Amateurism as a Route to Fulfillment

Abstract

The principal object of this chapter and the next two on the careers of hobbyists and career volunteers is to fill out in detail sufficient to demonstrate the nature of fulfillment in the first three career stages as found in a type of art, science, sport, or entertainment. In other words, what in particular do the fulfillment careers of, for instance, musicians, ornithologists, rugby players, and stand-up comics look like at the beginning and later in development and establishment? Discussion will, for the most part, be organized along lines of the six distinguishing qualities and the costs and rewards, all having been set out in Chapter 1. These basic internal conditions drive the fulfillment career. Fulfillment in the maintenance stage and its possible ebbing in decline are taken up in chapters 6 and 7, where we will also examine as amateur and hobbyist students in training for the professions and the trades.