Category / vocation

by Nathan Coumbe

A fun-filling (rather than fulfilling) career

Starting in the late 1970s, the idea of “passion” entered our discussions about work. 

The goal became to find work that aligned with pre-existing interests, rather than pursuing mastery of a difficult craft (which had been our way of doing things for hundreds of years).

Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely must be interested in what you do. That’s vital to persevere through the difficulties that arise in learning anything new and worthwhile.

But I’m coming to find that our obsession with trying to align work with things we already like is sapping us of our ability to enjoy (or at least be satisfied with) most any type of work available to us.

We’re asking our jobs what they can do for us, rather than focusing on what we can offer the world by engaging in those jobs.

Satisfaction and enjoyment in our work is a lot like motivation. We think we have to wait for motivation to hit before we act on something (like getting in a workout or finishing a difficult project). But that motivation only comes after we’ve taken the action.

Action precedes motivation, not the other way around. And happiness in our work often comes AFTER we do the difficult work itself.

It’s probably not what you want to hear… But that doesn’t make it untrue.

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by Nathan Coumbe

We ask more from our work

Millennials and Gen-Z-ers are often mocked because we want more from work…

We want more than just a paycheck and health insurance (a statement usually said in derision by older generations). We want meaning and impact in our work.

OF COURSE WE DO!

We spend the majority of our lives at work. 

40 hours a week (if we aren’t forced to work overtime)…

50 weeks a year (if we’re lucky enough to get a 2-week vacation)…

For 40 years (probably longer with the way things are looking)…

On the low end, that’s 80,000 hours of lives.

We spend more time at work than we do with our spouses or children, who are supposed to be the most important part of our lives. 

If we are to spend almost all our time on this earth toiling away, shouldn’t it also be the thing that brings us meaning and fulfillment? Shouldn’t it also impact the world in a positive way?

What’s wrong with that?

by Nathan Coumbe

Coincidence on MLK Day

I bought an audiobook through Audible and started listening to it today. (It’s called The Miracle Equation if you’re curious.)

In the second chapter, the author Hal Elrod talks about how anyone who’s contributed something great to society had two qualities: unwavering faith in their mission, and the willingness to put in extraordinary effort to achieve it.

What a coincidence that today on Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, Mr. Elrod used him as an example.

Dr. King had unwavering faith in his mission to achieve racial equality in the United States. And he most definitely put in extraordinary effort to achieve it. At the cost of his life.

Let’s remember Dr. King’s legacy today and continue to pursue his mission with the same effort he did.

Happy Birthday, Dr. King.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Make Money Working In Your Sweet Spot (Free Masterclass)

CLICK HERE TO SAVE YOUR SPOT

If you’re hoping to begin living a fulfilled and meaningful life while still making a nice living for your family, you have to find your sweet spot.

We all have one. It’s the place where our passions and talents meet the world’s willingness to pay us.

My friend and mentor Dan Miller, author of the New York Times Bestseller 48 Days To the Work and Life You Love, is hosting a webinar on Thursday, January 14th to take you through the steps of determining your own unique sweet spot.

There are two times to choose from: 1pm CST and 7pm CST.

CLICK HERE TO SAVE YOUR SPOT

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by Nathan Coumbe

Are We Really “Born to Do” Anything?

It’s a question asked by lots of career counselors, coaches, and well-meaning advisors.

“What do you feel you were ‘born to do?'”

What if the honest answer is we aren’t born to do anything specific?

There is an entire area of philosophy dedicated to this idea that was first theorized by John Locke. (You can check out the basics here.) But I’m focusing on talents and passions today.

Was Van Gogh born to paint? Was Steve Jobs born to create the iPhone? Seth Godin would argue no. His answer to this question is simple. Here’s how I understand it:

No one is predetermined to use a certain medium for his or her art. We simply adopt the means and medium of whatever is available to us in our time.

In one of his podcast episodes, Seth says he doesn’t believe that Van Gogh would have painted with oils had he been born in the 20th century. Nor would Steve Jobs have created the iPhone had he been born in the 1700s (the resources and advancements in science were not available for that to have been possible).

