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Déjà Vu, All Over Again (And Again…)
During every correction, I encourage investors to avoid the destructive inertia that results from trying to determine: "How low can we go?" and/or "How long will this last?" Investors who add to their portfolios during downturns invariably...
Office Politics
Office politics! It’s just another way of saying: “The employees are not getting along!”
When so much of a company’s success depends on the employees’ ability to work together as a cohesive team, it is critical that people understand and...
"Sports Betting as an Alternative Investment."
Many will dismiss outright the ability to make good returns on your investment through the medium of sports betting. It is not really surprising as betting is hard work, solitary, and you have to grind out thousands of bets to get your returns. ...
Trust in a "digital economy"
Gaining trust is one thing, retaining it is even harder. History teaches us that once trust is lost, fortunes usually disappear shortly thereafter. We may be at such a crossroads now with the most popular man-made currency ever. As Margaret Thatcher...
What if Peter Drucker were your CEO
Now and again, I find it healthy for my business thinking to exercise an imponderable. I get to consider problems and opportunities in an entirely different manner. It's an exercise that stretches and challenges my present business logic and forces...
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My Identity Crisis
My Identity Crisis
By David Leonhardt
When we are young it is all so simple. We know exactly what I want to "be" when we grow up.
You know what it's like: "I want to be a fireman." I want to be a ballerina." "I want to be a movie star." "I want to be a nuclear physicist specializing in embryonic schisms in post-menopausal subatomic particles."
This aspect of growing up came back to haunt me recently when reading a magazine article by someone working in television who had always wanted to be a celebrity. To paraphrase her words, "It never occurred to me that I might have to actually do anything."
Well, here I am, a fully-grown adult. Or perhaps I am no longer fully grown – I'm not sure at what age we start shrinking! But I do have a confession to make; I never knew what I wanted to "be". I knew only what I wanted to do.
What I wanted to do was design cities, urban spaces, bus routes. No, that's not true. What I really wanted to do was design maps...but most map companies want map designers to simply mimic the city's existing design. Geesh, where's the creativity in that?
So I was led astray, falling in love with politics instead. For a while I worked as a political aide, plotting to become King of the World. Amazingly, it took only five years for reality to grind my idealistic innocence to sawdust and send me on a frantic search for a do-it-yourself lobotomy kit. (I never did get to be King of the World, nor did I ever find that do-it-yourself lobotomy kit.)
I spent the next decade-and-a-half as a consumer advocate and lobbyist, doing media relations, government relations and industry relations -- none of which are technically verbs that one can actually "do".
At social events, the accountants and lawyers had it easy. "I am
an accountant," says it all.
I was not so fortunate.
"I am a consumer advocate," I would say.
"So what do you do?"
"Well, I talk to the media and to the government and to industry," I would explain.
"Ahaaa... and I talk to the tooth fairy. So what do you do?"
Now, I have an even harder time when somebody asks what I do. Most people have no clue what search engine optimization is, which is my main "career". Few people really understand what freelance writing is, except if they read a freelance writer's article in a magazine . I don't even try to mention that I run three websites and do affiliate marketing. But people do understand what it means to be an author.
"Wow, you wrote a book on happiness? Congratulations. So when's your next book coming out?"
Which is when I have to explain how a book really doesn't feed a family, and if I took the time to write a second book, it would take time away from search engine optimization and affiliate marketing...
"Huh, what's that?"
"Never mind," I answer. "I'm a stay-at-home dad." Which also is true. People might look at me weird, but at least they understand me. Or, so they think.
All of which brings me back to that question I never answered when I was young: what do I want to be when I grow up? I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer to find out. Like when I grow up.
About the Author
David Leonhardt is author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/Item.asp?Catalog=Books&Item=059517826X
Read more personal growth articles:
http://www.thehappyguy.com/self-actualization-articles.html
Visit his liquid vitamins store:
http://www.vitamin-supplements-store.net
Or his happiness website:
http://www.thehappyguy.com
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