Archive | February, 2005

Cool People In Your Own Backyard

by on February 17, 2005 in Career, Creative

It’s really cool to run into exciting, interesting people in your own neighborhood. The other day, I noticed a new shop opened in the same shopping center as my Starbucks-home. The name of the store is the Curiosity Zone and with a name like that, who wouldn’t get curious and want to look around inside.

Turns out that this shop is devoted to curious kids and us adults who still have the curious kid inside. It’s described as “a state-of-the-art science and tech enrichment center for kids ages 1-12. It is a place where kids can go to think, invent, create, explore and learn, learn, learn.” Neat, huh? The shop sells neat science-fair kind of stuff, but even better, it has a kid-sized classroom/laboratory where they host hands-on group lessons and birthday parties.

As a dad of two daughters (as well as a bit of an amateur science geek), I was hooked so I found the owner and talked with her for a bit. Mary Porter’s story shows just how powerful a dream can be when it comes to living a life worth living (check out her bio – what’s cute is the “then” and “now” pictures). She’s a former lawyer who had talent and brilliance in that profession, but yearned for something else. From her bio:

But what does growing up to be a corporate lawyer have to do with being a kid scientist/ engineer/inventor? Well, not a whole lot. And that’s kind of my point. It wasn’t until life unexpectedly took me to Seattle and to a startup Internet company that went crazy and went public in a blast of innovation that I finally started to get it. It was like a million of those fireflies glowing at full wattage. I was supposed to be creating and inventing stuff.

And so here I am. It took me a while, but I finally got here. I devoted the last couple of years to studying, playing, brainstorming and creating with some pretty amazing kids, parents and teachers. The result is the Curiosity Zone — a place I wish I’d had as a kid, and a place all of the wonderful kids in my life today are proud to have helped invent. It’s a place where kids can go to let their curiosity fly; where they can think, invent, create, explore and learn, learn, learn!

I have to admit her personality is engaging, her vision is exciting, and her passion is contagious. Listening to her speak with such enthusiasm for growing her business and inspiring children’s curiosity, I’m already thinking about how I can help her. And she wouldn’t have to pay me a dime. I would do it because I believe in what she’s trying to build.

Folks, if you live in the Washington, DC area, come out to Ashburn, VA and visit Mary’s store. Bring your kids and your curiosity. And even if you can’t visit, you can still build a version of the Curiosity Zone in your life and make a place where you can “think, invent, create, explore and learn, learn, learn!”

The Career Change Blues (and Other Colors): Embracing Our Imperfections

by on February 15, 2005 in Career, Creative, Life

I’m not sure how I happened to discover Charlie Badenhop and Seishindo.org, but it’s one of those wonderful surprises that life presents you. I subscribe to his e-newsletter, Pure Heart, Simple Mind, and eagerly look forward to each issue. If you want to be treated to some truly soulful writing that gets to the heart of life, do yourself a big favor and subscribe. Trust me, you won’t regret it. Okay, I’m almost finished gushing.

The most recent issue’s main article is titled Perfect Imperfections and it hits so soundly on a hangup that afflicts so many of us: the desire for perfection. Yet, rather than doing something perfectly (delivering the perfect presentation, acing the interview, hitting a Curt Schilling curveball), Charlie writes about the desire to be perfect. There’s a huge difference and this latter desire is so insidious to our own wellbeing and sense of self-worth. It reminds me of a previous post I wrote in January called Just To Be Enough.

Charlie tells a story about a recent visit to a pottery shop outside of Tokyo, Japan. Admiring the workmanship, he talks to the shops owner and asks her to tell him about some of the pieces. She starts by describing the process of creating her pottery and that she is never sure how the piece will look when she pulls it out of the kiln.

It is the serendipity she said, that makes the work so magical. "It helps you to stay humble, and you learn to surrender to and accept the unknown," she said.

Then she relates to Charlie the "hoped for imperfections" of her work…glazing with inconsistent thickness and a not quite round bowl. Of all her pieces, it’s the ones that are perfect that she values least. They don’t adequately describe her uniqueness.

Charlie ends the article with some powerful questions and insights.

Do you try to make it appear like you have no flaws? Or do you relish how such flaws add to your uniqueness? I find in my own life, it is so important to go beyond the oppositional thinking of right or wrong, good or bad, and in the process, accept, and fall in love with, who I really am.

Why am I including this in my series on career change? Because I think perfection can be very seductive when it comes to the job hunting process. Think about your resume and your interview strategy. If you’re like me, you worry that everything has to be perfect because you’re likely up against so much competition. Everyone tells you that imperfections will get you weeded out. Mind you, not just technical imperfections like a misspelling (though please make sure you’re diligent and use spell-check; I’ve been a hiring manager before and have discarded resumes and cover letters from college graduates that were littered with misspellings), but personal imperfections, as well. Most of the interview guides give advice for glossing over these imperfections when asked to talk about weaknesses. Since when did our uniqueness become a weakness? For instance, I’m incredibly impatient. One option is to tell the interviewer that it’s a weakness that I’m working hard to rid myself of. Or I can fully own this quality of mine and love myself for it. My hope is that a potential employer will decide to accept the wholeness of me, appreciate all that I bring, and welcome my perfect imperfections with open arms.

