Career Success Secret?

I couldn’t resist writing a post today, having just read an inspiring article about the artist Carmen Herrera. It seems Herrera has been a serious painter since the 1930s. Now at age 94, she’s suddenly famous, having had her first museum show 5 years back when she was a youthful 89. Her “secret”: persistence borne of her love for painting.

In spite of more recent evidence, I think there remains the idea that if you don’t make it in your field by 30 or 40, you really can’t expect success. Now, if you’re trying out for the New York Yankees or most ballet companies (a few seem to be including older dancers), you can assume that before 40 you will definitely know if you are going to have the success you may have wanted.

But for most fields not dependent on an extremely high level of physical skills and performance, you may not need to give up on your dreams at any given age. You may need to find other work for financial reasons–and that work can also be passionate, meaningful work, perhaps in a related field. But you can also keep working on your dream goals part time in one way or another.

In Herera’s case, she never quit painting. She didn’t run after success, but kept doing her art with her vision, not making any attempt to fit the latest trends. “I do it because I have to do it; it’s a compulsion that also gives me pleasure,” she said in a New York Times article (read the full article here). There’s the key–not whether others accept you for what you love, but your own sense of needing, loving to do something.

But there’s another secret less celebrated in our culture. Herrera’s success like everyone else’s is also dependent on a support network, in spite of all the myths about individual triumph. For instance, Herrera knew other artists and was supported always by her husband of 61 years (a NYC schoolteacher). That network of supporters were also persistent. In fact, the person who created a turning point for her, the artist Tony Bechera, had been a booster of hers since the 1970’s but only in 2004 did Bechera make a connection that led to the big break for Herera.

An artist had dropped out of a show of geometric female painters. Bechera told the director of the museum with the show that he needed to add Herrera. That director had never heard of her, but was convinced to look at her work and was amazed. She was put in the show, and now some of her paintings are being sold for 40 thousand dollars.

The ‘secret’ of persistence is hardly unique to Herrera. In fact, it is ensconced in traditional sayings and lore. According to the NY Times article, Bechara toasted Herrera recently with a Puerto Rican saying:

“The bus — la guagua — always comes for those who wait.”

Herrera responded “Well, Tony, I’ve been at the bus stop for 94 years!”

March 13, 2009March 13, 2009

The big MO and Succeeding with Your Career Ideas and Goals

There are lots of things to say about how to succeed with any long-term goals—whether starting a business, choosing careers, changing careers, changing your department’s culture, becoming a lawyer, earning a degree, or even becoming a better skier or dancer. But one thing is particularly vital, relatively easy, and certainly important to keep in mind.

The advice is:

Keep up the momentum. The big MO. Simple really.

That means take steps regularly. Any positive steps.

I’ve seen it with coaching clients, class participants, and yeh, myself too lots of times. Once you start feeling stuck, you tend to keep getting more stuck, feeling more and more overwhelmed and discouraged. It becomes harder and harder to get moving again.

With apologies to Newton and his laws of motion—it’s true that objects (or people) at rest tend to stay at rest.

Fortunately, the opposite is true too: Objects (or people) in motion tend to stay in motion.

My coaching clients make their greatest progress in finding new career ideas or making great plans when they simply complete small steps each week and are held accountable for them. They stay motivated, see at least a little progress all the time, and over time realize they are getting to their career goals.

Even very small steps qualify to keep you moving ahead like meeting with a career Success Partner for 15 minutes for a check in. Or brainstorming with someone about new ways to approach your project. Or reading something inspiring that gets you moving. Or….well, it really can be almost anything as long as it moves you along.

You’ll know if it’s working because you feel relief and energized again.

Even more important, these very small steps can accomplish very big things. Even big, challenging goals must be broken down into smaller ones anyhow. Don’t get overwhelmed by how many steps there are. Just do one of them and keep on moving ahead. Focus on that, and enjoy what you are doing now.

