10 Great Careers for Self-Driven People

ow many of you actually know what you want to be when you grow up? I know people in their 40s and 50s who are still trying to figure that out.

Come to think of it, the whole idea of somehow magically discovering what you’re meant to do with your life is more or less a roll of the dice.That’s the way it was for me, that’s for sure. From high-tech engineering to sales to marketing to executive management and finally,
after more years than I care to count, to this. I’ve found myself.

If you think that’s a crazy way to get here from there, I couldn’t agree more. So I’m going to do for you what nobody did for me: help you figure out what you might want to be when you grow up, if not sooner.

If you’re stuck in a corporate or office job and you’re miserable because it drives you nuts or it just doesn’t feel right, let me ask you a few questions:Are you competitive by nature?

• Are you self-driven, achievement oriented?
• Do you crave frequent feedback or attention?
• Are you sort of creative, intuitive, inspired by odd things others think are dumb or trivial?
• Do you like to do things your own way, carve your own path, draw the world with your own colored crayon?
• Are you a little compulsive, anxious, hyper, maybe a touch of ADD or Asperger’s Syndrome?

If any of that sounds like you, then career-wise, you’re not there yet. To help you get there, here are 10 Great Careers for Self-Driven People.

None of that niche stuff - like racecar driver - where there’s 100 jobs in the whole world. These are real careers that just might fit you like
your own skin.

1. Chef, cook, bar tender. Talk about adrenaline, fierce competition, fast paced, all-consuming, short feedback loop … a dream job, but only for certain types. And no, pastry chef doesn’t count; that’s a whole different personality type.
2. Sales. What some people call sales these days, I call spam. Not that. I’m talking about real sales people who actually build lasting business relationships. It’s incredibly fulfilling if you can live with the lumpiness of high-commission compensation.
3. Executive management. You think I’m kidding? Nope, this is for real. Believe it or not, some people are actually more adept, less stressed, and decidedly happier the higher they climb up the corporate ladder. It was definitely true for me. And it’s never a dull moment. Always a fire to put out or a crisis to deal with. Thrilling. Seriously.
4. Marketing. Just like with sales, not all that B2B crap that fills up your inbox. I’m talking about serious, hub-of-the-wheel marketers who work on products and positioning. Check
   out Marketing is Dead - Long Live “Real Marketing” - that’ll get you there.
5. Entrepreneur. This one sort of goes without saying, but almost any kind of entrepreneur fits the bill. I don’t know if Gen-Yers are the entrepreneurial generation because of how they grew up or because there are no jobs; just be careful of the whole Internet entrepreneur thing. There’s a dark, boring side you won’t enjoy.
6. Anything in investment banking. Equity or bond trader, broker, analyst, high-net worth financial planning, all that stuff. Yeah, I know, Wall Street’s got a bad rep these days. Ask me if I care. Bottom line: careers don’t get any more competitive or fast-paced.
7. Agent. Talent, literary, sports, any kind of agent. Fun stuff.
8. Blogger. If you can write, have something to say and a unique voice to say it with, and love attention and real-time feedback, blogging is the way to go. Granted, it’s hard to make a living at it, so it’s more of a slash job - for people who do more than one thing.
9. Wine-maker or brewer. If you can handle the chemistry, the meticulous scientific nature and the Zen component, you do get to do sort of carve your own path and try lots of different ideas and methods.
10. Social media marketing.
    Is this really a career? I’m not entirely sure. In fact, I’m sort of leaning towards it being one of those things you can’t make money doing. Still, a helluva lot of people are doing it and they seem to be having fun, so I figured I’d throw it in.

That’s all I can think of right now. So, what did I miss?

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The 10 Rules of Great Groups

The other day I was listening to Soul Sacrifice from Santana’s remarkable first album, c. 1969. I’ve probably listened to it athousand times, but I was still blown away by how tight the band was. All I could think of was what it must feel like when a band jams together for the first time and everyone realizes there’s magic in the room.

But the concept of “Great Groups” - where the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts - goes way beyond Santana, The Allman Brothers, or The Beatles, for that matter. This rare, once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon can occur wherever there’s challenge, opportunity, and creative talent.

Like its topic, there’s an exceptional, one-of-a-kind book that describes - in dramatic and insightful fashion - the conditions under which great groups occur. It’s called Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration, by Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman.

The premise is straightforward enough. “In our society, leadership is too often seen as an inherently individual phenomenon.” We hoist Apple’s Steve Jobs up on a superstar-CEO pedestal, but the book reveals a relatively unexplored talent of Jobs - his ability to inspire groups of developers to great heights. For example, he told the first Macintosh design team that they were there to “make a dent in the universe.” And they did.

The book chronicles such diverse groups as the Disney team that developed the first full-length animated film (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Xerox PARC Palo Alto Research Center’s development of the first personal computer, Lockheed’s “Skunk Works” group that built the first U.S. jet fighter in 180 days, and the Manhattan Project.

