies, and will involve grinding it out at our main job for a sustained period of time and using whatever extra time we have left to work on our passion, and only quit when it is safe to do so before finally committing fully to our chosen path.
Each of these three paths offers its own unique set of advantages and drawbacks. The one we end up selecting will obviously depend on our own individual circumstances and challenges as well as our personality profile and risk tolerance. There is no best path or no magical formula.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for ideas and concrete strategies on breaking out of the rut of a dull, uninspiring life and making their most cherished dreams come true.
Thank you Joe Barnes! Keep on giving us hope.
He follows it up by providing encouragement to his readers through real-life inspirational examples of famous individuals and others from different walks of life who have successfully escaped the system of a dreary boring and uninspiring life to pursue the life of their dreams.
In his second book Do the work you love, which can be viewed as a sequel to his first book, the author provides us in the opening chapter with a very useful Dream job chart. This chart is a great tool to help us identify and rank our passions. It helps bring clarity to our life choices and makes it easy for us to decide which professional activities to pursue in priority among competing choices.
More importantly, Joe Barnes provides us with a great service by subsequently outlining three concrete strategies on how to actually break out of the system to pursue our passions and attain the life of our dreams. He provides useful and immediately actionable blueprints, and as such, he becomes our own personal coach supporting us through our journey, as well as being an entertaining and optimistic writer packing his book with many entertaining examples of people who have changed their destinies through utilising these strategies.
The three avenues outlined by the author for us are the adventurer’s path, the strategist path and the grinder’s path.
The adventurer’s path is the boldest among them, and contains the greatest risk as it involves quitting our job immediately by jumping head first into the wild ocean in pursuit of our passion! Meanwhile, the strategist path takes a more gradual approach, advocating the gradual phasing out of our main professional activity in parallel with concomitant increase in the time we commit towards pursuing our passion before switching full-time to it. Finally, the grinder’s path is the slowest and the most prudent of all the three strategies, and will involve grinding it out at our main job for a sustained period of time and using whatever extra time we have left to work on our passion, and only quit when it is safe to do so before finally committing fully to our chosen path.
Each of these three paths offers its own unique set of advantages and drawbacks. The one we end up selecting will obviously depend on our own individual circumstances and challenges as well as our personality profile and risk tolerance. There is no best path or no magical formula.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for ideas and concrete strategies on breaking out of the rut of a dull, uninspiring life and making their most cherished dreams come true.
Thank you Joe Barnes! Keep on giving us hope.
August 5, 2021
Do The Work You Love: How To Create An Income Without Working A Boring Job.
5 stars!
Let’s face it. Nobody likes working for The Man. But in a capitalist society, a steady source of income is essential. Working in a factory or corporate setting is like making a deal with the devil. In exchange for a steady paycheck, you must give up control of all your waking hours, which leads to crappy diets, crappy attitudes, crappy relationships, crappy entertainment resulting in crappy health, culminating in a crappy life.
What’s worse, you are expected to give up your values, self esteem and very identity to fit into the workplace. The end result is a hollowed out version of yourself whose creativity and vitality have been worn down by time and corporate conditioning.
No wonder you aren’t happy with yourself and your circumstances.
But fear not, there is a better way forward. A roadmap, in the form of a short self help book, by best selling author Joe Barnes.
In DO THE WORK YOU LOVE, you will learn detailed strategies to break away from being a corporate drone and how to follow your passions to create a independent income stream and be the person you were destined to be.
This book is chock full of real world examples of people who’ve been in your shoes. People who desired and transitioned to a better, freer, more rewarding work life.
What’s more, there’s even a job chart included within the book to help the reader narrow down which of their various passions or interests to pursue.
Along with the 3 pathways (Adventurer’s, Strategist’s and Grinder’s) to getting paid to do the work you love and how to become an expert at your chosen craft. In my opinion, this was the BEST part of the book.
Finally, the author ends by guiding the reader on how to know when to take the leap and finally quit your job for good.
Do your future self a huge favor and buy this book TODAY!
5 stars!
Let’s face it. Nobody likes working for The Man. But in a capitalist society, a steady source of income is essential. Working in a factory or corporate setting is like making a deal with the devil. In exchange for a steady paycheck, you must give up control of all your waking hours, which leads to crappy diets, crappy attitudes, crappy relationships, crappy entertainment resulting in crappy health, culminating in a crappy life.
What’s worse, you are expected to give up your values, self esteem and very identity to fit into the workplace. The end result is a hollowed out version of yourself whose creativity and vitality have been worn down by time and corporate conditioning.
No wonder you aren’t happy with yourself and your circumstances.
But fear not, there is a better way forward. A roadmap, in the form of a short self help book, by best selling author Joe Barnes.
In DO THE WORK YOU LOVE, you will learn detailed strategies to break away from being a corporate drone and how to follow your passions to create a independent income stream and be the person you were destined to be.
This book is chock full of real world examples of people who’ve been in your shoes. People who desired and transitioned to a better, freer, more rewarding work life.
What’s more, there’s even a job chart included within the book to help the reader narrow down which of their various passions or interests to pursue.
Along with the 3 pathways (Adventurer’s, Strategist’s and Grinder’s) to getting paid to do the work you love and how to become an expert at your chosen craft. In my opinion, this was the BEST part of the book.
Finally, the author ends by guiding the reader on how to know when to take the leap and finally quit your job for good.
Do your future self a huge favor and buy this book TODAY!
November 9, 2020
This book is a manual for any individual with a strong passion, and a desire to make something of it. Are you tired of working a job where you don't feel valued, rewarded or that your work's appreciated? Where you struggle to relate to your peers and superiors, especially when they waffle on about trivial corporate matters? Where you'd, quite frankly, rather be somewhere else, doing something that actually matters to you? Then "Do The Work You Love" is for you.
