Essentially there are only 4 things you can do with money:
1) spend it
2) loan it out
3) buy equity with it
4) start a business you control
I've heard of people doing quirky things like cornering the market on the small supply of vintage motorcycle parts, and then reselling them at exorbitant prices. You can do the same thing with art, antiques, etc. But this is a business, of course, and there are probably easier things to do like car washes and laundromats.
A possible fifth category would be gambling it. E.g. you could write cash-covered out-of-the-money put options and collect the premiums until the odds caught up with you. Even then, the outcome is being forced to buy a bunch of stocks for cheaper than they were when you wrote the contracts.
Perhaps rather than buying yourself a job or gambling, you are looking for ways to detach your personal rate of return from the stock market, or the economy in general. Are you trying to avoid volatility? Are you concerned about the macroeconomic outlook? Or do you just need to diversify, so you can wait out the inevitable dips and bear markets? Specific answers to these questions might narrow down a solution.
