Anyone broken free from professional life? Warning: rant

Wow, this thread took off. Some interesting stories. There's really no other time to start if you're unhappy than now.

My personal aim is to create a life where I: (this is a bit of brain-diarrhoea)

1. Get to ride a bike as much as possible.
   
2. Do something good for fellow people/the world.
   
3. Make use of the professional knowledge and experience I already have.
   
4. Align my daily activities to the things I really like to do, and have always had a natural aptitude for: designing, making, engineering, inventing.
   
5. Meeting and working face to face with like-minded people as much as possible.
   
   

I am so fed up with bureaucracy and small thinking that I want to make my own way in life so I really want to go out on my own and work for myself.

Now, to work out how bring all these things together and actually feed myself on this.