Don’t know what the next step should be? Just follow Lang’s First Principle of Action: You may not know THE next step you must take, but you can (almost) always come up with A next step that will move you forward—physically, emotionally, financially, etc. Each time you move ahead, any remaining stuck point can be seen from a new perspective.

Make sure you don’t wait for some wide open period of time to really move ahead.

Keep on moving and you will keep feeling energized and motivated and open to opportunities that will come your way.

January 11, 2009February 14, 2009

Career Idea–Get Grateful, Get Happy, Get Effective

Eric was 16 and knew it all so had no reason to participate, apparently, in a journaling class I was teaching. We got along OK, and respected each other, but he wasn’t exactly a great contributor in attitude or ideas to the group. But after I gave one assignment to the group–he came back the next class and participated instead of just joking or hanging out in the back with his crew and interrupting. In fact, he wanted to tell everyone the incredibly good experiences he had because of the assignment. Probably half the class had good experiences they told, and the others just hadn’t done it.

I’ve taught journaling classes to 10 year olds and seniors and most everyone between. I’ve taught them to improve your health (yes there’s good evidence for that), to be a writer, and to explore your spirituality. But this exercise that Eric liked is some kind of universal that works with everyone who gives it a try no matter why they are journaling. I also use it sometimes with career coaching clients

The activity is simple, fast, and easy–what more can you want? In the version I give, I ask people to keep a gratitude journal for 5 minutes a day at least 3x a week for the length of the course, which varies.

It may sound obvious to some of you or corny to others, but it makes people happier, more relaxed and more energized in my experience.

In recent years, I’m finding support for this very old idea in very new research. Here’s a nice summary of some of it from PsyBlog. I was surprised to find that there were better results form doing this just once a week vs. daily or 3x as I had recommended.

The key I find when I’ve used the exercise (myself and with others) is to make sure to pick things that you actually feel grateful for and don’t get caught up in what others may say you SHOULD be grateful for. If everyone says you should be grateful you weren’t hurt badly when someone totalled your car and you’re just feeling angry–don’t list that in your gratitude journal. You might consider it, but don’t put down what you should feel. Do put down even small things that you are grateful for. You’ll know the difference.

Why is this a post in my career ideas blog?

Simple–if you’re getting stuck lately (or any time) on lousy economic news, lousy work or personal news and getting pessimistic and unhappy, you are not going to be effective in finding a new job, deciding a career or even being your best at work wherever you are now. On the other hand, if you can find things that are positive in your life that you actually feel grateful for, you will change your mindset Or rather, thinking gratefully has a cascade effect and automatically changes your mindset.

To put it simply–it makes you happier. But here’s the point even some of the researchers may not be noting–it makes you happier by CONNECTING YOU TO YOUR OWN LIFE. That kind of happiness will always get you more creative, more engaged, and more hopeful, too–which is what I saw in Eric.

Who knows? It might even make you happier with your current work when you thought you had to leave, and that might rub off on that annoying boss or colleague. Well, optimism is good too.

January 5, 2009January 5, 2009

Keeping Difficult New Year’s Career Resolutions

Here’s a common career question I get as a career coach and an answer I wrote a couple of years ago at that start of the new year that has helped my clients and ezine readers get clearer about what they need to do.

CAREER QUESTION: I tend to pick difficult New Year’s resolutions (begin a new career, double the size of my business, make lots more money, meet a romantic partner, lose a zillion pounds) and wind up just dreading them and feeling as if I have failed. Do you have a creative way to overcome this stuck point, other than just abandoning these kinds of goals?

ANSWER: What’s your deeper goal? If your resolution was to lose weight, is your deeper goal to be healthier? Then find many ways to meet that goal, not just the one way represented by your specific resolution. In other words, give yourself many paths for success in getting what you really want, and with the small successes you will feel encouraged to continue as well with the more difficult original resolution.

The idea here is to meet your deeper, underlying desires and needs and not get stuck with something you feel overwhelmed by, as if that’s the only path to fulfilling your desire. Get more ways to move forward. With even small successes, you’ll have motivational fuel to get beyond the stuck point of your original, difficult resolution as well.

Say you want to lose weight. Ask yourself why? Maybe it’s to become healthier. Then find other ways of becoming healthier that may have nothing to do with weight, such as by taking a vacation (reducing stress, improving health) or meditating. Or by eating healthier, even if you eat the same number of calories and aren’t on a reducing diet. Don’t drop the specific weight loss goal if you feel it’s important. Find ways to make that happen too, but add other small (and large) ways to succeed with your deeper desire.

Or say your resolution is to switch careers. Ask why you want to switch careers. Maybe to do something you are more passionate about. Then think of new ways to enjoy your favorite passions more hours of the week. If you can’t incorporate, for instance, your passion for the outdoors and hiking into your work, maybe you can take a walk in a park during lunch or before or after work. If one passion is making fabulous meals, then do that and maybe even get paid, such as catering your friend’s 40^th birthday party. Continue to look for a better career that you might feel passionate about that includes the outdoors and hiking or includes cooking, but with the idea that this is now just one way to meet your larger goal of feeling more passion in your daily life.

December 20, 2008January 24, 2011

Which Career Is Best–Career Ideas for Artistic Student

I wasn’t happy with the other answers I saw to a career question on Yahoo this week, so I answered it. It was from someone apparently just starting to look for a career, someone with lots of artistic interests who didn’t want to be focused just on making money. Since it is the most foundational of all career questions, I thought I’d share my answer, slightly expanded, with anyone coming to this blog too.

Q: How do you know what career is best for you?

As a career coach (in Minnesota but working nationally), I often work with clients who are doing great financially but are just miserable in their careers. They light up when they start following their passions instead. So I can say that beyond the cliché, it’s generally true that following your passions WILL make you a lot happier than following only the money.

So what to do? For now, why not pursue all or many of the artistic passions you mention by taking classes if you are about to go to college (or are in college)? Now is your chance to experiment and learn about these arts and about yourself.

Keep your eyes open–notice what specific things you really love to do, not just dance, for ex., but what kind of dance you like and what role. Choreographer or performer? Part of a group, couple dancing, soloist?

Notice where you are willing to be persistent and not mind “failures” vs things you only like when they are going well. That will clarify which are more likely for day–to-day work and which are more appropriate for your hobbies. I think keeping a log about what you like is great too as you’ll start noticing patterns that will help you decide on a major.

Get help from others while in college or taking classes instead of being a passive student. Talk to teachers, other students, and people in these arts for a living (informational interviews) to see what careers look like from the inside. That way it will be easier for you to decide.

In other words, do follow your passions, noticing what really suits you and isn’t just this month’s whim.

December 11, 2008December 11, 2008

How to Choose A Career–Tips from the MBA Application Process

Here’s a career idea that can be another aid in helping you choose a career, even though it is intended for a more narrow purpose (where it’s also useful).

Yesterday, I posted links to a Wall Street Journal study about the finanical value (or lack of it) for an MBA. Here’s what I think is a very cool follow up. It’s from the University of Virginia B school, but here’s the thing. What she’s saying on this video is is ALSO relevant to ANYONE thinking about career choices in general–not just about MBA programs.

For instance, she talks about asking people who know you when they’ve noticed that you were most excited or most frustrated in the past few months. She suggests that applicants use this as a way of writing a good MBA application essay (and not bore the heck out of the readers).

But don’t be fooled. You can also mine this information to help you find what you have real passion for doing and what is challenging and what is just not your cup of tea.

Others can’t tell you what you should be doing. Tests can’t tell you. Even career coaches, all knowing as we (think we) are, certainly can’t. However, people who know you CAN give you concrete examples of what they’ve seen that can help you get clearer about what kinds of things you consistently love. It’s up to you (with the further support of friends, family, and possibly career coaches) to see how to tap into those situations to decide what kinds of careers match those situations.

In other words, you are a detective and these are clues about your happiness. Sure, the exact thing that you were passionate about may not be the career you will choose (say teaching your girlfriend how to ski). But it may well give you info about how much people interaction you want, how much you want something where learning or teaching is important, etc.

So watch the video and see if her essay suggestions spark some good thinking on your part or that of your friends and relatives.

If you want me, your friendly career coach, to write more about how to use your passions to determine your career, post a comment or send me an email.

If you want some info about career coaching, also send me an email or check out my business site

So here is the YouTube video from Sara Neher, Darden’s Director of MBA Admissions (University of Virginia)

December 10, 2008

Getting Ahead–Are MBA’s Worth It?

As a career coach, I help clients figure out their career vision and dream career(s). I often wind up reminding them that potential income is only part of that vision, and not the first factor to consider unless you don’t care how you actually will spend thousands of hours of your life. That’s not to discount the money, if you will, but to make sure you don’t get misled by that factor alone.

But those of you who have a career all set may be considering how to move ahead or simply how to earn more money. Many in management figure an MBA is the next step. But is it? In terms of raw dollars spent in obtaining it vs. dollars earned because of it, will it help or hinder you? The Wall Street Journal just took a look at this question to see what your ROI (return on investment) would be from ponying up for an MBA at 27 US schools.

They found out first, that it will cost you anywhere from $40,000 to $136,000 to complete your program. No small piece of change no matter which school you chose. The WSJ question is, whether the return after 5 years more than equals the cost. This is not about quality of the degree, but quantity of the return.

It turns out that the best ROI was at Texas A&M (243%) and the worst at NYU (only 56%). You can find the complete table here and the article discussing it here.

December 4, 2008December 5, 2008

Art as a Career–Lessons from the Internet

Art and economic/business success CAN go hand in hand. That career idea is being proven thanks to a new generation of internet and business savvy artists. A NY Times article,Transforming Art Into a More Lucrative Career Choice, presents a number of entrepreneur artists using the internet to extend the reach of their art or artistic business, choosing a career in art without the usual financial struggle.

One way is through multiple income streams–the same idea promoted some might say ad nauseum by informercials and every internet marketing guru I’ve ever read (confession–I’ve read quite a few). The article cites the case of Claudine Helmuth. “She has an online store… does custom illustrations for customers using photographs they provide. She licenses her artwork for greeting cards, calendars and other products. She has written two books about her techniques and has a third one coming out. She tours the country teaching both business and art workshops.” She also manufactures her own line of art products.

I don’t know about you, but Claudine makes me tired just hearing everything she’s doing, but it certainly shows all the directions you can go into if you don’t limit yourself to a simple model of what a career is.

Often, I have career coaching clients who say they want to be a landscape architect or a sculptor or further afield from art–a travel agent creating educational trips to little known areas or a caterer for world foods–and they think it’s just not financially feasible. They may be right–if they limit themselves to doing their work in the way they’ve imagined it or always seen it done. But they may be wrong if they can harness the powers of the internet. As with Claudine, that can mean, selling to a wider market or just getting know to a larger group that might publicize whatever you are doing thorough social networking, or having your art up and available instantly 24/7 in a virtual gallery publicized by all your friends and colleagues.

It’s not just about the internet as invaluable as that can be. It’s about looking at new ways to combine passions into activities you love that someone else will be interested in or need enough to pay you for your services and products. Whatever you want to do, don’t get stopped just because the conventional way of doing it doesn’t seem financially viable. You may need “multiple streams,” and you may need partners, but you can often find a path to your career vision.

December 4, 2008December 4, 2008

Choosing a Career You’ll Love

Choosing A Career is a daunting task for most of us. We have all had to be our own career coach without any training, and we can have so many career ideas and not know if we could succeed with any of them, and if we did, whether or not we’d feel happy about that choice. Of course, there are exceptions.

My nephew was one of those lucky people who always knew what he wanted. He started drawing and painting at age 2. I used to draw with him until he was about 6 and started imitating my way of drawing (not good) instead of continuing what he was doing. We led him back to doing what he naturally was doing, and today he is a visual artist and senior creative at an international design firm. Choosing a career was not that tricky for him.

Not so for most people, including me. I had many passions, but not so many career ideas, as I didn’t realize I could start with my passions to determine a career. The good news in my case was that I can now apply what I learned to my current work as a career life coach.

So how do most people go about choosing careers? Having led career talks, programs and coaching sessions for thousands of people, I can tell you that most people look at where they can make money using the skills they have. Pretty reasonable, right? Hey, that’s what I did and I established a very successful communication company of my own that earned me a good living and gave me lots of free time. Perfect? Maybe not.

The problem was that I began dreading my work days and tasks more and more over the years. Something inside of me said: This isn’t really you. You’re wasting your time. This isn’t what you love. This isn’t how I want to really contribute to the world–even though the work was pretty good, and the clients generally pleasant.

Thank goodness for that nagging voice. It forced me to rethink what I had done and led me on the journey to what I am now doing–helping people in finding and choosing a career they will love….without the pain and hassle I went through.

Be Your Own Career Coach

How did I do it? The secret lies in NOT starting out with skills and finances. Instead start out with who you are, what you love and what you value as well as what your skills are. That’s the first big step in generating new career ideas. Leave finances and realistic planning to the last and what I consider the fourth step. (More on the steps in other postings. Or check out my Guide to Lifework book for a complete program.)

The second step in becoming your own career coach is to take those key values and passions and skills and find out what you can do with them. That’s an exciting and creative process in itself, but when you realize what you want to do is teach or start a travel business or be an engineer, you can create focus and clarity with a LIfework Summary Statement that answers question 2–WHAT do I do for my career.

These statements look like:

I teach kids in the inner city how to read so they can go on and succeed in their dreams.

I help a large marketing firm organize and plan projects in a team effort to produce the most creative and effective campaigns with the least problems for our clients.

I help couples find peace and reconciliation after a divorce through couples counseling and workshops held at churches.

These are actually pretty elaborate statements. Yours can be simpler. It just has to work as a guiding tool for YOU.

Then you are ready for your third step in choosing a career–determining exactly what your day to day world will be like. So you’re a teacher–is that in a Montessori school in Chicago or a charter school for languages in a rural area? Are you working mostly on budgets by yourself as a planner or in a team? You need to paint a compelling picture that will excite you and lead you to your dreams. This stage can also include finances–how much will you earn.

Now, you are ready for all those practical elements of a plan. Your fourth question is: How Do I Succeed in making this vision real?

That question is answered with a step by step action plan relying on and developing a community of support (mentors, idea people, advisors, emotional supporters as well as some creative ways to look at your own thinking to make sure you don’t get down or stuck.

So choosing a career that you’ll love is a matter of just answering 4 questions. OK, that will take time. But I can tell you speaking from my personal experience as well as the responses of all kinds of clients, if you do it this way, you’ll not only wind up happier, but also enjoy getting there as well because it’s fueled by your desires, dreams and passions. Good luck.

Find out more about this topic, plus how to use mindmapping to help you with this process at Choosing A Career–3 Questions.

November 22, 2008December 7, 2008

Choosing Your Career? Or Is the Wrong Career Choosing You?

How can a career be choosing you?

Most people do it most of the time. “Office manager wanted—3 years exp. min. BA, prefer bilingual in Spanish and English” and you ask yourself if your 2 years experience might be enough or your 7 years might make you overexperienced and if your rusty Spanish is good enough.

That’s trying to fit you into some preset category regardless of your values and passions. All you are looking at are resume categories for experience and education. In that case, the career is choosing you. You are trying to fit yourself into the right checkboxes. Do that throughout your career and all your job changes and you will increase your authority and expertise and income. But will you be happy in your work life? Will you really be choosing your career and setting up a career vision to pursue?

