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Big Game Hunter's Laire |
The Hunt For Semi-Retirement
An Interview with Richard Rhoades:
Big Game Hunter, Taxidermist, Herb Rancher
(July 25, 1998)
Meet Richard Rhoades:
Richard Rhoades a successful taxidermist, big game hunter, and herb rancher, was born in Muncie, Indiana. He moved to Wyoming at the age of 18 and began a career in taxidermy. He worked for nearly eight years learning the trade before opening his own successful taxidermy shop which he ran for over 12 years. His work has been commissioned by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, and from people all over the world. In addition to his taxidermy business, he has traveled the globe hunting big game, including lions, bighorn sheep, zebras, and leopards. At the age of 42 he now spends his time as an herb farmer in Wyoming selling his culinary herbs to restaurants.
Interview Excerpts
Working For Yourself
Finding Your Path
Geographical Influences on Choosing a Path
Success in the Eye of the Beholder
Semi-retired at Age 25
The Benefits of College
I could get a job tomorrow working for somebody else, but unless
I get real desperate, I won't do it.
Working For Yourself
I watched a lot of people, my Dad included, work for the same place for twenty-some years and absolutely hate it. If I had to, I could get a job tomorrow working for somebody else, but unless I get real desperate I won't do it. If you're going to work, you should do something you enjoy and it doesn't hurt to be able to do a couple of things.
Basically just find out what you enjoy doing and find a way to
make a living at it and be persistent about it. Finding Your Path
Probably the simplest thing to do to find your path would be to take a hobby that you really enjoy and find a way to make money at it. If you enjoy anything, crafts, hobbies, riding a bicycle, anything, there's a way you can find a market for it, somehow. Basically just find out what you enjoy doing and find a way to make a living at it and be persistent about it.
Whatever can be done today can damn sure be put off another day
or two. Geographical Influences on Choosing a Path
Here in Wyoming things are more laid back. We don't worry so much about the God Almighty Dollar. In the east it's a cutthroat thing where they have to have the dollar. And I really don't worry about it. Whatever can be done today can damn sure be put off another day or two. Back there they are trying to shove 36 hours into 24, and it can't be done.
Success has a lot to do with pride in what you're doing. Success in the Eye of the Beholder
A lot of people have the misconception that success is money and that's not true. Success has a lot to do with pride in what you're doing. I was successful in the taxidermy shop, but I'm not sure how to describe that I was - like the antelope project for the Smithsonian, to me it was just another client. And I guess in a lot of people's eye's that was success. My wife talks about it more than I do. To me it (success) would probably be more internal. The more pride I had in what I was doing and the more happy I was, the more "successful" I felt.
Keep in mind that this is coming from a guy who doesn't really worry about much of anything. If it's going to happen and you can do something to prevent it then you do your best, but if there's nothing you can do, then don't worry about it. Just slow down and relax. You're life isn't work. I've always said that if you work too hard, people may think you like it. I've been semi-retired since I was about 25 and I don't make a whole hell of a lot of money, but I do have fun. I've traveled to Africa, England, Ireland, and Wales, Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. I think you have to play as hard as you work, if not a little harder.
When you're born you should play and have fun until about 50,
then you should have to go to work. Semi-Retired at Age 25
How do you become semi-retired by the age of 25? By not having
to have everything, not worrying if I have $150,000 in the bank,
that's how. For the things I wanted to do, like going out to shoot
big game, I knew I could physically do it at 25, or 35, or now,
but you don't know if you'll get the chance to do it later because
you could die tomorrow. As long as it doesn't take away from the
family or anything like that, if you can afford to do it and you
have the time, do it. There's no doubt in my mind that you'll
damn sure regret it if you don't. Nobody says when they're dying,
"Wow I wish I would have worked harder." When you're born you
should play and have fun until about 50, then you should have
to go to work. My wife says, "Have dessert first, because life
is so uncertain."
I think everybody worries too much about money. I think if you
use your head and have common sense and not get totally carried
away with the play aspect of it, most people don't need the amount
of money that they think they do and you can have just as much
fun as anybody else. Have fun with what you're doing and enjoy
life.
In some instances, not all cases, I think college is probably
a waste. The Benefits of College?
Follow your heart. In some instances, not all cases, I think college
is probably a waste. That may not go over well with a lot of people.
If you want to be a doctor or lawyer or something like that you
have to do it, but in a lot of other cases where you go just to
party for four years, you're better off working for those years
to try to put something together. In some cases, it's a lot of
unnecessary expense. I know one woman who went to college to be
a teacher and she ended getting married and never taught again,
so for her it may have been a waste of four years. It may be nice
to have the degree and I never went, but I'm not sure it would
have been worth the money. There are also other ways to pick up
the same information if you're ambitious to do it. A lot of the
people that I've talked to around here who went to college basically
partied for four years.
Follow your heart. I think for most people in order to do a real
good job, you have to be happy with what you're doing. Anybody
can do a job for eight hours a day, but in order to do a job that
you and everyone around you is proud of, you have to enjoy what
you're doing.
© Copyright Chris Moeller & Brian Ardinger, 1998
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