And yet, each of us is genetically unique. You have never occurred before and will never occur again in this universe. Surely that means that we are born with innate talents and leanings.

Part of me thinks that’s true. And yet part of me also believes, as career coach Dan Miller says, “Passion is more developed than discovered.”

By this, he means we become passionate about things we engage with over and over again.

I find this idea incredibly liberating. Why? It means if we aren’t satisfied with what we are doing—if our passions are no longer feeding or fueling us—we can choose a new passion. We can develop it to something that feels like we were born to do it.

Maybe, in the end, it all comes down to choice and what’s available to us in our time.

What do you think? Were you born to do something? Leave a comment today!

by Nathan Coumbe

Should You Get Paid Every Time You Send an Email?

Wouldn’t it be great if you got paid every time you sent an email? I dunno about you, but I’d love to live in that world. 

I send hundreds each week. If I earned the price of a postage stamp on each one, I could make a pretty easy living.

Am I Devaluing Myself?

I’m an up-and-coming copywriter. To make a living, I spend several hours each week reaching out to potential clients, offering them my services as a writer and marketer. I do this because I’m a salesperson. And if you’re trying to make a living in a similar way, so are you. 

I recently came across a Twitter post telling me that I was devaluing my work by selling myself. To sum it up, the writer said I should either:

  1. Have clients beating a path to my door willing to pay me, OR 
  2. I should get paid every time I send an email, proposal, or pitch to a potential client before any work is done. 

I understand the author’s point. My time is valuable, and it stinks when I feel I’ve “wasted” my time pitching to someone who doesn’t buy. But I 100% disagree.

Sales Professionals Don’t Get Paid to Prospect

How do professional salespeople get paid? They sell a product and get paid a commission. They don’t get paid when they prospect or send proposals to customers. The only way they make money is by closing a sale. 

I sell a service, and I only get paid if I provide that service. And that service is not pitching ideas. If it was, I’d be a billionaire right now because I have a few thousand ideas each day, and most of them are awful.

Selling Your Service Is Like Applying for a Job

Each time I pitch a client, I’m putting in a job application. Think about all the jobs you’ve applied for in your adult life. What if you got paid for every job application you ever completed? Wouldn’t that make for an awesome career?

Often we don’t have a lot of experience for the jobs we are applying for, especially if we are new to the workforce or a field. When asked what a beginner should do, the Tweeter said, “get paid to pitch.”

We’ve all gotten those phone calls from sleazy salespeople. Does this sound familiar?

“I’ve got this great new system that will keep you from paying any taxes this year. But I can only tell you what it is if you sign a non-disclosure agreement and pay me $2,000 upfront.”

You know you’re losing money and going to jail if you get in bed with that guy. You don’t want to have anything to do with an idea you can only hear after signing an NDA and paying upfront.

How to ACTUALLY Get Paid to Pitch 

There are two parts to this tactic:

  1. Charge higher prices to compensate for the inevitable rejections you’ll get.
  2. Overdeliver to your clients and customers so it’s worth paying you higher prices!

One of my favorite phrases comes from the marketing genius Seth Godin:

“You’ll pay a lot, but you’ll get more than you paid for.”

That is the only way this guy’s Tweet works. 

Selling Is Tough

I get it. Creating proposals, pitching to customers, and facing possible rejection—it really stinks. It takes a lot of time and hard work. It’s frustrating. 

But let me be clear: THAT DOESN’T MEAN ANYONE OWES YOU ANYTHING!

The world doesn’t work that way. We are all in sales, and much of that involves reaching out to others. It means facing the very real possibility of rejection coupled with no monetary gain. 

So go ahead and pitch. And if you want to get paid for that, build the cost into your pricing structure. 

But make sure you overdeliver on that promise to your customer. 

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by Nathan Coumbe

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

“What do I want to do when I grow up?”

We have all asked, or been asked, this question.

But it’s the the wrong one—it has multiple answers that change much too often.

