Today I spoke to a group of about 40 undergrads at the University of Michigan on the topic of Purpose + Passions + Profession: How to align your life, work, & goals. The event was sponsored by the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Women's Initiative. Feel free to watch the speech at the link below and see pictures here.

Get out a notepad and pen and
Watch Now!

For most people passions are part-time instead of full-time. They are things you do on the weekend if you get around to them. A lot of people drive to work park in the parking lot and leave half of who they are in the passenger seat while dragging the other half of themselves into the office.

What if could align our passions and profession? I think it's possible and here's why.

One day I met a woman who worked in HR at Google. I asked her if this is what she was passionate about and she responded "I really love archaeology." As our conversation progressed we realized that she was still pursuing archaelogy. Instead of digging for fossils and artifacts she was digging through talent pool of resumes to find hidden gems in people.

Passions are action-based where the interest are topic-based. Archaeology was her interest, but digging and finding were her passions. The same framework may apply for someone who has manifested their passion for strategizing through playing chess. Someone like that may want to explore a career in consulting.

Believing that our passions and professions can and should be aligned would revolutionize the career exploration process and hiring process. Instead of hiring based on Grade Point Averages, employers would hire based on Great Passion Advantage. And instead of searching for jobs by industry, company, or title, we would search for jobs by actions.

Here is a simple process to do this for yourself:

1. List five things that interest you now and as a child.
   Ex. baseball
   
   
2. For each entry write down all of the actions associated with that interest.
   Ex. playing baseball, coaching baseball, collecting baseball cards, watching baseball
   
   
3. Circle all of the action verbs that excite you.
   Ex. coaching, collecting
   
   
4. Identify career opportunities that would allow you to do those actions regularly.
   Ex. life coach, executive coach, sports coach, IRS (collect money), forensics (collect evidence)

Today, Caterpillar laid off 20K, Pfizer 19K, Sprint 8K, and Home Depot 7K among others. In total, 76K Jobs were lost today, but I'm not alarmed. Job loss is not the only issue. Job creation is the other half of the equation. Every company has cash inflow and outflow. Every river has inflow and outflow. It's just a natural part of business cycle and life. Industries grow from nothing...from an idea...and then they die...just like people. Nothing is permanent. Regardless of what industry you're in, in light of what happened today, you may want to ask yourself the following questions to determine if it's time to jump ship:

The Jump Ship Test

1. Is my industry currently living or dieing?
2. When was the last major innovation or turn of events? How often do they happen?
   
3. What innovative idea may destroy or resurrect my industry?
4. How innovative has my company been in leading and dealing with change?
5. Who or what does/should my company have their eye on? Why?
6. Will my company be an industry leader in 3-5 years? If not, then who will be?

Source: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/industry

It's simple. Change your mindset from working FOR your company to working WITH your company. Employment is a partnership, not an obligation, no matter how bad the economy is.

The first thing any non-stock holding employee has to accept is that no matter where you work and how much you make, you're being undervalued...at least financially. No company in the world (except ones that get 700 billion dollar tax payer bail outs from the government) can pay you more than the value you are creating for them. Even if you were earning $250,000 a year, you have to be making at least twice that for the company in revenue for it to stay in business.

Most people say that they "work for" a company. Though the difference between working FOR a company and working WITH a company is verbally minute, the mindset shift is huge. Check out the mental differences between someone who works WITH versus someone who works FOR and see where you are on the spectrum. People who work FOR companies in times like these are vulnerable whereas people who work WITH them have a stronger position.

