If you won the lottery tomorrow, how would your life be different? Maybe you’d buy a new car or take a dream vacation. Maybe you’d quit your job... or maybe you’d keep doing exactly what you’re doing right now. The point is that you’d have a lot of new opportunities and choices all of a sudden. This short video, based on the lessons of Born for This, tells more.
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What's it like to quit your job with no backup plan—and not just any job, but a nationally-known, prestigious position as the host for NPR's Marketplace show
That's what Tess Vigeland did recently, and her brand-new book Leap tells the whole story.
I really like this book, and it was fun to learn that several people in our community were part of its development. It's partly a memoir, but more importantly it puts forward a message on how success can be measured by happiness and fulfillment, not by how far you travel on a traditional career path.
If you want to leave your job—whether you love it, hate it, or are somewhere in between—this book should be at the top of your reading list.
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From David Brooks in the Times — “The real contradiction of capitalism is that it arouses enormous ambition, but it doesn’t help you define where you should focus it. It doesn’t define an end to which you should devote your life. It nurtures the illusion that career and economic success can lead to fulfillment, which…
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Over the weekend I heard a talk and short performance piece by Stephen Kellogg, an independent musician who was speaking at the annual TEDxConcordiaUPortland event. Stephen talked about the joy of work. From a young age, he always wanted to be a touring musician, with fans, albums, and concerts. He loves what he does and feels fortunate to have the chance to reach audiences with his music.
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For every self-employed person, there are a lot more people who would like to be. But many of these people already have jobs, and everyone is busy. Here's an idea: if you're working a regular job and want to be on your own someday, don't wait for a career break that may never come. Instead, start the business now ... without waiting to quit or take a leave of absence. Why would you want to do this? Two good reasons: opportunity and security.
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I talked with my seatmate Rachel on the flight to Singapore. She was 6G, I was 6H—Cathay Pacific Business Class. I was sitting up front thanks to my Platinum status and a big stash of Frequent Flyer Miles. Rachel was up front thanks to the global bank she worked for, which after a brief display of frugality was now back to flying even its junior employees in Business. Rachel was the same age as me. She had traveled to much of the world, but hadn't really seen anything. It was always running back and forth, flying to meetings, going to business dinners, arriving late at night back in the big Asian city where she was based before getting up early for more meetings.
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I visited a large company to give a talk about non-conformity and adventure. From all appearances, it was a well-run company doing good things. Many of the employees came up to me afterwards to chat, and I asked each of them, “How are things at _____?” Most of them said that things were good, and I had no reason to doubt them.
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