Don’t Sell Out! You Were Born For a Reason

by glen of Mr. Self Development

Everything that exists has a purpose. My computer has a purpose, my shoes have a purpose, my watch has a purpose, if I had a dog, he or she would have a purpose, and most importantly, you have a purpose.

You showed up on this planet for a reason. Maybe you showed up to sing, or to dance, or to teach, or to write, or to entertain, or to act, or to talk, or to cook, or to paint, or any other thing, but you showed up for a reason. There’s a purpose that you came here to fulfill. Don’t “sell out!”

In other words, don’t settle for a life of doing a mundane job that you’re not passionate about. You only live once, you must live your life to the fullest; you must die empty.

Don’t buy into the thinking that it’s too hard to become a singer or whatever else you’re passionate about. It’s exactly that thinking that will make it appear like an impossible task, and your perception will become your reality.

Yes, it will take work; you and I both know that anything worth achieving is going to take a ton of work, but we also know that it will be worth it in the end.

Everyone is born a diamond in the rough; we just need to be uncovered. The truth is, if anyone else can succeed in this world, so can you. No one is any better than you.

So don’t sell out! No matter how long it takes, I don’t care if it takes the next 45 years; you owe it to your creator and to yourself to live out your intended purpose.

You will never be truly happy until you’re doing what you were created to do. Yes, you may be able to settle and push your feelings of dissatisfaction to the side, but there’s nothing like the exhilaration of doing what you love and watching others benefit from it. Even if you never make a dime from it…the joy of doing what you love is priceless.

Don’t “sell out” because you’re afraid of how much work it will take

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Ron Paul’s Investment Advice – New Orleans Investment Conference 2009

Graduate school for unemployed college students

by Seth Godin

Fewer college grads have jobs than at any other time in recent memory—a report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers annual student survey said that 20 percent of 2009 college graduates who applied for a job actually have one.  So, what should the unfortunate 80% do?

How about a post-graduate year doing some combination of the following (not just one, how about all):

* Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit.
* Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery. [Clarification: I know you can't become a master programmer of all these in a year. I used the word mastery to distinguish it from 'familiarity' which is what you get from one of those Dummies type books. I would hope you could write code that solves problems, works and is reasonably clear, not that you can program well enough to work for Joel Spolsky. Sorry if I ruffled feathers.]
* Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team.
* Start, run and grow an online community.
* Give a speech a week to local organizations.
* Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about.
* Learn a foreign language fluently.
* Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about.
* Self-publish a book.
* Run a marathon.

Beats law school.

If you wake up every morning at 6, give up TV and treat this list like a job, you’ll have no trouble accomplishing everything on it. Everything! When you do, what happens to your job prospects?

Original Article

Open letter to recent college graduates

by Pamela on June 12, 2009

Congratulations!  Making it through four or five years of college requires concentration, stamina and discipline and you should feel very proud of yourself. I am proud of you.

I imagine you have been getting looks of pity from friends and relatives since you are graduating in one of the bleakest economic climates since the Great Depression.

Here is the good news:  there is no need to worry.

Living with constraints and challenges is one of the best learning opportunities you will ever get. By succeeding in a tough economy, you will be much better prepared for life than peers who graduate with offer letters waived under their noses the moment they cross the stage to collect their diploma.  Constraints breed creativity. Creativity is the single most useful skill you will ever develop.

Here is my advice to you, based on thirteen years working in and studying career development, learning, human behavior and performance inside and outside of corporations:

1. There is no perfect job.
I am so sorry if you agonized over choosing a major.  It must have been really hard to decide the subject matter to specialize in that would prepare you for a fruitful career.  So here is the good and bad news. Bad news:  you may not work in a field that has anything to do with your major.  Good news: just as there is no perfect major, there is no perfect job.  As soon as you settle in to the perfect situation, it will change, your manager will leave, your company will be acquired, or you will be promoted and everything you loved about your job will change. A much better way to view your career is by observing the kind of work that interests you. Which activities energize you? What kind of people bring out the best in you?  If you view your interests and and skills as ingredients searching for a recipe instead of searching for the perfect job, you will be much happier over the course of your life.

2. You are always self-employed, no matter your tax designation.
The job market today is radically different than that of your parent’s generation. No job is guaranteed, and no company can promise stability.  So the best way to create long-term income security is to manage your career at all times as if you were self-employed. If you take a job as an employee, do not ever put your career in the hands of a manager or mentor. Always be looking around for ways to make yourself valuable to the company, and your company’s customers. Always stay connected to the job market at large. If you work for yourself, never close the door on work as an employee, since if you run into a rough patch, you may need to be your own venture capitalist for awhile until things straighten out in your own business. There is no inherent stability in working for a company and no inherent glamor in working for yourself. Both are viable ways to make a living.

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Email out of control?

This video will show you how to use your email effectively.  It’s worth the hour of time.  Believe me: this has totally changed the way I look at email.  It has jumpstarted my entire system of organization, inspired me to implement the GTD system and saved me a ton of time. Enjoy.

Overcoming the fear of failure

from Bob Lotich  at http://www.christianpf.com

This last weekend I had multiple conversations about failure, success, and overcoming the fear of failure. It got me thinking a lot about my battle with the fear of failure and things that have helped me in the past.

For years I wanted to start a business, but was afraid that I would fail. I, just like many others, had heard some of the rumored statistics that the vast majority of businesses fail and was frightened by them. I wanted to step out, but I was longing for some kind of assurance that I would be successful.

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