1. GOALS
WORKING FOR: The employee's goals are short-term and company focused (ie get a raise, get a promotion, reach a sales goal)
WORKING WITH: The employee's goals are long-term and career focused (ie develop a skill set, establish relationships in and out of company, master a industry)

2. VALUE
WORKING FOR: The employee and company are unaware of the employee's unique value to organization and thus the employee works to just stay on the company’s team
WORKING WITH: The employee and company are fully aware of the employee's unique value to the organization and the company works to keep the employee on their team

3. FREEDOM
WORKING FOR: The employee is managed, directed, and told what to do
WORKING WITH: The employee leads and has the freedom create their own direction and to do list

4. OPPORTUNITIES
WORKING FOR: Working for this company is the only option the employee has at the moment, so they can't leave
WORKING WITH: The employee's performance and skill set has created multiple opportunities in case they want to transition

5. FAIRNESS
WORKING FOR: The employee and/or the company feel that the other party is getting over on them but neither has the courage to move on their feeling
WORKING WITH: The employee and the company both feel like it’s a fair deal

The average American who completes college would spend:

9.9 seconds at Work (=work, travel to work, getting ready for work)
5.0 seconds in School (=class, homework, and travel to school)
20.6 seconds Sleeping (=fall asleep to wake up)
24.5 seconds of Other Time (=cooking, eating, recreation, travel, kids, errands, personal email)
60.0 seconds



Keep in mind that though school and work look small in the larger scheme of life, they eat the time of our lives when we are physically and mentally the sharpest and they consume daylight hours when our energy is the highest.

Download my assumptions here: HowWeSpendTime.xls

Prayer for Perfect Employment

May the place I choose to work
be my primary place of worship
I'm committed to waiting, searching
for employment that is perfect
to be hired is to be born
to have a job is to have purpose
may I incorporate into your plan
before I look to corporate

Wherever I choose to work
may I believe in what I sell
the glass ceiling to heaven
is really inside myself
I pray I care for my career
and in turn it carries me
substantially financially
while enhancing my inner being

Ashe. Amen. And so it is.

Cufflinks Don't Mean I'm Cuffed

Dear Corporations,

On my flight to the west coast, I sat between two employees of the same health care company. If I was CEO, after the 5 hour flight, I would have known who to fire, who to promote, what divisions to grow, and which ones to eliminate. If I was CEO of one of your competitors, I would have known how to strategically bury your company within the next 3 years and who on your staff to hire to help me do it.

Your employees know everything!
1. They know who’s creating value and who’s not
2. They know why you’re hot and why you’re not
3. They know your customers and your customers know them

Why don’t you listen to them? The suggestion box in the janitor’s closet doesn’t count.

Where do you create space for employees to be entrepreneurial? Just because you’re in the black this year doesn’t mean that you exploited every opportunity available.

Why can’t you retain your best talent? There are cells of employees getting ready to leave because they feel as if you’re not open to their ideas.

Do you have the courage to facilitate the open honest conversations internally that only take place in the bathroom, at the water cooler, or at happy hour?

Do you want to own your employees or do you want them to own you?

You think the US divorce rates are high? Well...you haven't signed a contract with us. Just because we wear cuff links doesn't mean you've got us cuffed. It's not that we're noncommittal, we just value freedom and the ability to create, whether we're an entrepreneur or intrapreneur. We're nothing like our grandparents and our parents who sought the security of working for one company for their entire life.

It's time to explore new organizational models and accept the fact that the concept of life-time employment no longer exists and see corporations as talent development centers, kind of like colleges...but better. Corporations (and colleges) will no longer be valued for their financial packages. Instead, they will be valued for what their alumni achieve upon leaving. Look at PayPal's former employees that went on to found YouTube, Linked-In, and Yelp.

The answers to your success are within (your own company).

Sincerely,

Millennials

Inspired by Dee Hock, founder of VISA and author of One From Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaoridc Organizations

The Art of Interviewing

| View | Upload your own

Your Passions & Your Profession

| View | Upload your own

Cheating on the Job
Stacks of paper to the roof
kinda like the attic be
but deep under these sheets
I'm having fantasies
maybe after work
you'd like to go dance with me
oh...you want me now?
log-on and chat with me

I'm cheating on the job
not with another girl
I'm cheating on my job
with the rest of the world
daydreaming, my thoughts twirl
like I just flushed the toilet
an hour long bathroom break
I just wanna enjoy it