The first chapter provides an inspiring challenge for business leaders and corporate managers everywhere:

What lessons do Great Groups have for our workplaces,where so many people feel stifled, not stimulated? Look how hard peoplein great groups work, without anyone hovering over them. Look how morale soars when intelligent people are asked to do a demanding but worthy task and given the freedom and tools to do it. Imagine how much richer and happier our organizations would be if, like great groups they were filled with people working as hard and as intelligently as they can, too caught up for pettiness, their sense of self grounded in the bedrock of talent and achievement.

Here are 10 Rules of Great Groups (from the book’s original 15):

1. Great groups and great leaders create each other
2. Every great group has a strong leader
3. The leaders of great groups love talent and know where to find it
4. Great groups think they are on a mission from God
5. Great groups see themselves as winning underdogs
6. Great groups always have an enemy
7. People in great groups have blinders on
8. Great groups are optimistic not realistic
9. In great groups, the right person has the right job
10. The leaders of great groups give them what they need and free them from the rest

I’ve had one experience with a great group. It met all the above
criteria and it changed my life. How about you? Share your story and an
insight or two.

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10 Things That Good Bosses Do

As we discovered in 7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager, bosses aren’t usually aware that they are bad bosses. The fact is that nobody wants to believe they’re the problem. Nevertheless, there’s a bell curve for all things involving people, which means there are few really bad bosses, few really good bosses, and most of you fall somewhere in the middle.

To me that says, for the vast majority of you, there’s lots of room for improvement. So, if you’re not exhibiting any of the 7 Signs, that’s great, pat yourself on the back. Still, if you really want to up your management game, maybe even vault into the executive or ownership ranks someday, you’d better start doing at least a few of these 10 Things That Good Bosses Do.

Incidentally, this isn’t from some academic study. These are real attributes of real bosses, culled from decades of observation, which motivate and inspire employees to perform at their best.

1. Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.
   
2. Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. Employees learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.
3. Tell it to employees straight, even when it’s bad news. To me, the single most important thing any boss can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No BS, no sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.
4. Manage up … effectively. Good bosses keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.
5. Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great bosses; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.
6. Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every boss delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers, i.e. s**t rolls downhill. Good bosses delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.
7. Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.
8. Build team spirit. As we learned before, great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.
9. Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but a) respect must be earned, and b) most workers are not their boss’s equals.
10. Inspire your people. All the above motivate people, but few bosses have the ability to truly inspire their employees. How? By sharing their passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.

All this adds up to an environment where people feel appreciated, recognized, challenged, and appropriately compensated. So what do you think? How do you measure up on the good boss scale?

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10 Business and Leadership Lessons - From Machiavelli

In any case, he predates us all by a few centuries, which makes these 10 Business and Leadership Lessons from Machiavelli remarkable, to say the least:

1. “Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” As I wrote just the other day, “Leaders must learn to adapt in a fast-changing world to avoid corporate or political disaster.” That is, after all, why most companies fail.
2. “Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.” An entrepreneur’s first and most important goal is to find a unique and innovative solution that solves a big customer or market problem. Without obstacles, there are no opportunities. And those same obstacles provide barriers to competitors, down the road.
3. “Never was anything great achieved without danger.” I’ve often said that willingness to take risks is a critical success factor. In Irreverent Career Advice for Up-and-Comers, I encourage young folks to, “Take big risks … now!” since, “It gets much harder as you get older and begin to ‘acquire’ things you don’t want to risk losing.”
4. “Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.” Finding your passion is not only the key to happiness, but also the key to business success. As Apple CEO Steve Jobs once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone
   else’s life. The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Amen.
5. “I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.” Most of you know that I abhor the status quo. In Why Skeptics Make Great Leaders, I wrote, “Cynics question common wisdom and those in authority. [They] aren’t just okay with the status quo. [They] seek a better way to do things. [They] break rules and break molds.”
6. “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
   Weak leaders surround themselves with weak lieutenants. Strong leaders always hire the best at what they do … assuming they can afford it.
7. “The distinction between children and adults, while
   probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel.
   There are only individual egos …” In Are You a Dysfunctional Manager?
   we discuss how dysfunctional managers get stuck in one stage of human development and “look just like ordinary adults, but actually behave a lot more like children, acting out, throwing tantrums, and generally making life miserable for everyone around us.”
8. There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. So true. It’s also true of startups, mega-mergers, and big corporate change initiatives.
9. “The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.” I’ve always favored decisive action versus over-planning which, in dysfunctional organizations, often results in analysis paralysis.
10. “The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” Regarding Google’s recent announcement that co-founder Larry Page will become CEO, I concluded that Founders Do Make Good CEOs … When They Grow Up. We’re all getting older, but are we also becoming wiser? Let’s hope so.