The Career Change Blues (and Other Colors): Find A Support Network

by on February 14, 2005 in Career, Life

As I email and chat with some folks who’ve responded to my first post in the Career Change Blues series, I realize just how important it is to have a support network. Family and friends are a vital part of this group, but I think its equally important to find others who are going through the same job hunting issues. Sometimes its good to have an empathetic rather than sympathetic ear to gripe, cry, cheer, whatever you need. Someone who is experiencing similar emotions and issues or has experienced them recently can understand your excitement, disappointment, sadness in very specific ways. And you can do the same for them.

If you have a support network, great. Check in with your network regularly. Share what you’re going through. Feel it and then let it go. This is important because it can be easy and dangerous to wallow around in the more negative emotions that can come with the job change process. As others in your network to keep you accountable. Finally, grow your network. Look for others who need you and your group.

If you don’t have a support network, make an effort to find one. The beauty of the internet and new technology means that the rules for cultivating a network have changed. You no longer are tied to your locality for support.

If you’re currently searching for a support group, here’s what I’m proposing: join me and my growing online network. I’m not sure what this is going to evolve into, but just communicating with other souls has been extremely helpful for me. And I believe its been just as helpful for those with which I’ve been communicating.

I’ve become a big fan of Skype as it’s free and combines the best of chat and voice-over-the-internet. It also has the capability of conferencing multiple users together (did this last night and it was great). If you want to talk with Skype, you’ll need speakers and a microphone set-up; I bought a fairly inexpensive headset at Best Buy. If you’re interested, go to Skype, download the software, then come back here and click the “Skype Me” button on the left column. If you have any questions, just email me.

Whatever you do, don’t go through the career change blues alone.

The Career Change Blues (and Other Colors): Trust Your Intuition

by on February 11, 2005 in Career, Creative

I posted my resume on Monster.com two days ago on the advice from my sister. I wasn’t going to go this route, but she’s had tremendous success with it. So, I created an account. As my wife constantly tells me, "What do you have to lose?"

Today I received an email from an executive recruiting agency that got filtered straight to my MS Outlook junk mail folder. It had a credible sounding name and the subject line looked legitimate. It referenced my resume on Monster and seemed to be interested in helping me. But as I read the message, I quickly realized it was canned and there was something wrong. A little voice said to hold on and research this agency. Lo and behold, it appeared to be a scam. Once again, my intuition guided me in a safe direction and out of harm’s way.

I learned to trust my intuition at a very early stage of my after-college life. I had just graduated with a degree in history and very little idea of what I really wanted to do professionally. So with a bachelors degree in hand, I did what I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do – work retail. But I did that as well as work at a coffee shop and bartend at an Elks Lodge (probably the WORST job I’ve ever had). After a while I simply got tired of making very little money and decided to look through the classifieds of the local paper. Among all the ads, I found a sales job that looked promising. It was for a new environmentally-friendly products company that promised (early red flag) a good salary and training.

I show up for the initial interview and find that the office is filled with about 30 other candidates. The president and his executives gave us a brief presentation and then each had an interview. Honestly, that’s about all I can remember, but I do know that the whole thing lasted around 3 hours. Now that we had more information, we were encouraged to return the next day for orientation. I did my best to make sure the executives of the company remembered who I was.

However, something just didn’t seem right. As I drove home, a voice nagged at me to check into this company. It was contrasted by another voice which reminded me that I might start finally making some good money for a change. The nagging voice got louder as the day wore on until I decided to boot up the computer and do an internet search. Now I wouldn’t say I was a rube, but I clearly didn’t recognize a pyramid scheme when I saw one. My heart sank as I read account after account of the shady practices of this company. All I could think was how close I came to getting caught up in it.

That was the day that I started to understand what intuition is and how important it was to listen to it.

Its something to consider if you are looking for a career or if you are already employed. If something doesn’t seem right in your gut, listen and listen hard. It might not only save you money, but save your integrity as well.

Tapping Your Hard-Wired Creativity

by on February 11, 2005 in Creative, Media

One of the creative habits I’m reinstituting is waking up early each morning as the sun rises and reading in the yellow, cheerful sunroom of my home. I used to do this each workday morning, but somehow I allowed myself to get away from it. Too bad, because now I remember how the act of reading great books on leadership, creativity, or purpose would energize me for the day ahead. Right now, that’s more important than ever.

I’m reading Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life, for the second time (my first read was through a copy from the library, but I recently bought it and now get to scribble notes throughout). It’s billed as a practical guide, which it truly is. She offers plenty of wonderful exercises to help stir the creative juices. One such exercise that I spent some time reflecting on today is a questionnaire she calls Your Creative Autobiography. Here are some of the questions she asks (there are 33 in all):

  • What are your [creative] habits? What patterns do you repeat?

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  • What is your creative ambition?

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  • What are the obstacles to this ambition?

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  • What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition?

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  • Who is your muse?

Challenging stuff. For a long time, I didn’t think I was terribly creative. Growing up, I was complimented on my creativity; I liked to sketch, build, create little scenes as only a child can. It was all driven by an innate curiosity of how the world worked. Then I hit adolescence and I tried to cram all of this creativity stuff in a plain box and deny my own creative spirit. Yet, it was always there smoldering, ready to reignite. Thankfully, I’ve rediscovered those traits that make me unique. I like this quote from Twyla:

Each of us is hard-wired a certain way. And that hard-wiring insinuates itself into our work. That’s not a bad thing. Actually, it’s what the world expects from you. We want our artists to take the mundane materials of our lives, run it through their imaginations, and surprise us. (italics added)

Each of us who are passionate about what we do are artists. So what are you hard-wired to do? What kind of creative surprises can you create today?