A friend of mine and I were talking the other day and they were telling me about how their brother had recently lost a job. Not only that, but the job he had just applied for that he thought was a shoe-in, had fallen through. So now this guy was telling me about the hard-luck story that his brother was having trying to pay bills.

Now, obviously, the story is tough. But honestly, my reaction was “How free he is now!” This guy just lost his job, he doesn’t have income. That’s the bottom. It can only go up–he can finally CHOOSE what he wants to do.

But what was he doing? He was putting in applications at every local shop in town and sitting back, waiting on a job to waltz across his threshold.

I was shocked.

“Doesn’t this guy have a degree in mass communications?”, I asked.

“Yeh” my friend replied.

“Then why isn’t he contacting some people in mass communications or searching out internships in that field, or even starting his own business doing something he likes? He doesn’t have anyone to answer to anymore. He’s free. He can go for his dreams now. Why isn’t he?”

My friend was at a loss for words.

When you are out of a job, you have two choices: you can find a job, or you can make a job. Odds are that if you make for yourself a career that you WANT, you’ll be much happier, much more fulfilled, and most likely, you’ll make more money.

So if you’re in this boat, where you need a job, then MAKE ONE. Go out today, right now, and MAKE YOUR DREAM JOB HAPPEN.  The alternative is to to be sitting at home waiting to hear back from applications. So why not give it a try? there’s no better time than now.

According to Nick Swinmurn, a 30 year old billionaire  the key to success is to “be scrappy”. In an interview for the BBC news blog, he talks about how it is the guys who don’t give up that succeed the most. It doesn’t matter, he says, if you don’t know how you’re going to do it. It only matters that you DO something. Fight against the odds, go against the grain and “try everything and just fight and claw and keep adapting, keep trying things.”

Don’t let yourself get distracted with side-ideas. While you’re working if you come up with something else that might be awesome–great. But make a list. Finish one thing well, then move on to the next. Don’t chase 4 million rabbit trails. If you spent only one dollar on each of those rabbit trails, you’ll be broke instead of 4 million dollars richer. Or $800 million dollars richer in the case of Nick. He just sold his latest company, Zappos, (a shoe selling company) to amazon.

Watch his video here. And while you do, ask yourself: Why aren’t you making shoes again? (or whatever it is that you haven’t tried because it is “too simple” or “wouldn’t work”) Yeh, maybe you should take a second look at that “crazy idea”.

Catrina Callahan wrote something on Facebook today and it is just brilliant. So here I have copied it. You need to read it :

Someone once asked me “Is there a place left on this earth where I can have a chance to be what I want to be? Because it sure ain’t America.” Honestly, that is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. This country was built as, and still is, the ONLY place on earth where you are allowed to be creative, inquisitive, self-sustaining, and have the opportunity to be whatever you want to be. But just what does that really mean?

What is this ‘opportunity’ they speak of? Does that mean at every corner of whatever avenue you choose, the streets will be lined with lush Opportunity trees where you can pluck different opportunities off like apples? Sadly, most people think so. They think that “The Land of Opportunity” means that they will have options and prime, plump, choices lined out for them on a silver platter where all they have to do is pick between them as they stroll along on a paved road to success and happiness.

Well, isn’t that idea just dripping with sugar and gumdrops? Indeed, that would be nice! Surely that is what “Opportunity” means right? Or is it? Let’s looks closer.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language states the definition of Opportunity as this:

op•por•tu•ni•ty: A chance for progress or advancement.

A chance. Not a fresh fruit platter with a chocolate fountain in the middle. Look alive people! Try having a shot for a decent life in Cuba, Russia, China, Sweden or Germany. Yeah sure, people around the world aren’t always living in third-world conditions. A lot of them are ‘happy,’ good, people just living their lives. But where is it they all flocked to back in the 20’s and 30’s….? America, that’s where! Why did they come? Because we could give them a chance. And unless you are pure blooded Native American, then your ancestors came here before you looking for what they couldn’t get elsewhere. A shot at making for themselves what no one else would let them achieve. They could be here what they couldn’t be elsewhere. Dreamers, goal seekers, and success finders.

