Be A Free Range Human
Escape the 9 to 5, Create a Life You Love, and Still Pay the Bills
Book Edition Details
Summary
Ever dream of chucking the Monday blues for a life that sets your soul on fire? Marianne Cantwell's spirited manifesto, "Be a Free Range Human," is your ticket out of the cubicle. This book is a beacon for the mid-career crowd shackled by monotony, offering a radical reimagining of work-life harmony. Cantwell, a maverick life coach and seasoned career shifter, dismantles the myths of conventional success—no need for an MBA or a slick website here. Instead, she guides you to forge a path where your passions pay the bills and your weekdays feel like weekends. It's an empowering call to break free, live with intention, and smile every day, not just on Fridays.
Introduction
Picture yourself waking up each morning with genuine excitement about the day ahead, knowing that your work aligns perfectly with who you are and what you value most. Imagine having the freedom to choose where you work, when you work, and most importantly, what you dedicate your precious time and energy to creating. This isn't just a fantasy reserved for the lucky few or those born with silver spoons. It's a completely achievable reality that thousands of people are already living, and it's within your reach too. The traditional career path that promised security in exchange for conformity is crumbling, while a new way of working and living is emerging. This path doesn't require you to sacrifice financial stability for freedom, nor does it demand that you become someone you're not. Instead, it invites you to step into the fullness of who you already are and build a life that feels authentically yours. The time has come to stop settling for "good enough" and start creating something extraordinary.
Discover What You Really Want to Do
The journey to freedom begins with a fundamental shift in how you think about career possibilities. Most people approach career change by browsing job listings, hoping to find something that fits their existing qualifications. This backwards approach keeps you trapped in other people's definitions of what work should look like. Instead, true career transformation starts by looking inward and asking what would make you come alive. Consider Melissa Morgan, who was earning a comfortable salary in education but dreaming of something entirely different. She wanted to create beautiful, delicious vegan cupcakes and eventually open her own shop, write a cookbook, and have a TV cooking show. On paper, this seemed impossible. She wasn't a trained chef, had no business experience, and lacked the capital to launch a national brand. Yet Melissa understood something crucial that most career-changers miss: you don't need permission to start becoming who you want to be. Melissa began by embracing her persona as "Ms Cupcake" and volunteering to make cupcakes for every office leaving party and dinner she attended. She experimented with recipes, gathered feedback, and built her skills while still employed. This approach allowed her to test her passion in the real world without risking her financial security. Within months of leaving her job, she had a thriving market stall, loyal customers, and eventually fulfilled all her original dreams, including the cookbook and TV appearances. The key is starting with your authentic desires rather than practical limitations. Begin by giving yourself permission to dream without constraints. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? What activities make you lose track of time? When do you feel most alive and engaged? Write down these insights without editing or judging them. Then look for patterns and themes that point toward your true calling. Remember, your perfect career doesn't exist in some external job description waiting to be discovered. It must be created from the unique combination of your interests, values, strengths, and vision for how you want to live.
Think Like a Free Range Human
Breaking free from conventional career thinking requires adopting an entirely new mindset about work and possibility. Free range humans don't accept the limiting beliefs that keep most people trapped in unfulfilling jobs. They understand that the rules of work have fundamentally changed, and they leverage this shift to create opportunities that didn't exist in previous generations. Peter Shankman exemplifies this unconventional thinking. When he decided to leave his corporate job, he had no connections, no startup capital, and no obvious business plan. Instead of letting these limitations stop him, he focused on what he could control. Seeing the movie Titanic about to be released on video, Peter had a simple insight: there must be other people who hated that movie as much as he did. He invested in 500 T-shirts printed with "It Sank. Get Over It" and set up in Times Square. The shirts sold out in six hours, generating $3,200 in profit. But Peter didn't stop there. He called a USA Today reporter and said, "I just did something really funny." The reporter loved the story, and when asked if the shirts were available online, Peter confidently said yes, then rushed to build a basic website. The story ran nationally, orders poured in, and Peter cleared $100,000 from what started as a whimsical idea and $500 investment. This story illustrates three crucial free range principles: take action before you feel ready, start with what you have rather than what you lack, and think bigger than conventional wisdom suggests is possible. Free range humans don't wait for permission or perfect conditions. They experiment, adapt, and scale what works. They understand that in today's economy, agility and creativity matter more than credentials or capital. Most importantly, they recognize that the biggest risk isn't failure, it's remaining stuck in a life that doesn't reflect your true potential. Start thinking like someone who has options, because you do.
Build Your Free Range Escape Hatch
Creating your escape from the traditional career world requires a strategic approach that minimizes risk while maximizing your chances of success. The most effective method is building your free range career while still employed, creating what amounts to a bridge between your current reality and your desired future. This approach allows you to test ideas, build skills, and generate income before making the full transition. The foundation of any successful escape is understanding that you don't need to have everything figured out before you begin. Connie Solera started her journey while working as an art teacher, simply by creating a blog called Dirty Footprints Studio to connect with other artists. She had no master plan, just a desire to share her passion for art journaling and creativity. What began as weekend hobby gradually grew into a community of engaged followers who valued her authentic approach to fearless creativity. Recognizing the momentum building around her content, Connie created her first paid program called "Art Journal Love Letters" while still teaching full-time. She interviewed 30 well-known artists about their creative processes and placed a small "buy" button at the bottom of each interview post. The program sold out completely. Her next offering generated more income in one month than she typically earned in three months of teaching. Two days after launching that program, Connie quit her job and went free range permanently. Your escape hatch should include three essential elements: a clear testing phase where you experiment with ideas on a small scale, a gradual building phase where you develop your skills and audience while still employed, and specific financial milestones that trigger your transition. Start by dedicating just a few hours each week to your free range project. Document what works and what doesn't. Build relationships with potential customers or clients. Most importantly, start thinking of yourself as someone running a business rather than someone with a hobby. When your side project consistently generates income and you've built confidence in your ability to support yourself, you'll know it's time to make the leap. The key is creating momentum before you need it, so when you do leave your job, you're stepping into something real rather than jumping into the unknown.
Summary
The path to creating a life you love isn't about finding the perfect opportunity or waiting for ideal conditions. It's about recognizing that you already have everything you need to begin. As the book emphasizes, "You are not the sum of your learned skills. You do have something special to offer the world. And you don't have to be the next Mozart for that to be true." The stories throughout demonstrate that ordinary people with extraordinary commitment to their own fulfillment can create remarkable lives by thinking differently about work, taking strategic action, and building gradually toward their vision. Your free range life begins the moment you stop accepting limitations as permanent and start treating them as problems to be solved creatively. Take one small action today toward the life you really want, because that future version of yourself is waiting for you to begin.
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By Marianne Cantwell
