Fortune favors those who act.

Fortune especially favors those who act fast. 

So pull the trigger and fire.

Then you’ll know how you should adjust your aim afterwards.

So says Brian Kim, and I think he’s 100 percent spot on.

Sitting on the sidelines keeps you on the sidelines.  Take a step or two, just that, toward your dream job, and then take another next week or next month.  But, keep moving forward.

How may I help you?

Popularity: 83% [?]

Most people hesitate to make the first move.They hesitate to introduce themselves to strangers at a party.

They hesitate to take the first step in reconciling with an old friend. 

They hesitate to ask for that raise they know they deserve.

And as a result, they lose out on so much.

So much can be gained, just from making that first move. 

Don’t let it all slip away from you.

Source:  Brian Kim

Popularity: 42% [?]

If you pay even scant attention to the the world of investments and the stock market, you know that there are tens of thousands of different investment vehicles.  Someone told me, and I’m sure they’re right, that today there are even more mutual funds (investment funds that are comprised of different company stocks) than individual stocks.

A lot of choices.

And, perhaps that’s the reason for another statistic that just floors me — that the majority (I think it’s over 80 percent) of mutual fund managers not only do not outperform the overall market, they, in fact, actually fail to equal it.

That’s why, when I discovered index funds a few years ago to house my investments, I couldn’t believe the utter simplicity of the whole thing.

You see, stock index funds are set up to hold stocks that represent every slice of the market . . . so, as goes the market, so goes the index fund.

From a practical standpoint, this means that, if you hold index funds, you’ll outperform something like 80 percent of the world’s leading stock fund managers because you’ll get market returns.

Over time, the stock market goes up (it always has and likely always will) . . . you hold index funds, your holdings will go up.

Utter, sheer, incredibly simple brilliance, these index funds.

So, it was with the this same sort of serendipity that I came across a really odd-joyful-interesting-provocative-somewhat-too-money-focused book by Joe Vitale called The Attractor Factor:  5 Easy Steps For Creating Wealth (or Anything Else) From the Inside Out.

Just as index funds are the tried-and-true simple answer to most investors long-term plans, Joe describes a shortcut, and it really is, to attracting whatever you want.  But, let me have Joe tell it:

Let me tell you a secret.

You don’t need to practice the five steps in this book to manifest your desires or attract more wealth.  Nope.  There is an easier way.  I’ll tell you what it is if you promise not to spread the word around.

Deal?

Here’s the secret, what I call the shortcut to creating the life the way you want it:  Be happy now.

That’s it.  If you can be happy right now, in this moment, you will have achieved whatever you want.  Why?  Because underneath everything you say you want is a desire for happiness.  In 1917, Ralph Parlette wrote in his book, The Big Business of Life, “Whatever we do, we are doing it to be happy, whether we realize it or not.”

You want a new car so you will be happy.

You want more money so you will be happy.

You want better health so you will be happy.

[Editor's note:  You want a dream job so you will be happy, huh?]

You want that loving or lusty relationship so you will be happy.

Happiness is your goal.

And here’s another secret.  You don’t need to have anything else in order to be happy right now.  You can choose to be happy.

Powerful, powerful stuff, Joe Vitale, so good on you.

And, who woulda thunk it, huh?

The best long-term investment you could ever make is the simple, eazy-peezy index fund.

And, the secret to getting everything you want on this mortal coil is to be happy, right here, right now.

Easy, simple truths.

Think about it, Dream Jobber, and tell me how this stuff grabs you.  Or not.

Popularity: 9% [?]

We often speak about how we don’t have enough time.  “I’m just too busy to really look into that new job,” we say.  We complain that there’s just not enough time to pursue that dream job passion.

Oh yeah?

I ain’t buyin’ it.  We all have the same amount of time.  24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

If you choose to spend your time on watching television (just one of the all-time greatest-time-wasters in the history of the human species), then you’re not investing your time in yourself.  You’re wasting it.

