by Gerry Baird

Created on: September 05, 2009

It's a typical Saturday night for Brigham Larson. He strolls across a dimly lit room, sits down at the piano and plays an upbeat introduction for a local theater group dubbed The Thrillionaires. The performers enter and the musical begins, only no one is singing Broadway tunes. The music, melodies, lyrics and lines are being made up on the spot, underscored by raucous laughter from the audience.

When he's not performing, you can find Brigham tuning, repairing and restoring pianos-something he's been doing since he was seventeen. He put himself through college while working as a part-time piano technician, then decided to pursue it full-time after graduation. But while Brigham has chosen to walk the road less traveled in his career, the journey hasn't been without diversions. A few years ago his wife Karmel became a part-time real estate agent. When she reached a point where she had more work than she could handle, Brigham scaled back his piano business and joined her. Together they were able to significantly increase their income and purchase a nice home in a wealthier neighborhood. "Every career has a certain lifestyle that goes with it by default," Brigham says. As a real estate agent he was expected to dress sharp, drive an expensive car and spend every waking moment on his cell phone. He was constantly pulled in several directions at once, and while the money was good he didn't always enjoy the work.

When the real estate market turned, Brigham experienced what his wife described as "career confusion." "I felt trapped about a year ago," he says, "because we had accumulated a lifestyle with an expensive mortgage and an expensive car payment." He considered going to law school and even attended an LSAT preparation class, but didn't feel good about becoming an attorney. He also considered going back to school to become a high school or college music teacher, but that didn't feel right either. After 18 months of soul-searching and exploring, he realized that his true passion had been with him all along. He returned to his piano business full-time and changed his lifestyle so he could do what he loved for a living again. Brigham and his wife sold their house and expensive car, pulled their kids out of their various lessons and rented a small home while they searched for more affordable accommodations. "All of those nicer things do not make up for being unhappy as a real estate agent," he says. "We changed our expectations, and it didn't happen overnight. It

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