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It’s Not How Smart You Are, It’s How Motivated You Are

So, there’s good news for the common person: It’s not about your innate intelligence, it’s about how motivated you are. Or, more likely a combination of the two.

We’ve known for years that people with high IQs do better in school (duh) and work, but it turns out that what an IQ test is measuring may not just be intelligence, but how motivated you are.

Angela Lee Duckworth, from the University of Pennsylvania, has found that intelligence may just be overshadowed by motivation in IQ testing and general success in life.

She looked at films of 12 year old boys taking IQ tests. While the test results were able to predict success (or not so successful behavior, like prison) 12 years later, the tests were given one-on-one, orally and videotaped.

Duckworth recruited three independent researchers to review the footage for signs of low motivation, such as refusing to take part, or wanting the session to end. The team found that boys with lower IQ scores were also less motivated when they took the test, and their degree of motivation also predicted the course of their lives. Accounting for motivation weakened the link between IQ and life-success, especially for employment and criminal convictions.

So, what does this mean for you and your career? You may not be able to change your genetic intelligence level, but you sure as heck can change your motivation.My BNET Colleagues have some great suggestions for increasing your motivation, and therefore your chances at success.

Jeff Haden writes:

Don’t let today be a day you will look back and regret.
Whatever you’ve been planning, whatever you’ve imagined, whatever
you’ve dreamed of — get started on it today. If you want to start a business, take the first step. If you want to change careers, take the first step. If you want to expand or enter a new market or offer new products or services, take the first step. Get started. Do something. Do anything.

This BNET Video, with Rob McKelvey, explains how to maintain motivation.

And Steve Tobak tells managers what employees need to be motivated.

their work is appreciated, recognized, and challenging;


they’re compensated appropriately;


their management is competent, hard working, and doesn’t have its hand in the cookie jar, more or less.

Whether you are an individual contributor that wants to push yourself forward, or a manager who wants success for herself and her team, you’re not stuck based on what nature gave you. Increase your motivation and increase your chances at success.

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DEALING with INSULT....Lord Buddha

(This is a great article shared out by one of my colleague, who is patient and kind enough to listen to my whining. Thanks !)

The Buddha explained how to handle insult and maintain compassion.

One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. "You have no right teaching others," he shouted. "You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake."
Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man "Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?"
The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, "It would belong to me, because I bought the gift."
The Buddha smiled and said, "That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself."

"If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you love others, everyone is happy."
The young man listened closely to these wise words of the Buddha. "You are right, o Enlightened One, "he said. "Please teach me the path of love. I wish to become your follower."

The Buddha answered kindly, "Of course. I teach anyone who truly wants to learn. Come with me."

Beautiful Quotes

If you are right then there is no need to get angry
And if you are wrong then you don't have any right to get angry.

Patience with family is love,
Patience with others is respect,
Patience with self is confidence
and
Patience with GOD is faith.

Never Think Hard about PAST,
It brings Tears...
Don't Think more about FUTURE,
It brings Fears...
Live this Moment with a Smile,
It brings Cheers.!!!!
Every test in our life makes us bitter or better,
Every problem comes to make us or break us,
Choice is our whether we become victim or victorious !!!

Search a beautiful heart not a beautiful face.
Beautiful things are not always good
but good things are always beautiful.

Remember me like pressed flower in your Notebook.
It may not be having any fragrancebut will remind you of my existence forever in your life.

Do you know, why God created gaps between fingers?
So that someone who is special to you, comes and fills those gaps by holding your hands forever.

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梦想再遥远，也要启航；换个角度，得失只是一瞬间，也许机会之门正等你打开。

Another year passed, I am still holding the key to my dream in touch. Though it was a good year for to experience spiritual extra-ordinary and I did learned from the experience, seeing and feeling how's a real yogi body really is. It's an eye-opening experience for me. It give me a chance to know more about myself and my body, to be a yogi.

Again it's still up to me whether to make the breakthrough or not. It is still a seeding stage for me. Just too many commitment at this moment. Settle the car, then comes the house renovation things. Just too many things on the list that keep dragging me away and away again, from my plan.

But I am still keeping up with my dream. I plan to start something small and simple from my kids first, organizing yoga class for them, rather than keep waiting for the chance of teaching. My yoga teacher remind me of something, that have I practise/teach my kids on yoga at home ?

Recently my brother in law started some new programme for kids as well and again it's a good opporturnity for me to review my plan again and knocking on my back head again. Just like something suddenly hit hard on my head and remind me of myself.

Most likely the journey is going to be like the song title 'The Long And Winding Road' song sing by The Beatles, full of windy and curvey path but still with faith.

Remember the Purusartha you learned before, things will come as long as you have faith and be patient, try your best effort and smile on every challenge that you face.

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