My name is Tim. On 1 November, 2007, that's three weeks ago as I wrote this, I was suddenly made redundant. Although I never expected that I would be working for the same company until I retire, the speed at which the job was taken away can be described as nothing but abrupt. In one swift stroke, my whole

department was told our services were no longer required. I lost my job. My boss lost his job. My colleague was transferred to another department. We were each given a Separation Package. The company even threw in a 3-month free consultation, so that a career consultant can help us brush up our resume and job-seeking skills.

I was with the company for almost ten years, and suddenly I was told that I do not need to come back to work the next day. In the interview I had with the career consultant, he said to me, "Some people, especially one who has been with the same company for ten years, can get quite emotional. How do you feel?"

"I am quite emotional too," I said. "I am laughing all the way to the bank!"

Indeed, rather than looking at my sudden joblessness as having hit a brick wall, I consider the Separation Package a bonanza. An early Christmas present. My friends however are split in their views: some were saying how sorry they were to learn that I have lost my job, the other group was congratulating me for the windfall. Myself, I am not sadden by it at all. Now I can look forward to living my life exactly how I want to live it.

I know, for some people, losing their job was humiliation and utter devastation. They take it personally, and are unable to move away from the fact that their services were no longer required by the company. Throughout their working life, they have built their world around their job; they interacted only with the people in their office, that when all this suddenly evaporated into thin air, they were lost.

If you are one such person, stop it at once. There is more to life than holding a job, and in fact, it is a much better quality life, once you learn to be the master of your destiny. Why do I say that?

If you don't have a job, you don't have to worry what time you go to bed at night, and what time you wake up in the morning. You don't have to be stuck in rush hour traffic, and you have unlimited days off without needing doctor's permission. You can go on holidays for as long as you want, and never having to worry that work is piling up for you back in the office.

Okay, even as you read this, I know lurking in your mind is that perennial question: but if I don't have a job, how do I earn a living and pay the bills?

That is indeed a pressing issue, and that's why I created this website, to deal with it, in the most high-tech way. And surprisingly, it is something which everybody can learn.

But before I go into that, I want to show you how stupid it is holding a job. You go to work at eight in the morning, and you're not home again till six, or more likely seven. You are trading away your time and energy - both depleting resources - for money. All the things that you can do with your life is squeezed into the few hours in between the time allocated for your job, things like playing games, exercising, cooking meals, going to the movies, etc. On the other hand, have you wondered why is it that rich people have so much free time. While everybody is busy with their jobs, rich people are out playing golf, lying on a beach somewhere, sipping Mai Tai ... don't they have jobs?

I think you can answer that quite clearly: rich people don't have jobs. And how is that possible? Because, rich people own businesses! Usually, when you own a business, you have people working for you, so you don't have to work. They have jobs, not you.

I realised that some years ago. If you want to be rich, you should be owning businesses. That's quite straightforward, right? There are plenty of books on that subject. To pick one, read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. It's a very famous book and is easily found in most bookstores. I read that book some time in year 2000, and it converted me to the idea that I must detach myself from the idea of holding a job, and start looking for opportunities to own businesses.

At that time, I wasn't sure how I am ever going to own a business. I also thought that to do businesses require a massive injection of capital. Looking around me, I saw many businesses with half-baked plans sprouting up and then toppling over just as quickly, and I know starting a business is not as simple as it sounds. If I cannot afford to hire people to work for me, what other avenues I have of owning a business?

And then I discovered MLM, Multi-Level Marketing. For a while, I was very passionate about it. I dug up all my present and long-lost friends and acquaintances, and tried to convince them to join me. Through MLM, I can have an entire battalion of downlines working for me, so that - assumably - I don't have to work. I know there are many people - including you perhaps - who are very successful in MLM, but it was not long before I realise MLM is not for me.

I will write in more detail about this is a separate chapter. But it did teach me something called passive income.

Passive income is indirect earnings. If I cannot afford to have people to work for me to earn passive income, I learn that the two other options are to have my money working for me, and to have machines working for me. To have my money working for me, I first need to have money! But what if I don't?

That's when I realised the only option available is for machines to work for me. And it was through this search for that tireless machine that finally took me to where I am today: the Internet.

Although I have been building websites for fun since 1997, it was only in 2003 that I started my first serious website, AsiaExplorers, http://www.asiaexplorers.com. At that time, I created it simply to support my passion for travelling, and to find an outlet to escape the drudgery of my routine job. But as AsiaExplorers continued to grow and become successful, I realised what a powerful tool I have in my hands. Today I have other travel websites including EarthDocumentary, http://www.earthdocumentary.com and WorldGreatestSites. But it was through AsiaExplorers that I started earning passive income in any substantial amount from the Internet.

One limiting factor between 2003 and now that has hindered the growth of my web-based passive income was my job, which consumed much of my free time. Also, I have to honestly say that I was pretty new to the idea of earning from the web, and had to learn things the hard way - through trial and error. I wasted a lot of time in the process. Nevertheless, since I discovered the Internet, I am sold: if you want to remain happily jobless, the best way to do it is through passive income from the Internet.

What I am about to teach you in my website, HappyJoblessGuy, is a very important and valuable lesson, applicable to you whether you are presently jobless, holding a job, or sick and tired of your present job. If you have been searching for a way to earn an income from the Internet, stay with me. In subsequent chapters, I will discuss what is available for you to tap. I hope you will read every chapter that I write, and will be eager but not impatient to earn money from the web. If you want to do it well, you need to do it right, so take it step by step.

There are many things I will share with you, but I will not be holding your hand. Many times I will provide recommendations for you to go, read and discover something on your own. It's a mean world out there, so if you ever contemplate surviving it, you better learn some independence. However I will provide you the necessary leads, so that it doesn't become an impossible task, and that eventually terms such as Search Engine Optimization, AdWords, AdSense, etc will become commonplace to you.

Nowhere on this website will you find a request for password - this whole website is free. Along the way, however, some of my recommendations may require you to pay money to a third party, whether to set up your website account, or to gain a specific web-related knowledge. It is entirely affordable and essential in your quest towards owning your own web-based business. And let me tell you this: don't believe people who tell you that it's going to be easy, and that money will start falling from the sky. If you think there is a shortcut, you're in the wrong boat, friend.

In the next chapter, I will talk about the right way to earn from the web. To read it, and other chapters in the Guide to Earning a Living without Holding a Job, go to my website, at http://www.happyjoblessguy.com.