In another life...your alternate career paths

[cigcars]

3 hours ago, Nekhyludov said:

Astronaut. I'm middle aged, 15 lbs. overweight, and smoke too many cigars, but I still apply for the astronaut training program when it opens every four years 

      *Have you heard about this offer from some German company to persons willing to volunteer - of course at the pay of $18,000- to test staying immobile - absolutely immobile for about 18 months in a simulated rocket ship? You can stretch your legs and arms...you just can't get up and move around...for 18 months straight. It's supposedly for the purpose of testing people for the future flight(s) to Mars; and it will take an 18 month time period to reach from Earth.

[kalibratecuba]

I always thought that one day I'd be a lumberjack, with my best girl by my side.

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[Jal154]

Criminal defense attorney. OR.......actor. Pretty much the same! ?

[SigmundChurchill]

I always wanted to be a builder.  When we built our house in NJ, and our beach house in NY, I got really involved in the process.

Whenever I retire from medicine, I still plan to give it a shot.

[prodigy]

I wanted to be a pilot. I came really close to going back into the military after getting my degree. Thankfully, commen sense kicked in before I signed any paperwork. I'd still like to do it some day.

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[xelzh]

Crown prince of Saudi?

[Cubadust]

I really love my work as a graphic designer and artist and wouldn't change it for the world. But for the sake of "if you had to" I wouldn't mind being a high end chef.

[La_Tigre]

I would walk the Earth, meet people and get into adventures...

[El Presidente]

International gem dealer. 

Hotel Lobbies, cigars, champagne, wine, whiskey, travel, subterfuge, lies, beauty, laughs, tears. 

Pretty much like cigars. 

[Fuzz]

I'd go back to my first real job as a purveyor of perversion. Met a lot of "interesting" people.

[El Presidente]

5 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

I'd go back to my first real job as a purveyor of perversion. Met a lot of "interesting" people.

pre Di....I would like to have been your partner 

[Fuzz]

12 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

pre Di....I would like to have been your partner 

Yep, definitely not a DAA.

[Homer]

I am ENT surgeon but my childhood dream was to be train driver or pilot (airline).

[Ken Gargett]

On 9/25/2019 at 3:54 AM, SenorPerfecto said:

I'm pretty sure I was Ken in another life, and I'm paying for it now.

then how come i am also paying for it?

[Ken Gargett]

i suppose i did have the alternate career as a lawyer. got to work in sydney, london and DC which was all fabulous. never made any money as spent it all on wine, chasing women (largely, a waste of time and of the money) and travel. 

before that, wanted to be a zookeeper. wanted to be the next gerald durrell. 

[Frozen North]

I own an insurance brokerage company, been at it 27 years. I’d love to be a cabinetmaker.

[SenorPerfecto]

18 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

then how come i am also paying for it?

I guess Karma really is a bitch?

[Yellot00tr]

I was in finance for years. It was financially rewarding, but so stressful. Burnout quickly. When you’re managing huge portfolios it’s not much fun.

[Meklown]

Probably unemployed by now .. I had aspired to be a pilot, and it was still a realistic option but I ended up signing up for an accounting decree.

[joeypots]

I make pottery. In the right company I refer to my self as a ceramic artist. I've pulled this off for more than 30 years and with my wife we've done well. If I had listened to anything but the voice in my head that said, "You better give this all you have now or you're going to spend the rest of your life wondering if you could have done it."I would have lived a life of regret. I went with the passion first and tried to ignore the practical advice. It wasn't easy in the beginning, but what is? I am one of the lucky ones and I don't spend much time thinking what if.

[cfc1016]

On 9/24/2019 at 7:08 PM, kalibratecuba said:

I always thought that one day I'd be a lumberjack, with my best girl by my side.

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Oddly enough, I've recently stumbled into effectively becoming a free-lance lumberjack ? I sing Monty Python while the chainsaw saves passers by from the pain of my serenades.

On 9/24/2019 at 9:20 PM, SigmundChurchill said:

I always wanted to be a builder.  When we built our house in NJ, and our beach house in NY, I got really involved in the process.

Whenever I retire from medicine, I still plan to give it a shot.

I spent a number of years building/remodeling other people's houses for them. It's definitely more fulfilling to build something fkr yourself.

On 9/25/2019 at 9:36 PM, Ken Gargett said:

i suppose i did have the alternate career as a lawyer. got to work in sydney, london and DC which was all fabulous. never made any money as spent it all on wine, chasing women (largely, a waste of time and of the money) and travel. 

before that, wanted to be a zookeeper. wanted to be the next gerald durrell. 

