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Earning a Living 
"Where are you from?"
"What do you do?"
"Do you like/enjoy
it?"
"Why/Why not?"
When I was a cab driver, many of the stories I heard from my fares were about people who felt trapped and were not happy in
their work but stayed on jobs and in professions because "I have to make a
living" or "To support my family."
However, the most passionate and interesting stories were told by people who chose
their work based on what interested them and by those who believed they were engaged in a
calling or vocation rather than a job or career.
People who talked about their work as their choice, their calling, had a passion
about their work that was very energizing, regardless of the type of work
or of income level.
Those who were passionate about their work included people in widely varying
occupations and professions - doctors, lawyers, carpenters, teachers, cab drivers,
homemakers, waitresses, truck drivers, politicians, ministers, day care providers, sales
people, janitors, airline pilots, nurses, business executives, artists, cooks,
secretaries, etc. - just like those who said they felt trapped and unhappy in their work.
Remember that in all organizations, you must add value to what the organization does.
When looking for a job, or preparing for a performance review, keep the following advice
from Nick Corcodilos in mind.
Review yourself before your boss brings it up. Strike preemptively. But do it without
the standard forms. Here's a self-review a boss once asked me to do. He asked me to give
him a list of:
- Three specific things I had done in the past year that increased our company's
profitability; why those things were profitable; and a dollar estimate of what each item
netted the company.
- Three things I did to decrease company costs in the past year; how the cost reductions
worked; and a dollar estimate of the savings.
- Three things I wanted to accomplish next year, and how much they would net the company.
. . .
Do this analysis for yourself. Use the results not just to review yourself, but to
"re-apply" for your own job and to prove your value when asking for a raise. Do
it proactively: have a sit-down with your boss to discuss your work and your contribution
-- before his boss makes him come to you.
from "The Job Search
Starts at Home," by Nick Corcodilos (Ask the Headhunter) Highly
Recommended.
"Society is the same in all large places. I divide it thus: 1. People of
cultivation, who live in large houses. 2. People of cultivation, who live in small houses.
3. People without cultivation, who live in large houses. 4. People without cultivation,
who live in small houses. 5. Scrubs." Oliver Wendell Holmes (writing while
a medical student at Harvard)
"Learning Some Ways to Make Meetings Slightly Less Awful,"
by Hal Lancaster, The Wall Street Journal, page B1, May 26, 1998.
1. Be prepared.
2. Keep the agenda simple.
3. Make the participants comfortable.
4. Judge not, lest ye be judged:
- don't reject old ideas out of hand: try them with a different angle;
- to put ideas on hold, put them in the "parking lot' for discussion later;
- zap those spouting negative ideas with a squirt gun or marshmallows.
5. Get everyone involved.
6. Take risks and speak out.
- "Is Your Job Your
Calling" (Fast Company, Issue 13, page 108). Two Harvard Business School
psychologists offer advice on career choices that provide success and satisfaction
- "Are You Deciding On
Purpose" (Fast Company, Issue 13, page 114). Counselor and author Richard Leider
explains his laws for finding purpose in your work and life.
- Working from the Heartland
"Martha Finney is driving across the United States in search of stories of people who
love their work...and to learn their secrets of on-the-job happiness." Interesting
site.
- "Find Your Calling, Love Your Life,"
by Martha Finney and Deborah Dasch (Simon & Schuster, 1998). "Examples of
those who are successfully applying their passions and interests to their work everyday.
This book is your opportunity to spend some time with truly happy people." Buy this from
Amazon.com . . .
- "Jobshift: How to Prosper in a Workplace
Without Jobs," by William Bridges, paperback (Addison-Wesley 1995) .
"Describing recent trends in layoffs, restructuring, and temporary labor, the author
of Managing Transitions states that the steady job is out of sync with companies of the
future, and shows how workers can thrive in the coming business world." Buy this from Amazon.com . . .
more suggested reading
The bigger picture....
- "The Age of Unreason," by Charles Handy (Harvard Business
School Press 1989). ". . . all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Buy
this from Amazon.com - hardcover
or paperback
Related pages on LegalNews.Net
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Last updated:
August 05, 2008 |