Employment can be annoying
when its not in line with purpose
it ain't worth it all that working
unless it's spiritually rewarding
a hostage to all my bosses
sick of this, I need a lozenge
if money can't buy time
then my time is really costly

stealing staples like its cable
taking anything without labels
that conference room desk
is looking like a dining table
you can't keep me in this stable
with illusions of being stable
might be new kid on the block
but your thought's a day old

this celery of a salary
is green, but doesn't matter see
what matters to me
will energize my inner battery
I can't keep dragging me
from my car across the street
leaving half of my identity
in the passenger seat

this affair isn't fair
to my job or to my dreams
where I spend my time
is where I plant my seeds
in this dog eat dog world
jobs will hound you then pound you
if I want to create value
I've got to do that which I value

HR thinks we're married
but I'm not even engaged
I thought options meant choice
but when it's stock it means you stay
retirement's too far away
my dreams are calling me today
not fired up they'll fire me
I've got new tracks to blaze

so I put in my 14 days
I got a little money saved
I had to jump ship
cause they pushed me to the plank
now I'm swimming with the sharks
not protected by Noah's Ark
as my career comes to an end
my life finally starts

I feel the beating in my heart
marching to my own drum
I feel alive, I feel in love
a superstar like the sun
23 to 45 are key times
ask Michael Jordan
he retired then returned 'cause
the bleachers are boring

The Inner-Viewing Process (Part 2 of 2)

When a company is assessing whether or not you are a fit for them, what they're really saying is are you a mini version of the company? Does your performance match our performance? Do your values align with our values? Does your background resemble our background? Do your strengths support our strengths?

As stated in Part 1, you have 4 identities in the world. There is a a 99% chance that you will get hired if you are able to wipe the glass mirror clean and show the potential employer that who you truly are and who you truly want to be are in perfect alignment with who they want you to be. I call this perfect employment; it's a state of being where work doesn't feel like work.

During your inner-view, your focus should be on 1. the alignment of your own story which includes your strengths, background, values/culture, and performance, and 2. the alignment of your story with their story. Crafting your own story requires looking into your past and your future. The company's story is told through their website, annual reports, office visits, and strategic decisions made as the industry evolved.

I hope this series helps you carve out a meaningful career path that is financially fruitful and emotionally engaging.

The Inner-Viewing Process (Part 1 of 2)

Before you being inter-viewing, you must first inner-view yourself. Inner-viewing is internal. It is communication between you and your authentic self. It requires knowing who you are, what you want, and why. Inter-viewing is external. It is an exchange where two parties are inter-acting to get to know each other better. It requires that both the company and the individual inner-view to explore what they truly want so that they can determine if there is inter-est.

Everyone talks about the glass ceiling, but that’s once you’re in the organization. Before you get into the organization, there is a glass mirror that you have to wipe clean in order for a potential employer to truly understand who you are and assess your fit.

Job searching is almost like shoe shopping. You walk into the shoe store and point out the type of shoe that you want, the color, and your size. The salesperson goes to the back of the store to check and see if they have a perfect match. They know their inventory better than you do, so no matter how much you want a particular shoe, if they don't have it, they have to tell you "Sorry, we don't have a match!" If that happens to be the case, all you can do is:

1. Try another store that may have a similar type of shoe or
2. Look for a different type of shoe in the same store

When a particular store doesn’t have the shoe that we want, we rarely look at it as a negative reflection of our physical self. We don’t say to ourselves, “My foot is too big” or “My foot is too average.” In the same way, when jobs don’t work out, we shouldn’t say to ourselves, “I’m not unqualified” or “I’m just too average.” Most people look at rejection from a job as a bad thing when in reality it is just a data point. Employers are looking for fit and as an outsider looking in, you can never possibly know as much about the company as an insider regardless of whether you read the websites, talk to employees, and even visit the office.

