“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s the easiest question to answer before the age of 12. After that it starts getting difficult. High schoolers are pressured to answer it before picking a college. College grads often wrestle with it after graduating. Adults at midlife are plagued by it. Old people become reflective about it.
As I’m preparing to deliver a career planning workshop at my daughter’s high school, I know that many of those graduating seniors are dealing with this. Their parents are pushing them to decide and frankly many of them haven’t a clue.
If you know my story, you know that I couldn’t answer that question until October 11, 1996. Life before that was a series of false starts and dead ends. It was endless weeks of dreading Monday and living for Friday and vacation days. On that day however, life changed. That was the day I nearly took a swing at my boss while in the Navy. That moment brought a sense of clarity that has guided me ever since. I had to wait until age 33 to get the answer. If you’re younger than that, let me save you some time. If you’re older than that, there’s still time. Here is the formula:
Figure Out Your Life Mission, Purpose, or Passion. For me, I realized it after wisely opting to let my moronic boss keep his front teeth (and keeping me out of jail). I knew at that point my mission in life was to develop the next great generation of managers.
Find the Career that Supports Your life Mission, Purpose, or Passion. In my case, I knew I’d have to finish up my graduate degree in Organizational Leadership (a degree I selected simply because it had no math in it). Then, to be able to influence on a grand scale, I’d have to start my own consulting company. To do that, I’d first have to start by getting out of the Navy and get a job.
Find the Job, in the Career that Supports Your Life Mission, Purpose, or Passion. This meant starting out working as an internal consultant and trainer in a couple of HR departments. I spent nearly 4 years doing this before starting my business.
That’s the formula that I used and it works. Having a sense of clarity makes life’s often arduous journey very rewarding. It’s what I want for you.
How do you begin?
Figure out the goal. If you have a passion for ending world hunger, that’s great. Now let’s figure out the path.
Find the Career. You can either raise money to buy food (meaning that you need a career that will net you lots of cash a la Bill Gates and Microsoft) or figure out a way to mass produce food (meaning a career in food science, agriculture, etc.)
Find the Job that Supports the Career. This might mean interning at a large company, taking a lower position in a company, finding a mentor that’s a tech mogul, or simply enrolling in the right college program.
The three steps are pretty simple but they require great focus and dogged determination. There is no easy path to a truly grand vision. I’ve been at it pretty hard now for nearly 20 years and while I am creating lots of great managers, I’ve barely made a dent. I’m not giving up however. Neither should you!
