WHAT'S A CAREER?

A career is a medium for exchanging value. Value is anything that increases the chances that other people will achieve what they want to achieve. Whatever you do for a living, you are essentially exchanging value. You provide value to someone and in return you receive compensation.

A career is much more than a title and a salary. A career is an opportunity to do meaningful work, to make a difference in the lives of other people, to learn new skills, to challenge your beliefs and values, to gain new experiences, to create wealth for yourself and others, to engage in compelling conversations, to broaden your understanding of the world, to meet interesting and thought-provoking people and a myriad of other things. Increasing the velocity of your career does not mean increasing the number of hours you work, the number of e-mails and voicemails you exchange, or the number of activities that you do. It does mean increasing the rate at which you get what you want from what you do for a living. In a nutshell, that's what this newsletter is about: accelerating the achievement of what you want from your career. Careers come in thousands of different names and millions of different price points. The first step to accelerating your career is to decide what you want from your career.

Write down your answers to these questions:

1. What do I think is meaningful work?

2. What types of people do I want to work with?

3. What skills do I want to develop?

4. What experiences do I want?

5. What challenges and opportunities do I want to encounter?

6. What strengths of mine do I want to apply?

   (Add any questions you want to add.)

What constitutes an ideal career for you would be a nightmare for some other people and visa-versa. The question is not, "What is an ideal career?" The question is, "What is an ideal career for you?" For me, working with business executives to accelerate their results and careers fits very nicely with my vision of an ideal career. I have no desire to do their jobs. The key is to figure out what trips your trigger, not someone else's. Once I sat in a huge audience and had an opportunity to ask Bill Gates what he felt was the key to becoming world-class in any particular field. He said, "I think the first thing is you have to love what you do. I have always loved writing software." What do you love to do? Does it add value to other people? Will people pay you for it? If you known the answer to the first question and you can say yes to the last two questions, you have the makings of a very successful career.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Book Recommendation: It's Your Biz: The Complete Guide to Becoming Your Own Boss by Susan Solovic with Ellen Kadin

Recently I read a magnificent book for people who want to start their own business. The thing I like the most about, It’s Your Biz, is the absolute honesty with which it was written. It removes the glossiness and sexiness of owning your own business and breaks in down into reality. Click here to read Dan's review of the book.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin Back to Newsletter Page

P.O. Box 1245 Fenton, Missouri 63026
Phone 636.825.6611 Fax 636.825.9831
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