Product Description

Do we each have a dream job that we are, by nature or nurture, uniquely meant for? To answer this question, Chris Ballard set out to talk to people who found work they love way off the beaten path. The Butterfly Hunter is a rollicking narrative of what he discovered, and reveals insights the rest of us can use to find passion in our work.

The Butterfly Hunter begins its roundup of quirky characters in unusual professions with Spiderman Mulholland, a former Marine, who rappels to suicidal spots on sheer building faces to assess damage or make repairs. (And yes, that’s his legal name.) Through Spiderman, Ballard learns that one can find a calling by following one’s wildest idiosyncrasies. Along the way he learns the history of window-washing, why it is that some people enter risky professions, and the best way to jump off a 230-foot building.

His adventures continue as he meets America’s top lumberjill, an NFL kicking coach who has never kicked a ball in his life, a MacArthur genius who’s spent his life in remote jungles chasing butterflies, and the movie trailer voice-over artist known as the Voice of God.

These ten characters each reveal an aspect of the search for a life’s work, and reaffirm for Ballard that we, too, can discover a calling if only we look in the right place. As with true love, there aren’t seven steps to finding it, but The Butterfly Hunter teaches us what it looks like when it’s real.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #247878 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-18
• Released on: 2006-04-18
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
With wit and style, Sports Illustrated staffer Ballard (Hoops Nation) profiles 10 people who found their life's work in highly unusual jobs. Although Ballard acknowledges that an engaging occupation doesn't guarantee happiness, he believes that having a calling brings meaning to life. And some of his subjects have achieved wealth and success through their work: Don LaFontaine, considered the master of voiceovers, has recorded trailers for over 3,500 films. Penny Halvorson, a 45-year-old grandmother, was the first woman to participate in lumberjack competitions; she has won four world championships. Doug Blevins has cerebral palsy and has never walked, yet he has become an outstanding football coach, working with the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets. Wisely, in Blevins's story, Ballard finds not sentimental inspiration but passion in pursuing a dream "because it is the one thing that can give... life meaning." The strength of this exploration lies in its offering not generalities or formulas for success but specific truths behind individual choices. And in a funny introduction, Ballard describes his own failure to become a vacuum cleaner salesman. (Apr. 18)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
You hear about it all the time: the dream job, the one occupation we are born to do. Sports Illustrated staff writer Ballard explored the fringes of the professional world and found 10 people who seem to be working in their dream jobs. There is Spiderman Mulholland, a former marine who climbs buildings for a living (yup, that's his real name, duly licensed from the folks at Marvel comics). Or Don LaFontaine, the 60-second salesman, who has spent the past four decades narrating trailers for movies. These men and women work in widely diverse fields, but they have one crucial thing in common: they love their jobs, love them with a passion that escapes the rest of us. Each believes firmly that what they are doing now is the thing they do best and that it's the thing they were destined to do. The book won't tell you how to go about finding your dream job--for that you need luck, inspiration, and a willingness to step out of the mainstream--but it may just inspire you to start looking. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
After a string of oddball jobs, CHRIS BALLARD found his calling at Sports Illustrated as a staff writer covering the NBA and writing features. He has written profiles of people with offbeat professions for the New York Times Magazine and is the author of Hoops Nation, which was named one of Booklist’s Top Ten Sports Books of 1998. Ballard recently moved from New York City to Berkeley, California.

Customer Reviews

Interesting but a little too muchdetail on not much for me ...
The stories in this book are interesting, ten of them, but didnt hold my interest like some books like this. It to me is like an academic self help book. It is interesting in the stories of what some people have found to do, so not a total waste by any means but a little too much on the research side for me. Okay read but not one to keep you up all night.

Inspiring Stories of People Living Their Callings
This is a book of case studies about ten people who are living their callings. I really love that it is not a self-help book, but a sort of "here's how to recognize a calling when you see it" book. It really gives me hope that one can find a calling, and it could be absolutely anything.

I particularly loved the way the information built throughtout the book, with research on career, calling, jobs being incorporated and developed within each of the vignettes.

I have recommended this book to at least 10 people since reading it, and plan to buy it for the local libraries.

I highly recommend it as an alternative to books that give alot of advice about careers, etc. It really seems to affirm the idea that you have to go with what you love.

Amazing people = Amazing book
Chris Ballard is actually a family friend and I was lucky enough to meet him personally before I read his book. He is a great guy and his humorous personality really comes out in his writing. I started to read this book when I flipped it open to the chapter where Chris meets the "movie preview guy." After only a few pages I was hooked and read the whole thing cover to cover. Chris's character descriptions are what I looked forward to every chapter. The way he described people in a way that I had never read before was eye-opening, I wanted to know how he would describe me, what intersting traits would he pick out and examine. I am just starting college so I am on the beginning of my search for what I want to do in my life, this book gave me great insight to how some people have found thier dream job in unconventional ways. Not to say that I will drop out to become a butterfly hunter, but that I will pay close attention to my personality and choose a path that best suits it. I highly recommend this book.