Easily 15 years ago or 20 years ago I read a book where the author stated you need to have an “ace in the hole.”

An ace in the hole is a steady income stream apart from your day job or regular job. Having this kind of job puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to being in charge of the direction of your life.

Why spend 2 or 3 hours each night watching TV when you could be doing something that earns you income? What if having a second job were like earning money while you sleep?

Wouldn’t this be much better than watching TV all the time?

I recommend people diagnosed with mental illnesses have an ace in the hole so that it doesn’t matter what happens in the workforce: be your own boss and the stigma is irrelevant.

The goal is first of all to find the work you love so that it’s more like passion not drudgery.

I recommend the book The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine for “Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One.” An illuminating guide about how to do what you love without having your soul sucked out of you at any old “day job.”

This is a radical idea: that individuals with MIs should not only get a job if they want to work: we should find the job we love and have more than one job to secure our future if we’d like.

It comes down to this:

We’re in the driver’s seat. We can go down a road of our own choosing. We don’t have to take a backseat to others in society.

Capisce?