It takes work though. When they said your great great grandpappy came to this country with five dollars in his pocket and died a millionaire it wasn’t because he walked off the boat and they handed it to him in a big sack. He worked for it. Worked hard, worked against the grain, worked against all odds, till his fingers bled, through rain, sleet, snow, and hail; but in the end he got it. Others countries have nothing but pain as a reward for that kind of labor. You are what you were born as, and you can’t change it.

What America offers is not assured success and happiness. It does not promise grandeur or greatness. It simply lays before you a chance. A chance to dream and the opportunity to accomplish it if you have the guts to get off your sleepy keister and run after it.

If you want opportunities, as is a plural sense, well you are going to have to make them through the definition of hard work your forefathers used, rather than our diluted definition of work that we use today. But if you want the chance to even go after your dreams at all, the chance to make those opportunities? If all you want is the single “opportunity” to try to succeed in your life, then America is the only place you’ll find that.

So go get em.

To see Catrina’s article in its’ original form, as well as the comments being made on it. Click Here.

I recently watched the video of Steve Jobs 2005 commencement address to Stanford. (There is a bit of irony about a man speaking at a college that would likely have rejected his application.) As I listened to him I wondered how many of those graduates he was talking to would go on to live a life with little meaning, believing in nothing, chasing only the almighty dollar, and working without passion. Not if they listened and took what Steve said to heart. He talked of following your passion as the KEY ingredient in life and in success.

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan  talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

Here is an excerpt from the text of the talk where Steve Jobs talks about being fired from Apple. You can find the whole speech at the Stanford News Service website.

…I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.²

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan  talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

Call it energy, drive, or ambition – they have something they are after. Think of those in sports. Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi had a drive all their lives to do what they do. They love it, work at it hard, and have a passion for their game. But true also of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. In fact, find a happy and fulfilled person and you will find passion.

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan  talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

A man named Bill Price goes to my church. Bill greets everyone at the door every Sunday and has a passion and sense of purpose for this work of greeting. Now there are a lot of people who “greet” people. Think of Wal-Mart greeters. But Bill is different. I stood at the door with him one morning and he told me about people who came to the door. He looked at them and their faces and tried to understand where they were. Were they happy or sad? Was something troubling them?

He told me his prayer was that God would give him the words to say to the people as they came in the door that would minister to their needs. Wow! I remember walking away from this unpaid and seemingly meaningless post thinking this guy really gets it – he has a true passion and a true purpose.

He is not paid for this Sunday service, but is well known for his service. In fact, he is so well respected and successful in his “work” that the entrance of the church has become known as the “Bill Price Lobby.” He is not just standing around; he is serving a mission and a passion.

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan  talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

In his book The Success Principles, Jack Canfield tells about a friend of his who owns a Lexus dealership in Southern California. In the first Gulf War the economic uncertainty resulted in a reduced demand for luxury cars.  All the dealers knew it, and just accepted this EXTERNAL EVENT.

But his friend did not accept defeat so easily. He had his sales people take a fleet of cars to the yacht clubs, the golf courses, and the country clubs. They would let the people drive the cars around for a while just for fun. And you know what happened – when they got back in their own cars that did not smell as clean or seem quite as nice – the Lexus’s were sold.

You don’t have to settle for the hand you’re dealt. If you can’t win at poker, play a different game. Your actions will determine where things go for you.

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

After coaching people for the last ten years I have noticed that often we fall in love with what we hate. Time after time I meet with people who do not like their current situation and are ready to make a change. They come up with a new plan to make a living doing something they love. Yet, over and over again during the meetings they spend all the time talking about their current job, boss, or work situation – complaining about how things are today. I find myself over and over again saying, “let’s get back to the plan and stop focusing on what you are trying to get away from.”  If this is you, watch your language! Focus on solutions and plans, not complaining and blaming!

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.

Point being, we can respond to any event. Think about people you know. Who are the bitter pills in your life? How do YOU respond to them? Do you join (negativity is contagious you know) or do you choose to respond differently?

What about the people you know who can respond to any event differently? Who do you know like that – people who – no matter what happens they look for (and often find) opportunity.

These are just some of the ideas Dale Callahan talks about in his new book “Company of One”, due out this Fall.