Here’s what one of my latest favorites, Jeffrey Gitomer, says about your use of time, in what is, I think, going to be an all-time classic book, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude:

Which do you think is a more powerful use of your time:  watching other people’s problems or investing in yourself and creating plans and solutions?  Here are four solution-based uses of your time:

Read.  Trade journals, self-help books, positive attitude books, anything humorous, sales books, trendsetting books, and annual reports and brochures of your biggest customers.  Study.

Listen. Self-help CDs.  Invest.

Mastermind.  Attract (smart) friends and associates to your house once a week to create new ideas and action plans.  Invite.

Compute.  This includes writing, planning, learning, and Internetting.  The computer is the biggest link to the twenty-first century. Master it.  Explore.

Now, Dream Job Questor, are you employing solution-based uses of your time?

Tell me about ‘em.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I don’t remember who coined it, but there’s a quote I discovered a few years ago that has always stuck with me . . . it said something along the lines that we’re not really afraid that we’ll fail at something we’re working on, but that we’ll succeed at it beyond our wildest dreams.

And, you know, I think that’s really true.  I believe that, when it comes to finding and creating our life’s work, we only have us to stop ourselves with our self-limiting thoughts and behavior.

So, when I came across something called the 365 Plays/365 Days project, I was completely and utterly blown away.  This project, created by Suzan-Lori Parks, was set up in 2002 . . . whereby Parks wrote a play a day for a year and then got theaters across the land to perform them.

Think about that!  A play a day.  Sure, most were short, but she did what she set out to do.

Can you do this to get your dream job?

Make a pact with yourself to do something every single day in order to discover and land that dream job?

Each day you read about that job, you talk to others in it, you apply for internships in that field, you take a course related to the work, you work in a part-time job related to your dream, or whatever else it takes to get you up and doing that dream job?

Could you?

Really?

Suzan-Lori Parks did.

Remember, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Don’t have your dream job yet?

Know what it is or should be?  (Or, think you do?)

Don’t have the time to work on finding what it is?

Know what it is, but don’t have the time to pursue it?

Well, friend-o-mine Dream Jobber, I ain’t buyin’ it.

Here’s why . . .

If I told you I can GIVE YOU 46 days this year to work on finding your dream job, do you think you could begin pursuing it in that timeframe?

I’ll betcha could.

And, here’s how — no real secret, just plain old common sense and a wee bit-o-willpower.

Secret Answer?  Give up one hour of television every day and invest it in yourself and your dream job.

That’s 365 hours this year of mindless TV-watching.  Start by dropping any news programs you watch (oh, yucky-poo — nothing but negativity and depressing stories there).  If you just gotta “know what’s going on in the world,” add the BBC or NY Times to your home page and scan it in 45 seconds every morning.

So, 365 hours is 46 freakin’ work days a year.

Come 31 December, you can either be 46 full days closer to your dream job, or actually in it, or you can have banked 365 hours of god-awful, brain-dead tube viewing.

Your call, your life.

Whaddaya say, Dream Job Seeker?

Popularity: 12% [?]

I’ve Netflixed my life, maybe you can Netflix yours.

I’m a movie nut.

Aside from reading or listening to books-on-tape, I like nothing better than to settle down in the evening with a bowl of popcorn and watch a great movie.

I’m mostly into foreign and independent films, as I’ve grown tired over the years of the typical Hollywood blockbuster.

And, like most movie lovers, when the whole movie-rental business took off 15 or so years ago, I’d found a real way to feed my movie cravings.

But, not much after Blockbuster had gotten a firm foothold on the rental market (at least in North America), it seems that a new type of movie-rental business popped up to supplant the brick-and-mortar rental store businesses.

Think about the movie rental stores for a second, and list out what you like and don’t like about them.

The biggest benefit of a store for the movie lover is that you can watch a movie in your home at the time of your choosing; you don’t have to wait for a re-release in a movie theater nor do you have to comb TV listings trying to find a film that may or may not be running this week on, say, Thursday morning at 4:15 a.m.

So, rental stores offered a huge benefit to those of us who love movies.