The book is split into three parts, all designed to take you through the entire process of cementing your "dream", picking a path to get there, and ultimately succeeding, becoming an expert authority in your chosen field in the process. I found Part Two particularly interesting; here, you will decide for yourself whether you should a.) pack your job in and go full-time on your passion, b.) reduce your working hours and build up your passion on the side, or c.) retain your current hours, and build up your passion on the side. I myself have opted for category B. The good news is, all three routes will get you there.
Having spoken at informal, after-work meetups and corporate events alike, Joe is a seasoned authority and source of inspiration in the field of self-help and personal development. In that sense, "Do The Work You Love" will appeal to entrepreneurs of almost all areas of interest, from the artist to the architect.
The book is split into three parts, all designed to take you through the entire process of cementing your "dream", picking a path to get there, and ultimately succeeding, becoming an expert authority in your chosen field in the process. I found Part Two particularly interesting; here, you will decide for yourself whether you should a.) pack your job in and go full-time on your passion, b.) reduce your working hours and build up your passion on the side, or c.) retain your current hours, and build up your passion on the side. I myself have opted for category B. The good news is, all three routes will get you there.
Having spoken at informal, after-work meetups and corporate events alike, Joe is a seasoned authority and source of inspiration in the field of self-help and personal development. In that sense, "Do The Work You Love" will appeal to entrepreneurs of almost all areas of interest, from the artist to the architect.
August 13, 2024
Practical and pragmatic advice as a foundation for exploring new and more personally aligned careers.
I wouldn't use this as the only book to help one map a new career path, but it could be an excellent book to get the ball rolling and stimulate the inner world to start the process of ideas creation.
I think combining this book with other career mind expanding books, and books that more thoroughly help one to navigate their own potential drives, skills, talents and desires would be very beneficial.
I'd recommend The Pathfinder by Nicholas Lore (a through program of self discovery and cataloguing ones strengths, interests, ideas)
Strength Finder 2.0 - Tom Rath (this book emphasizes that you should find and focus on your innate abilities rather than trying to develop your weaknesses... Identify who you are against a set of 34 strength themes).
Unscripted & Millionaire Fastlane by DeMarco (not great titles, but the books are about creating your own business opportunities; they are excellent for expanding your mind on potential opportunities).
I wouldn't use this as the only book to help one map a new career path, but it could be an excellent book to get the ball rolling and stimulate the inner world to start the process of ideas creation.
I think combining this book with other career mind expanding books, and books that more thoroughly help one to navigate their own potential drives, skills, talents and desires would be very beneficial.
I'd recommend The Pathfinder by Nicholas Lore (a through program of self discovery and cataloguing ones strengths, interests, ideas)
Strength Finder 2.0 - Tom Rath (this book emphasizes that you should find and focus on your innate abilities rather than trying to develop your weaknesses... Identify who you are against a set of 34 strength themes).
Unscripted & Millionaire Fastlane by DeMarco (not great titles, but the books are about creating your own business opportunities; they are excellent for expanding your mind on potential opportunities).
July 6, 2024
Expanded from a blog, this optimistic, sometimes angsty manual for making money from your passion feels more like a memoir/justification of the author’s own pathway to publishing.
The examples are often narrowly drawn from his own experience (tennis coaching, hypnotherapy, life coaching), and the pop psychology underpinning some of his ideas is minimal. The “10,000 hours” borrowing from Gladwell needed bolstering from other research.
On at least three occasions, he references a survey that says 81% of workers are unhappy with their jobs.
Barnes aggressively rejects the drudgery of UK office work and implies that the world’s population would be happier with a minimal income if that incomes was derived by one’s passion.
A few extended vignettes (Arnold Schwarzenegger) help him exemplify his points, but overall, the book could have remained a newsletter or blog.
The examples are often narrowly drawn from his own experience (tennis coaching, hypnotherapy, life coaching), and the pop psychology underpinning some of his ideas is minimal. The “10,000 hours” borrowing from Gladwell needed bolstering from other research.
On at least three occasions, he references a survey that says 81% of workers are unhappy with their jobs.
Barnes aggressively rejects the drudgery of UK office work and implies that the world’s population would be happier with a minimal income if that incomes was derived by one’s passion.
A few extended vignettes (Arnold Schwarzenegger) help him exemplify his points, but overall, the book could have remained a newsletter or blog.
April 4, 2024
It's very easy to be skeptical about books like this. It's so easy just do this amazing job that meets your passion, values, values work life balance etc.
However this is actually a sensible book with pragmatic ideas for how to meet your goals and get a carreer you would enjoy.
Talks about balancing it with your current job and finding time (whilst avoiding burnout) to achieve your goals.
For me I'd like more on finding what carreer you'd like to do and definitely would be space to add these sections.
However this is actually a sensible book with pragmatic ideas for how to meet your goals and get a carreer you would enjoy.
Talks about balancing it with your current job and finding time (whilst avoiding burnout) to achieve your goals.
For me I'd like more on finding what carreer you'd like to do and definitely would be space to add these sections.
April 16, 2024
An excellent read for anyone seeking to rediscover their passion and master a skill. The "Dream Job Chart" is a crucial first step in identifying our passion, mastering it, and the opportunity to monetize it. I'm anticipating Joe's next book.
January 25, 2020
Dream job chart starts off the book to help you decide/guide to what you would want to do. Ways to get results and real-life examples. Three different ways so the reader could find a way to move to what to do.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews