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Dream Jobs Don't Just Happen, They're Created
While
traveling in northern California last October, I happened
to tune into a local newscast. The newscaster was telling
his co-anchor that the speaker at that morning's Rotary Club
meeting had to cut his presentation short because he was being
flown down to Disneyland to carve elaborate Halloween pumpkins
for the park festivities. The newscaster wrapped up the story
with the familiar quip, "Nice work if you can get it."
He got the first part right. For a creative kid-at-heart,
being a professional pumpkin carver is a dream come true.
It was his serendipitous "if you can get it" thinking
that missed the mark. The fact is, people rarely "get"
great work; they create it!
Despite
all the emphasis on growth in the "job sector" I
am continually amazed at just how many fascinating alternatives
there are to the whole 9-to-5 schtick. And just as traditional
job seekers can't wait around for "Mr. Job" to knock
on the door, people who want to do satisfying work -- and
call their own shots -- need to be proactive as well. Francis
Bacon defined a wise man as one who "makes more opportunities
than he finds." Here's a couple of other wise entrepreneurs
who made it by going for it.
Sports-lover
Don Shoenewald was just 18 when he went to the Philadelphia
Eagles management wearing a home-made Eagle costume and asking
for a mascot job. They weren't interested. Undaunted, Shoenewald
kept showing up at Eagles football games. Pretty soon the
fans adopted him as the unofficial (meaning, "unpaid
) mascot. Thirteen paid team mascot jobs, four mascot character
creations (including ones for the New Jersey Devils and the
San Jose Sharks), and 18 years later, Shoenewald started Mascot
Mania, the only professional training school for mascots in
the world.
Despite
what your high school guidance counselor might have told you,
showing up invited in a bird costume isn't the only route
to self-employment. For Dan Zawacki it all began when he was
working as a sales rep for Honeywell and decided to give away
120 live lobsters as gifts to his customers. Dan was so bowled
over by the response that he decided to open a small side
business shipping live lobsters complete with pot, crackers,
butter and bibs to crustacean-lovers from coast-to-coast.
That is until his boss heard him pitching Lobster Gram, Inc.
on a local radio station and promptly fired him.
In
the beginning, Dan worked out of his bedroom, storing his
lobsters in a used tank in his father's garage. His first
year he netted only $4,000. Ten years later, his company sells
about 9,000 lobster packages a year for $99 plus shipping.
All and all, not a bad tale.
If
you dream of making the transition from employee to self-bosser,
the first thing you need to do is belief that you can. Then,
the next time you see some entrepreneur doing what they love,
try thinking: "Nice work - now, all I have to do is get
it!"
George
Elliot once said, "It's never too late to be what you
might have been." Which is why former corporate cubicle-dweller
Valerie Young got off the fast track to become the Dreamer-in-Residence
at www.changingcourse.com.
Changing course offers inspiration and information to help
you find your life mission and live it. Barbara Sher, best-selling
author of I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was calls
Changing Course "wonderful, inspired and informative."
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