But, over time, if you’re like I am, you came to dislike most rental stores for a variety of reasons, including these:

• It is nearly impossible to find a new release.
• You have to physically go to the store.
• You have to deal with return deadlines and overdue payments.
• You have very limited or non-existent choices in specialty genres, such as mine — international, documentary, and independent.

So, it’s not surprising that some enterprising folks came up with a different — and better — way to rent movies.

I’m referring specifically to an outfit called Netflix whereby you purchase a “membership” and receive, via mail, an unlimited supply of movies each month.  You can only have so many DVDs at home at one time (Netflix offers different subscription levels — I go for the three-at-a-time level), but if you view and return your DVDs promptly, you can get your average movie cost down to around $2 or less.  So, a good deal, and the movies come to you in the mail.

Netflix figured all this out, and is creating one heckuva business.

So, how does this apply to your life and your dream job?

Eazy-peezy.  The fit between what Netflix did to the movie-rental business and what you can do for your life is perfect, and it’s this:

If you’re unhappy with your career or your work or even your life in general, you don’t have to run off and create a whole new you.  A lot of us think (including myself, a decade or so ago) we have to remake ourselves in some incredibly different way to be content or to pursue our passions.  And, yup, sometimes you do.

But, that’s not what Netflix did, and that’s not what I’m talking about here.

To Netflix your life, take where you are right now, today, and tweak it.

Netflix it.

Make a few minor, very subtle, changes to that life.

Let me give you an example from my own life, and let’s see if you can relate.

I’d built a software training company (InfoSource, Inc.) in the 1980s and 1990s — and sold it, eventually, to a joint-venture comprised of CompUSA (the big American retail store chain) and Blackwell Publishers (the leading independent book publisher in the United Kingdom).

During those built-it-and-sell-it years, I ate, slept, dreamed, and loved InfoSource inside and out.  I was passionate about the company, it grew, and we prospered . . . and, along the way, we built an organization we were proud of and which employed some really interesting, offbeat, and just plain-old-fun people.  Going to work was a hoot; shoot, it wasn’t work, it was simply a blast — most days I didn’t want to go home!

After the final pieces of the acquisition fell into place, I left InfoSource in 1998 to, as they so often say, pursue some other opportunities.  The departure was my choice and the split was incredibly amicable (the Managing Director of Blackwells, and our Chairman back then is still one of my best pals).  But, the company (per the new owners) was taking a different direction, it was becoming more corporate, and it was simply time for me to move on.

Unfortunately for Blackwell/CompUSA (but, fortunately, for me later, as you’ll see), the whole tech industry and the dot.com world took a real dive in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  So, as big outfits are often apt to do, Blackwell/CompUSA wanted to dump the company when times got lean.

They found a few buyer prospects but, for one reason or another, each deal seemed to fall by the wayside; and, when 9/11 struck, the whole mergers and acquisition scene dried up like a New Mexican desert in June.

And, that’s when I got involved with the company again, in early 2002.

I’d been off having a blast for the prior three years — including starting up the sister company to this blog, Dream Jobs To Go – and was spending loads of time with my wife and daughters, traveling, reading, walking, and just really enjoying life.

But, when Blackwell came knocking on my door and offered me a chance to take back my baby, after a wee bit of haggling and hemming and hawing, I really couldn’t turn it down.

So, after three semi-retired but really active years, I jumped back into the saddle at InfoSource, in 2002.

And . . . within six months, absolutely hated it!

Every minute of it, almost.

Just couldn’t deal with it.

You see, I’d left the comforts of a great portfolio life — part work, a couple of different work ventures, part play, lots of travel, being with my kids — for a company that was deeper in trouble than I’d realized . . . incredibly bad employee morale, cash flowing out the door like a flash flood on a hot day in West Texas, a staff of really good people but which was at least twice the size it needed to be, and products that didn’t fit the market as they once did.

Over time (and I mean some serious time, as in years), my business partner, Thomas W. Warrner, and I plunged ahead and swatted away issues as best we could.  And, although that old love-for-the-business-that-I’d-once-had attitude was no longer there, we began to grow a little and to return to profitability, mostly by refocusing our efforts and energies in new markets and with new products, and by growing an incredibly talented and dedicated senior management team.

