Fast Talk: Dream Jobs

In 2000, a German company acquired Henson. I loved working at Henson, but I didn't love watching the company go into creative limbo, so I left. For three years, I produced shows on my own, trying to keep that Hensonesque creative dialogue going. When the Henson family took back the company in 2003, I knew it would have everything again creatively. When Jim's daughter, Lisa, called me last year to come back and head kids' TV, I gladly accepted. The staff is leaner, more focused, and very excited. My mom told me, "You are so much happier now that you're back there again." It really is more of a dream job now.

Halle Stanford, 35, is responsible for developing such children's television programming as Bear in the Big Blue House and the Dark Crystal anime series.

Those Who Do, Teach

Rick Steves

Travel-guidebook author and TV host
Edmonds, Washington

I'm real thankful that I found something I love doing that works from a business point of view. When I wrote my first guidebook, I was a piano teacher with a recital hall, but gradually the hall became used more for travel lectures than for piano recitals.

When I'm in Europe, I'm breathing straight oxygen, I'm 10 years younger, I'm bolting out of bed in the morning, making new friends, learning new things, putting the puzzle together, coming home, and making a lot of money. It's pretty cool.

Lately, I have so much to update that I spend less time out there looking for new stuff, which is frustrating. But it's just a reality that I can only do so much, and I'm more committed to making sure my existing material is accurate than finding new stuff. In the old days, I would lead tours all summer long, five three-week tours in a row. Now we do 300 tours a year, and I have 80 guides who work for me, so I lead tours mainly through my books, which are a kind of blueprint, and TV shows.

Even though I don't get to explore as much anymore, the joy and reward in my work have always been about teaching. I just love helping people travel better. I'm a teacher with eager students. People come to me because they're excited about their upcoming trip, and the idea that they can learn from my mistakes and travel better is very exciting to me. People rely so closely on the books for their trips that they're on a first-name basis with me. I'm their travel partner in their pocket. I've got enough money. I measure profits by how many trips I positively affect.

Rick Steves, 50, wrote and self-published his first guidebook, Europe Through the Back Door, in 1980. His company now publishes 30 guidebooks, hosts guided tours through Europe, and produces a PBS travel series, Rick Steves' Europe.