My two earliest career obsessions were, oddly, litigator and evolutionary biologist.

I come from a family of attorneys, and my father was a writer, who enforced a strict "King's English Only" rule for in house conversations. I took to debate from an early age. The Aussie tv program 'Rake' is effectively a glimpse into an alternate timeline of my life. Not only does the lead actor basically look like my doppelganger, but the character perfectly mirrors all the intricacies and nuances of my innate behavioral patterns (yes, I am a gratefully recovering rake). If I hadn't stumbled into certain fungal influences in my late teens (which spurred my hippie wanderer life phase) I just may have ended up an american version of Cleaver Greene.

I had a lifelong obsession with the animal Gulo gulo (the wolverine), and wanted to perform the first intemsive long term population dynamics study on the species. This would've required my pursuit of a phd in evolutionary biology, and ~25 years living rough in the Alaskan wilderness. None of that deterred me. It was the realization that the life of a career scientist is fundamentally constrained by the process of grant acquisitions, which ultimately shattered the dream. Too much politics and sales, for my liking.

Instead, I worked a slew of different jobs, from landscaper, to lifeguard, to chimney sweep, to professional driver, to heavy forklift operator (25ton) and industrial glazier (i built the ballistic-proof window system for the NIH haz-mat comtainment facility, the IADB conference center, DHS joint base tenleytown, etc etc), to cabin builder. All of those jobs were just to fund my real life, which happened 'off the clock'. Only now, am I actually following a "career" path which is in line with my personal goals.

Much like joeypots, I'm now following the passion, in spite of the practicalities. Building a holistic lifestyle around pursuing my interest in Woodworking. I'm doing sustainable forestry, to mill my own specialty lumber (and sell the rest to other builders). Building a professional-capacity woodworking shop in my basement (so I can build things like the Fibonacci-inspired humidor cabinet I referenced in another post, as well as Nakashima-inspired furniture). Building other small projects (whether for fun or by commission) like my recent ashtrays, to keep the creative juices flowing, during the long process of building the holistic business. I have to walk through my shop every morning when I get out of bed, before I can pour a cuppa coffee and start my day. I'm constantly surrounded by the manifestations of the dream,  so that I never lose sight of it. Hopefully in years to come, I'll have built pieces of art and furniture which embody my nuanced perception of the deeper-level universal phenomena that so fascinate me, and which will long outlive my feeble corporeal body. ?

[NicPac]

I love what I do currently. I’m a landscape contractor. We specialize in higher end residential projects. I love that I give people outdoor living space for them to create memories with their loved ones on. I really enjoy that I get to be super creative on most projects. I’m also really passionate about natural stone. I believe there is something really special about taking raw stone from the earth and using the hand of man to shape it into something beautiful and useful for my clients. 
 

If I was to do something else it would be one of two thing. One would be to become a golf course architect with a design/build firm. Either working on golden age renovations/restorations or creating new or restoring old links. The other would be a golf course developer similar to Mike Keiser. Developing timeless golf properties, not golf courses that were built to sell real estate. 

[Duxnutz]

Contemplating this now. Day job (airline pilot), thinking about getting into being an electrician/some kinda trade or opening my own business. 

Many smart folks on this thread, whom I’d love to share a cigar with. ?

[FOHrty9er]

16 hours ago, NicPac said:

I love what I do currently. I’m a landscape contractor. We specialize in higher end residential projects. I love that I give people outdoor living space for them to create memories with their loved ones on. I really enjoy that I get to be super creative on most projects. I’m also really passionate about natural stone. I believe there is something really special about taking raw stone from the earth and using the hand of man to shape it into something beautiful and useful for my clients. 
 

If I was to do something else it would be one of two thing. One would be to become a golf course architect with a design/build firm. Either working on golden age renovations/restorations or creating new or restoring old links. The other would be a golf course developer similar to Mike Keiser. Developing timeless golf properties, not golf courses that were built to sell real estate. 

Same here my friend!  The economic downturn of '08 turned us into a large landscape care provider, but design/build got us started and will always be my passion.  I always said if I could control the weather I would be a rich man.  For that reason, I would have been a meteorologist in an alternate life.   

 

Great question BTW, to the OP.

[NicPac]

6 hours ago, FOHrty9er said:

Same here my friend!  The economic downturn of '08 turned us into a large landscape care provider, but design/build got us started and will always be my passion.  I always said if I could control the weather I would be a rich man.  For that reason, I would have been a meteorologist in an alternate life.   

 

Great question BTW, to the OP.

If you could control the weather you would be incredibly rich! I also have a maintenance division in my company. Where are you based out of?