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Beyond Budgeting: A New Approach to Annual Budgets
In their book, Beyond Budgeting, Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser
highlight the inadequacy of traditional annual based budgeting
and argue passionately for a new management model that can cope
with the volatility of today's business environment....
"Bridging the Gap": Don't Forget Your Core Customers!
The big news in the business sector last month was the resignation of Millard Drexler as CEO of The Gap. The once highflying retail chain has hit hard times, losing money in the last four quarters and slipping disastrously close to bankruptcy. ...
How To Get A Visa/MasterCard With No Credit Check
SHAPING YOUR APPLICATION TO FIT THE RIGHT PEOPLE Creditors approve credit to those people who most closely match the right profile. They arrive at those conclusions by assigning point values to various items of information that are included either...
Make Your Career Offshore Proof
There has been a lot of talk recently about American jobs moving overseas…offshoring is the buzzword for it. During difficult economic times it is often easy to find a scapegoat to blame for a downturn in jobs. While government reports and...
Print and Modern thought
The scientific revolution that would later challenge the entrenched "truths" espoused by the Church was also largely a consequence of print technology. The scientific principle of repeatability--the impartial verification of experimental results--...
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Life is Short - Love What You Do, Do What You Love
Life is short. Are you doing what you love? Are you living your
passion? If not, why? I am guessing most people will answer that
question with "I have a mortgage, a spouse and three kids to
support, and $20,000 in college loans to pay back. In the real
world people have responsibilities. They have to make
sacrifices. You aren't supposed to be happy with your job but
you do it because you have to."
With all due respect, they are wrong. You can take care of your
responsibilities and be happy with your job. We spend over 1/3
of our day, at least five days a week performing our jobs. This
is a lot of time to be wasting on something we don't enjoy, is
it not? Why not spend that time doing something you truly are
passionate about for 50 hours a week instead something that
lacks meaning?
I think there is one main reason people don't follow their
passion - fear. Fear of how others will react, fear of failure,
and fear that they can't do it themselves. I think the first
part is for people realize that they can conquer their fear. You
will fail at times and others will think you are crazy at times,
but if you believe that you will succeed than you ultimately
will.
I always tell people that it's a three step process. First,
figure out what your passion is. Second, figure out how to make
money doing it. Third, do it. It might seem simple. In a way, I
think it is.
Step 1: Figure out what your passion is
Everyone is passionate about something - sports, dancing,
painting, roller coasters, computers, family, religion,
politics, etc. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what that
passion is. Pretend as if money is not an issue. Whatever you
would spend your time doing is your passion. I love to quote
office Space (one of my favorite movies of all time) when I talk
about this step. Peter makes the statement "Our high school
guidance counselor used to ask us what you would do if we had a
million dollars and didn't have to work. And invariably,
whatever we would say, that was supposed to be our careers. If
you wanted to build cars, then you're supposed to be an auto
mechanic." What would you do if you had a million dollars?
Step 2: Figure out how to make money doing it
Whatever your passion is, I
guarantee you can make money doing
it. If your into roller coasters then get a job at a company
that designs roller coasters. If you are into computers,
consider starting a business building computers or designing
websites. Now, if your passion is music, you may not be able to
be a concert pianist, but you could sell pianos or give piano
lessons. Whatever skills you have, you can find a way to make
money. At the very least, you can start a blog like this one and
make money from advertisements. You can syndicate your posts as
articles across the web to drive traffic to your site. That
pretty much covers any topic imaginable and requires very little
technical knowledge.
Step 3: Do it
Without a doubt this is the hardest step. I'm not saying
everyone should run out and quit their job today. It takes
planning to do it right. The key is that you are planning. That
you have started working towards that goal of living your
passion. One of my passions happens to be sports collectibles.
So, as a senior in college I started SportsLizard.com. At the
time I graduated, I wasn't making enough money from the business
to live so I took a job as an engineer. I am working toward
being able to live my passion full time but for the time being I
need the income from the job. Again, the important thing is that
I am doing it. I have goals set and each one that I achieve
brings me closer to being able to focus my life on the things I
am passionate about (SportsLizard.com and other things).
I understand that it is not easy. I am in the middle of going
through it right now. But understand that there are other people
out there who have been through what you are going through and
can help you immensely. They have failed, been ridiculed, and
come out on the other end extremely successful. They are living
proof that you can do what you love.
About the author:
Adam McFarland owns SportsLizard.com - an online marketplace for
buying
and selling sports collectibles http://www.sportslizard.com.
SportsLizard.com was recently awarded honorable mention in the
Microsoft Start Something Amazing Awards.
You can read Adam's blog about being a young internet
entrepreneur by going to http://www.sportslizard.com/blog/
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