I gave up the 9-5 because I wanted to really make a difference, which I hope I am achieving not only by running a business that utilises my writing skills to provide a service to others, but also by: focusing on nature in my creative writing; contributing to and learning from online writing/storytelling courses and groups; volunteering at a therapeutic garden and an agro-forestry farm; offering talks and walks on birds; and cultivating an allotment where I grow organic produce.
This all provides me with a sound ethical framework in which to conduct my business affairs and work in the best interests of my clients.
As Oliver Burkeman has written (Guardian Weekend, 30/07/2011), although the “pressure to constrain how we present ourselves” is increasing in the web age, the web actually “offers unprecedented opportunities to benefit professionally from being the unfocused, multifaceted people we really are. Far more than before, if your passions are gherkin-pickling and freelance legal research, there’s at least a chance of making both pay.”