As time drifted by, though, I just wasn’t happy in an office setting any longer and I certainly wasn’t enjoying the day-to-day operational side of the business.

In short, I didn’t have my dream job any longer.

Now, here’s where the Netflixing came in, so thanks for hanging with me during the twists and turns.  Over time, Tom had taken on more and more of the daily operational issues as President, which left me to focus on new product ideas, strategic decisions and partnerships, international, and a few select larger customers.

And, as that job role began to gain more focus, it occurred to me — and to Tom — that I could pretty much serve my role and the company from anywhere . . . in the country, or the world for that matter.

So, in the Fall of 2004, I Netflixed my life.  I kept my exact same job and role in InfoSource, but I moved, with my family, from the company’s HQ location (Winter Park [Orlando], Florida) to one of the places Pamela and I had fallen in love with many years earlier, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

So, I scheme (my official title at InfoSource is Chief Schemer), deal with larger customers, work on long-term stuff, and set up new businesses for InfoSource, from my home office that overlooks the Sangre de Cristo mountains about three miles outside of Santa Fe.

Since then, both Tom and I have each figured out how to do our “jobs” in 2-3 days per week, leaving us time to set up our own separate portfolios — Tom spends his time away from ISI in mostly physical pursuits (the guy’s a former marathoner, for cryin’ out loud) and I run other businesses, including Dream Jobs To Go and this blog.

The passion is back, the dream job (for me, and for the way I define success) is here, again.

I’m livin’ large.

You see, it was really just a tweak, a Netflix to my life.

So, how would you Netflix your life?

And, is there something I can do to help?

Popularity: 11% [?]

I’ve written about Rob Brezsny before . . . he’s a fun-to-read-and-you-just-hope-if-there’s-anything-to-astrology-at-all-that-it’ll-be-like how Rob says it is.

My reading for week of September 6 really fits our dream jobs mission and how to find them, so I wanted to share it with you.  Here’s what Rob has for me this week (and I think for you as well):

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing,” said motivational author Dale Carnegie.  Those should be your words to live by for the rest of 2006.  It’s time for you to become almost ruthless in your intention to enjoy yourself as you carry out your life’s work.  I’m tempted to go so far as to say that you should disentangle yourself from any commitment in which duty overshadows pleasure.  Your drive to do good deeds and be of use to people will ultimately fall short unless you love what you do.

Was I right, or what?  Rob Brezsny nails this one for us, dream jobbers.

And, while you’re thinking about this, you may want to snoop around Rob’s really interesting (and soon to be reviewed here) book called Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia:  How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

Ya just gotta love a book with a title like that.

Over and out,

Michael

Popularity: 10% [?]

Check out kaizen philosophy (Japanese) – slow, steady progress.

Read this:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen.  Although this definition is placed in the setting of business, I’ve read other writers who accept kaizen within a broader context of living your life and growing, slowly and steadily.

The older I get, the more I believe in kaizen and how to place it within my own life and work, including how to live with my limitations yet still move ahead steadily

Slow and steady, Dream Jobbers, slow and steady; one step at a time.

Kaizen.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I’ve been researching an interesting site called Squidoo.

Squidoo is the brainchild of Seth Godin, of Idea Virus fame, and I think it holds some interesting possibilities for you, whether you’re a Dream Jobber in search of ideas for your career, or whether you’re doing business online and are looking for additional ways to market yourself or business.

Squidoo lets you create something it calls a lens, which is sort of like a baby blog in that you create one-page sites that list resources and your commentary about a passion or field of interest.

Take a few minutes and browse around the site — if nothing else, I think you’ll come away with some interesting things to think about as you continue in your quest to find your dream job.

If you’re already a Squidoo lenscrafter, please let me know by adding your lens address (and, optionally, your name) in the comments section to this post.

I’d also like to learn how you’re using the Squidoo tools.

Happy squidooing!

Popularity: 11% [?]