There is one shoe repair place in town — a service that the craftsman does part-time. Curious, he shadowed his cousin’s business, found he liked it enough to learn it, and then took over upon his cousin’s retirement. What does he do for the other half of his work? He’s a chiropractor.
It has always seemed funny to me to combine shoe repair with a chiropractic practice, but both offer a fair amount of autonomy in scheduling the work. Whereas the repair shop has no competition, there are dozens of chiropractors in the area and an exclusive side niche is probably a good business model.
I thought of this when I had lunch with a friend who was discussing her son’s lack of career clarity. I doubt that any assessment tool generated a cobbler/chiropractor combination as a viable career option — yet here he is, thriving.
If you don’t love your job, maybe you don’t have to leave it. Maybe instead you can do the work you love as a hobby or shadow someone out of curiosity then see where it leads. Finding an unorthodox combination might be more to your liking than a conventional path.