When a particular job (or shoe) is in high demand, oftentimes finding the perfect match is matter of persistence and luck. If you don’t land the job you’re looking for the first time:

1. Try another company (perhaps less brand name) that may have a similar type of job and better fit for you or
2. If you really like the company, look for a different type of opportunity within the same company

Have you ever bought a pair of shoes that didn't fit? Even if you have to walk barefoot for a while, know that there is a perfect match out there for you. There is nothing more painful than a pair of shoes that don't fit, so be patient and keep shopping.

Live purposefully!

For those who vacation internationally, the thing we dread most is layovers. We would rather pay a little more for a non-stop flight than to risk losing our bags in a transfer or being delayed on the first or second leg of the trip. Unless you live on the closest coast to the dream vacation spot that you’re trying to travel to, direct flights are limited. Either the plane can’t make it there non-stop or it has to pick up some people along the way. The place where the layover happens is never as nice as our final destination, but the layover is a necessary step for us to get to our ultimate goal.

Career paths are similar. Many of us have dream jobs in mind, however we can’t always make it there non-stop. Either we are lacking the skills and/or social capital we need to get there. Therefore, we have to refuel our mental tank with the intellectual capital required and pick up the social capital that we need in the form of mentors, colleagues, and friends in order to reach our goal. We fear that along the way we will lose time and get delayed or lose other valuable opportunities. This can occur, but without this career layover, it may not be possible to reach our ultimate career goal. The layover career may not always be the most appealing place, but as long as we know when and what gate our next flight leaves from and our bags are properly marked with our career destination, we will find ourselves sitting in first-class on the journey of our lives.

In order to have a great trip, I suggest doing the following:

1. Buy your ticket early: State your ultimate career goal early for the best deal
2. Pack lightly: Be flexible because your flight plans may change unexpectedly
3. Meet your row: Wherever you sit, there are valuable people next to you

Live purposefully!

Inspired by Cambria & Will

If failure didn't exist, many of our life choices would be different. In many cases, our own risk aversion has crippled us. Because of fear, we end up with a lot of "what ifs" and "shoulda, coulda, wouldas". Our careers are a big part of our lives, but our risk-preference may prevent us from choosing the most fulfilling career for us.

Job 1. What you can do:

“I can do that.” This is the type of job that we are “qualified” for according to our resumes. Since we know that we can do it already, this job brings very few challenges, and thus very little personal growth. It’s safe, with the biggest risk being the avoidance of our own dreams.

Job 2. What you will do:

“I don’t want to do it, but I will.” Willingness connotes a compromise between security and our true desires. If we were doing our “vocation”, or true calling, “vacations” would be less important because we would be living in our dream world every day. Sometimes we justify these types of jobs because of money, the challenge of something new, or social status.

Job 3. What you want to do:

“This is what I was born to do.” What you want do is a mixture of what you can do (because you’ve prepared for it), what you will do (without gritting your teeth), and you what you want to do. Oftentimes, what we want to do involves exercising the things that we are passionate about while simultaneously having a positive impact on others’ lives and the world. Doing what we want to do leads to more happiness, fulfillment, and productivity if our motivation is pure (not dependent on money or social status). Nonetheless, doing what we love often leads to money and social status because we naturally become the best at what we love most.

Questions to self:
• What if failure didn’t exist? Would I be doing what I’m doing?
• If what you want to do requires taking some jobs that you are willing to do or can do, how long are you willing to wait to do what you want to do?
• How are you preparing yourself today for the job that you want to do? What skills, relationships, knowledge, or experience do you need to succeed?

Live purposefully!

Inspired by: Daryn Dodson

Social Capital = The extent to which you can mobilize people to support you on a given task or goal

Intellectual Capital = Your ability to think, create, connect ideas, and problem solve

Financial Capital = How much money you can raise via personal accounts, friends, family, or others in a short period of time
_______________________________________
Social + Intellectual = a short-lived idea

Social + Financial = a miscalculation

Intellectual + Financial = a selfish attempt

Social + Intellectual + Financial = a fair chance

Ensure that you are balanced and are developing all three.

Live purposefully!