Instead, ask yourself : “who do I want to be?”

How do I want to contribute?

What legacy do I want to leave when I am gone?

It might be part of what you do for a living, but it might not.

More likely, you will approach everything you do in life—your job and your personal relationships—with a new sense of wholeness and possibility.

If we start by asking the wrong question, we will never get the right answer.

But if you ask the right question, you’ll at least be on the path to the right answer.

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by Nathan Coumbe

You are self-employed

All of us, if we do work that causes us to get paid, are self-employed. It doesn’t matter who signs our paychecks–we work for ourselves.

What does it mean to be self-employed? It means you are your own boss. It means your income is based on your work.

If a freelancer or entrepreneur doesn’t show up for work–if they don’t create enough value for another person–they don’t get paid. This is obvious when you don’t work for a big company with payroll every two weeks.

What about the salesperson working on commission who does have someone who signs her paycheck? If she doesn’t contact the customer, provide value to that customer, and make a sale, she doesn’t get paid.

What about you? The hourly worker or the salaried cubicle-dweller (perhaps virtual cubicle-dweller is more accurate right now)? What happens if you don’t show up for work?

You don’t get paid.

What happens if you fail to create value for the company that employs you?

You get fired.

As soon as you realize you are self-employed–as soon as you realize that you are responsible for the value you create and the income you generate, regardless of how you get paid–you will secure your future.

Even if you are laid off, the attitude of self-employment will cause you to stand out from droves of people who want to know what a company can do for them rather than what they can do for their potential employer.

Adopt the self-employed mindset and you’ll rarely have to worry where your next paycheck comes from.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Grow dandelions or develop software?

My mentor Dan Miller said something profound which I would like to share today:

(I’m paraphrasing) It is better to grow dandelions if that is what you are truly passionate about than it is to learn software development.

What does he mean? Instead of looking out there–into the world and the job market to see what jobs are there–look inward and find what you are both truly passionate about and skilled at doing. Then find a way to generate income with that passion and talent.

If you hate working with computers or can’t stand plugging in thousands of lines of code everyday, why would you spend time and money learning those skills? Simply to make a lot of money?

If you spend 1/3 of your day (and remember you also sleep 1/3) doing something you hate, will money really compensate you for your misery?

It is better to do something simple or common at an uncommonly high level of excellence, and find a way to generate income doing it, than it is to try to fit yourself into something you hate simply for money.

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by Nathan Coumbe

Finding ideal work

“For 95% of people out there, finding something they pretty much like to do most of the time would be a 100% improvement. Shoot for that, and from there, fine-tune toward the ideal.”

–Peter Bowerman, The Well-Fed Writer

Each of us wants to find that dream job that hits every single point on our “ideal career cheat sheet.” So we read, listen, take tests, research, and obsess over and over again without actually ever stepping foot into a field or career to test it out for ourselves, especially if that career is freelancing, entrepreneurship, or any sort of work where you are your own boss.

Start with what you want

I’m learning each day what I want more than anything else is freedom and a better, more balanced lifestyle over some ideal dream job I can’t seem to figure out. That is why I’m exploring this freelance writing field. I’m a good writer (good enough), and I enjoy it well enough, and it would give me time and money to explore the other things I love in life–something my current situation doesn’t allow. I can’t say that I absolutely love every second of writing, every article I write, or every item I write about, but what I do love is the freedom.

My mentor, Dan Miller, has a saying: “passion is more developed than discovered.” Try something out and see if a passion for it, or some aspect of it, develops rather than waiting around for some ideal career to magically drop into your lap.

It’s a quest

I’m not saying “what the hell–just pick something,” but perhaps I am saying “MERELY pick something.” Take something you think you might enjoy well enough, try it out, and see if it gets you closer to your ideal situation. You won’t know until you actually experience it. Then it becomes a step on the ladder to your ideal “dream career.” It’s a process of discovery and exploration.

I don’t think this quest for dream work is a true-false test, and neither is life. Everything we do is more of an open-ended essay question you get to write yourself.

The trick is to start writing.

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