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Looking to get up each morning excited to go to work? Want
more than good perks and a paycheck? Given up on the dull want
ads? Try this job announcement on for size:
CLASSIFIED: Seeking a confident individual who has
intentionally designed and chosen his or her future, with a personal
commitment to tackling a real world problem. Fallen into your
career path? Never figured out what you want to be? Please don't
call on us, we can't figure this out for you. Must have a strong
desire to impact the lives of others in his or her community,
or the world at large. No formal training or university degrees
are required; we're looking for innate talent. Natural ability
a must; your credentials will not fool us. Must have a developed
emotional intelligence; no power plays, clock-watching, aimlessness,
or intimidation are welcome. If you don't know what you're best
at, we don't either, please don't bother applying. No "Dilbert's"
please, see wants ads for reality television actors, we're not
interested in cynics, whiners, or people who use "paying
the bills" as an excuse for going to work. Must be vital,
energetic, enthusiastic human being; pretending to like your
job will be recognized, laughed at in public, and filmed for
future Simpsons' episodes.
Sound unbelievable? Do jobs like this exist yet? Potentially,
yes they do. In an ideal world, there would be about 6 billion
of these kinds of jobs out there--one for each human being on
the planet. This may take a while, so if you're ready now, you'll
have to be a bit of maverick. The trick--you can't find an exceptional
career by shopping around. This kind of job isn't bought off
the shelf; it's one of a kind.
The industrial revolution has given us a lot to be thankful
for. We have confidence that we can get what we want, when we
need it. Our clothes, cars, food, homes, furnishings, music,
art, entertainment, fast food, coffee, banking and investing,
technology, high schools, even university education, are all
pumped out on the modern economic global assembly line. Underlying
our material success, we can appreciate democracy's role in governing
capitalism to even up the playing field. The United States has
one of the largest middle-classes and among the highest standards
of living in on the planet. Most of this was achieved in the
last 50 years, dizzyingly fast in the grand scheme of things.
At the same time, the impersonal nature of our mass-production
infrastructure can leave us feeling somewhat alienated; giving
us the "is this all there is?" syndrome. For
example, many of us never see the customers we serve, and some
of us work, unintentionally, against their best interests in
the name of bottom-line profits. The economies of scale model
for providing goods and services defines our relationship to
work, touching every aspect of our daily lives, and has shaped
our psychology and world view. We have come to expect high quality
everything, at a very reasonable price. Quite brilliant we are.
At the same time, as we've embraced the commercialized lifestyle
that lifted the most of the humble masses out of poverty over
the last half century, we are learning that we need something
you can't buy. What do you need if you already have everything?
Other than America, few countries around the planet have traveled
this far along the mass consumption lifecycle. Few leaders, and
people in general, have thought about a future where most of
our comfort, security, and status needs are so easily met. We
are in unknown territory.
At the moment our economic system seems to have a life of
its own; you might say it's running us. American pop culture
strongly influences business strategy, and in turn, the nature
of our daily work lives. Most of our jobs have been shaped to
pump out quantity, and do it fast. The tangible impact of our
business values are most visible on the front lines of the marketplace,
just ask salespeople in any industry what their daily life looks
like. It isn't pretty. If we stop playing this game, the economy
tanks. As it appears, our national livelihood heavily depends
on millions of people doing dull, cog-in-the-wheel tasks. Few
of us have thought to challenge this way of life, unknowingly,
we are promoting our own boredom, burnout, and mediocrity. As
we look back at our success and evaluate how far we come, we
are just now realizing that our single-minded focus on living
comfortably is suddenly running out of gas, pun intended. There
is a cost to satisfying our voracious appetite for status, comfort,
and convenience. Organizations whose primary mission is "to
be the biggest," without concern for serving a real need,
foster workplace cultures and job assignments that would make
Dilbert cry uncle. College educated professionals in every industry
are complaining of the mind-numbing assembly-line tasks now shaping
"white collar" work environments. Without paying close
attention, we haven't noticed that we've got the golden egg many
times over, but the automatic pilot switch is locked in the "on"
position. Free-market capitalism has become the premier global
model for wealth creation, and it's got a mind of it's own. It
doesn't care how fulfilled we are in our work, and shows no mercy
for people, or countries unwilling to play fast ball.
What are people yearning for? Numerous social science studies
point to the lack of personal meaning and authentic community.
In his book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree," New York
Times columnist Thomas Friedman describes how the globalization
of democracy and capitalism has empowered more and more people
around the world to raise their standard of living. This is a
very good thing, when understood as a stepping stone. Psychologists
have shown that material wealth is important, but that it's a
short-lived aspect of human happiness. The Toyota "Lexus"
is metaphor that represents the mass-production might of the
developed world, and our abundant material wealth. The "Olive
Tree" represents our human need to plant roots, to be a
part of and serve a community, to have a meaningful identity,
and to feel like we are making an important contribution. These
two desires, to achieve sustenance and material wealth, and the
need to belong to a community and serve a real purpose, are both
genetically programmed human needs. If we lean too far one way,
our lives go out of balance. Most Americans say they don't have
much time to stop and sit under the olive tree, they're too busy,
pretending to be busy at dull jobs. Television advertisements
unsuccessfully portray a fantasy world where people are enjoying
their new luxury cars and homes, all while happily engaged in
a community or family setting. These ads insult our intelligence,
we can see through the mirage. Still, we vote with our pocket
book. The grand irony is how these very commercials are still
setting the underlying pace and beat of many workplace cultures,
and shape our social values. Momentum is a powerful force, especially
when mixed with the innate human drive to seek social status
and sex. Advertisers know this all too well, it's not an accident
that images of sexy men and women are used to sell everything
from shaving cream to Jennifer Lopez, to SUVs. We the workers
are also the consumers, and if we don't "get more, eat more,
buy a bigger one," we'll put ourselves out of that dull,
boring job. But at least we'll be sexy, right?
