“Live What You Love” is a collection of essays about the influences that have helped Bob and Melinda Blanchard live their dreams. The couple has embarked upon a number of business adventures. They’ve made and distributed their own salad dressing, sold kitchenware in their own retail stores, and, most recently, started up a well-known restaurant on Anguilla, an island in the Caribbean. They began each business entirely from scratch, neither of them knowing a thing about where to start. They simply liked the challenge of learning something new—and came to find that being able to work alongside family and friends was an especially important perk.

Their book is full of advice for how to turn wishing into doing, whether it’s following a big dream, like quitting your job and starting up a business, or a small one, like planting a rose garden. Much of it has to do with thinking realistically.

“Tie dreams to reality, or get ready for an extremely exhausting chase,” they advise in the book. “Put down this book right now. Pick up the phone and get a piece of information you’ve needed … put a date on the calendar … recruit a friend to help.”

As for money? “It’s not that it’s not important,” Bob says. Its only real purpose in this world, he explained in a recent phone interview, is to help you fulfill your commitment to the “Big Four,” which you should concentrate on if you want to live the life you love. Along with money, they are: passion, or doing what you really care about; people, which means surrounding yourself with those you love; and environment, which means doing what you love in a place that is right for you.

“Just going after the money doesn’t get you any happier,” Bob says. He stresses that you have to think about what money will get you. Does it buy you something that makes you happy, or does the act of making money take up all of your time?

The way I see it, we spend time to make money, and we spend money in exchange for other types of time.

When you pay someone to clean your house, you are in effect saying, “I’ll spend an hour at my job, if you’ll spend an hour at yours.” The question is, what sort of job would make you feel like you’ve gotten a fair exchange?

“Live What You Love” is a book that’s largely about a couple who found happiness in small businesses. In one chapter, the Blanchards discuss the moment they realized they needed to change the way they operated their salad dressing company. When salad dressing orders became too numerous, the Blanchards were no longer able have friends over to help cap and label bottles; they had to buy machines to deal with such large quantities. Dressings had to be made with specific formulas, the exact same way every time, and managers had to be hired.

“We employed twenty-three full time workers and had more than fifty commissioned sales reps selling our products nationwide. ... We longed for the fourteen-hour work days in our home kitchen, surrounded by family and friends,” they write. So they discontinued the company and moved on to something else.

Half the battle, they say, is just overcoming your fears, the remedy to which is doing more research about your endeavor. “Knowledge trumps fear,” Bob says.

But you shouldn’t be afraid of disappointment or failure, either. “If we hadn’t had some disappointments along the way,” Melinda says, “We wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to do half of what we do.”

Being opportunistic is important, too. “Sometimes there is opportunity in crisis. It opens up a door for you that you would not open unless you were forced to go through it. ... It’s a matter of turning things around and turning that crisis and fear into opportunity and excitement,” Bob says.

What if everyone decided to live their dreams? Who would work the checkout aisle at the supermarket? Who would pick up the garbage? Bob’s answer goes straight to the premise of capitalism.

“I’m a firm believer in a free economic system. I believe that if all the garbage men quit and became CEOs, the pay to be a garbage man would become so high, that a lot of the CEO’s would become garbage men.” Melinda’s answer is slightly more tangible. She adds, “Living what you love is not just about a complete life makeover. ... Sometimes it’s just about bringing some sort of passion into your life.”

Another question I couldn’t help but ask (this one only to myself) was, What would they tell a single mother of four, who works two full-time jobs, whose oldest child is very sick, and who has no health insurance for her family? Tie your dreams to reality? For maximum contrast, this book should be read alongside Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed, On (Not) Getting By In America.”

“Live What You Love” reminds me of a story called “The Farmer’s Luck,” from “Zen Shorts” by Jon J. Muth:

There was once an old farmer who had worked his crop for many years.

One day his horse ran away.

Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.

“Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“Maybe,” the Farmer said.

The next morning, the horse returned, bringing with it two other wild horses.

“Such good luck!” the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe,” replied the Farmer.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg.

Again, the neighbors came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
“Such bad luck!” they said.

“Maybe,” said the Farmer.

The day after that, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army to fight in the war.
Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by.

“Such good luck!” cried the neighbors.

“Maybe” said the Farmer.

Bob and Melinda Blanchard
welcome e-mails via their Web site www.LiveWhatYouLove.com. Their book tour will bring them to Barnes and Noble in Newington on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
For more information, call the store at 603-422-7733.