It’s not that you shouldn’t look at job postings or shouldn’t pay attention to your skills or ignore what organizations want and need. Not at all. Those are critical. It’s just a question of when.

If you want a career you’ll love, an authentic or true career, you need to first determine your career vision. Second, map out a basic plan to succeed with your vision. Then you have the background and knowledge to see what jobs to apply for now, whether as stopgap measures as you earn money for education (for instance) or as learning opportunities to enjoy now and move you toward your final career vision.

Steven Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was once asked by a TV interviewer why we needed his book. After all, the interviewer pointed out, everything Covey was saying in his book could also be found in all the philosophies and religions of the world. Cover didn’t argue. He agreed, and added, “but I’ve put these ideas into the right order.” In the same way, you need to look at job postings, but make sure you do it in the right order—after you know your career vision and direction.

November 16, 2008December 7, 2008

Can You Help Your Career Success with Affirmations? You Decide.

This is one of those career ideas I have been at times for and at times against (or at least not actively in favor of) over the years. But recent research seems to indicate that if done properly (as below with music and images), affirmations can be a positive aid, setting off a string of positive networks in your brain. It’s less about the meaning of the words and more about the emotional triggers–just like political or commercial ads, only for your benefit.

So here’s a YouTube video with some career success affirmations that may help you even if just a little to get in a state of mind to help you with anything from choosing a career more meaningfully to just feeling more confident. It’s only a minute and a half. So give it a try if this interests you or you love affirmations. BTW–I have no connection with laserdirect in case anyone is wondering.

Success Affirmations for Career Change by laserdirect

November 11, 2008November 25, 2008

The Happiness Factor in Choosing a Career

Choosing a career based on what other people enjoy is a very tricky business. Your career ideas may not match with what most people think. But statistically, you can get a sense of what seems to be bringing people more happiness at work. Looking at that might point you in some good directions and offer career help.

To find that out, you can turn to a career survey by the University of Chicago from 1988 to 2006, the most comprehensive survey ever to examine satisfaction and happiness at work. What did they find?

Less than half, or 47 percent of people said they were very satisfied with their jobs and even less reported they were very happy—only one-third.

“People looking for jobs that bring satisfaction and happiness should concentrate on professions that focus primarily on serving other people,” summarized the University of Chicago’s website

“The most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching, and protecting others and creative pursuits,” said Tom W. Smith, Director of the General Social Survey (GSS) at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Specifically, clergy were the highest percentage of very satisfied as well as the highest percentage of very happy people at work.

Professions with lower social prestige such as roofing (a mere 14% very happy and 25% very satisfied with their work) and some manual labor fared poorly in these measures generally. But physicians and lawyers were not in the top group, either, perhaps due to the stress in their lines of work.

So what does this tell you?

Not much in one sense—your career ideas and dreams are yours. Letting statistical norms define what you want to do in career choosing is very limiting and damaging. After all, even among the roofers, some were very happy. That happy roofer could be you if that’s what you love to do.

But there is something fundamental about the conclusions too. Service–doing something that has a positive impact on others. Creativity–having a chance to use your own skills in fresh, nonroutine ways. Social prestige–feeling appreciated. These are often important in people’s career choices. The key, I would suggest, is that you can see most jobs and careers as being of service without having to be in a “helping”profession like clergy or teacher. If what you are doing helps others, it can feel meaningful and be of service. If you have some chance to improve whatever you are doing–incluidng working in shipping or being a roofer–then you can use your creativity. And the ultimate sense of prestige and appreciation CAN come from within and from those you most love, rather than what society has decided.

In short, the study is interesting and helpful, if you don’t take it too literally. After all, we don’t all need to be clergy or avoid becoming roofers.

Need help determining how to choose a career? Contact me for more ideas and info about career coaching or check out Guide to Lifework or the other books available through this site.