My cousin worked in finance but then due to a health issues he was not able to look at screens (or artificial light in general) for extended periods of time.
He was forced to switch to another profession which had to be outdoor based to avoid artificial light and doesn't use any screens.
He decided to train dogs. Initially it was a bit rough (working long hours a day Monday to Saturday) but fast forward 2 years later he is now considered to be one of the best dog trainers in his area. This allowed him to triple his prices and reduce his working hours. He now earns more than he did in his finance job working shorter hours.
If you find your niche and become an expert in that area, I think you can earn a good living no matter what that niche is. But some niches make it easier than others as the base earnings are higher.
My wife has a masters degree in marketing. She ditched the desk job to become a dog breeder. She's never going to have desk job ever again. After a few years she asked me to build online business related to it (https://www.canadapups.com). I think the key is to mix expertise. Marketing + dogs, technology + dogs, technology + coffee. If someone feels like they need to switch careers, it's probably a great idea - good chance of success in the next career due to bringing the previous careers skills to the new one.
Sounds like everything ended up great for your cousin, but in case he'd still like to be able to use a screen occasionally, I wonder if something like this might help: https://www.sunvisiondisplay.com/reflective-lcd-monitor
I have no personal experience or affiliation with that company, but I read about them the other day and it seems like a cool concept that could help a lot of people that have issues with normal LCD screens.
Same thing, my friends fiancé somehow became known as a very good and reliable dog walker. He would walk dogs around some very expensive parts of SF. Was making close to 200k and looking at homes last I heard.
I feel like this must have a huge luck component, he must have just gotten in with one person in this community and then met clients by referral until he took over that area.
Earning more as a dog trainer of two years than he did in finance?
I'm skeptical.
Can you expand? Was it finance or "finance"? Was it a low-end finance position? Did he already have prior experience training dogs? Something's fishy here.
I have found that self-taught programmers are better at debugging as they frequently had no one to turn to when learning as compared to someone who started studying in university. They are frequently also more passionate about programming than someone who just studied at school to get good grades or to secure a job.
But agree with other comments that if you are completely self-taught you will likely miss some fundamental knowledge which is crucial when you go from working on small side-projects to building large systems.
He was forced to switch to another profession which had to be outdoor based to avoid artificial light and doesn't use any screens.
He decided to train dogs. Initially it was a bit rough (working long hours a day Monday to Saturday) but fast forward 2 years later he is now considered to be one of the best dog trainers in his area. This allowed him to triple his prices and reduce his working hours. He now earns more than he did in his finance job working shorter hours.
If you find your niche and become an expert in that area, I think you can earn a good living no matter what that niche is. But some niches make it easier than others as the base earnings are higher.