In the last 10+ years, the rest of the world has been working
even faster to duplicate our material success. The global economy
switch has been turned on; we now have highly interdependent
economic relationships with most major countries. The health
of our domestic economy depends, and is depended on, by the rest
of the world. Will the chaotic pace of free-market capitalism
change anytime soon? Will our jobs become more creative, allowing
us to express our natural talents? Will the mission of our businesses
gives us a true sense of making a difference? Well, it depends
on how willing you are to stretch for something unique. At first
glance, it appears that the cat's out of the shopping bag. The
developing world, which is still most of the world's population,
has jumped on the consumption bandwagon, the "American way"
is fast becoming the global way. We can't blame them, people
around the world want a piece of the action, and the mass-production
gears are greased and ready to satisfy their desires. In fact,
they need mass-production to help create jobs and lift their
standard of living, just like we did. Seeking better rates of
return, American corporations have already set up shop in developing
countries all over the planet. Our Nike shoes, computers, food,
clothes, housewares, and technology are more affordable than
ever, and the expectations of those who make the goods in far
away factories are greater than ever. Even people in countries
without democracy, like Iraq, can sneak access to the Internet
and satellite TV; their governments can no longer "hide"
what is going on across the planet.
As the title of Friedman's book indicates, people in developing
"olive tree" countries, who are not yet big players
the global economy, can see that there are people out there who
are living in "Lexus" luxury. People around the world
now aspire to live the lifestyle most middle class Americans
feel entitled to, and thanks to affordable communication technology
and free flowing information, they're eager and able to catch
up. With the infrastructure of international business and trade
firmly in place, we are midst of a planet wide transformation.
No doubt, our business mind set will likely continue to promote
the status quo "bigger is better" value system, the
mass-production volume knob is likely to continue notching up
as the developing world lifts it's standard of living. If you,
as an individual, want to be more than a cog-in-the-wheel, you
likely won't get much outside encouragement. The future course
of our workplace looks like more of the same for most people--impersonal,
repetitious work, at least until the rest of planet experiences
what we are just now realizing. Like us, the developing world
will likely have to go through the full lifecycle from poverty,
to material wealth, to the search for meaning before we all can
see the emperor has no clothes. This may take a while. However,
if you're clever, you'll learn to harness the resources available
to you, and work the system in your favor. The dreamers and risk
takers are bailing out to do something different, voting with
their feet, they are leaving behind those who accept the daily
grind as the normal state of mind.
If you want a job that emulates the want ad at the top of
the page, put on your creative thinking cap. Although most major
corporations offer wonderful benefits, flextime, telecommuting,
day care, job sharing, etc., they still haven't figured out how
to harness the full potential of employee talent and creativity.
Nor do they seem to be trying to; it's not in their vocabulary
yet. Fortunately for you, the all tools are in place to take
matters into your own hands. Friedman notes that with the "Three
Democratizations", Finance, Technology, and Information,
the average American has the power once only wielded by the Fortune
500. A college dropout with a knack for computer programming,
and the savvy to harness the resources available to most anyone,
Bill Gates built an enterprise that practically steers the world
economy. The democratization of finance (via credit cards and
bank loans) has given individuals access to money that once was
only available to the "good old boys network," greatly
expanding the everyday person's spending power. The rapid advances
in digital technology have brought inexpensive computers, printers,
televisions, mobile telephones, and communication networks, spurring
an explosion of readily accessible information. With the birth
of the Internet, a teenager in small town America has the same
"publishing" power as the New York Times. The Internet
is like a global nervous system, giving us all access to information
that was once only available to those in the inner circles of
their profession. For example, health Web sites like WebMD give
us free medical information that only doctors were once privy
too. The same accessibility has happened in areas such as investing,
real estate, business, science, entertainment, etc. The world
is at our fingertips.
We are living in a time of unprecedented wealth, resources,
power, and freedom as individuals. We as human beings have never
known such a time before in our history; we can truly design
our destiny. In a personal example, I started Pathfinders with
a credit card, bought a computer, designed the Pathfinders web
site, created my own brochures and display ads, and now attract
clients from around the world, who would otherwise never have
heard of outlandish ideas like designing a career. The world
is my marketplace. I coach clients from as far away as Australia,
thanks to our global telecommunications infrastructure. As a
writer, I can sit comfortably in my home in Alexandria, VA, compose
a career column, and submit it to my publisher (whom I've never
met in person) somewhere on Long Island, NY, in microsecond.
Now that's power! My friends, if there ever was a place and time
to custom design a meaningful career, this is it.
In sum, if you want a career that will get you out of bed
excited to go to work, chances are you'll have to invent it.
As the world turns now, "jobs-off-the-shelf" set the
universal standard, Dilbert comics depict the typical American
workplace perfectly. Most career paths are shaped in kind to
fit our mass-production scheme; they weren't set up to make you
happy or engage your talent. That's not to say you won't find
one that suits you just perfect, one person's misery is another's
paradise. For those who can't seem to find a ready-made job that
fits like a glove, you're in luck. A career that challenges your
inmost desires, is personally fulfilling, and expresses your
creativity is very possible, even practical today. You probably
won't find it in the classifieds, nor is it likely waiting for
you. If you're tired of being a cog-in-the-wheel, maybe you've
come to a fork-in-the-road. Which way will you turn?
"Between living and dreaming,
there is a third thing . . . Guess it!"
~Antonio Machado
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