The M.A.P. Maker

Book review: My So-Called Freelance Life by Michelle Goodman

For many people, taking the path to passion in their career means striking out on their own as a self-employed, freelancing, solopreneur type.

If that's you, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Michelle Goodman's latest book, My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire. It's not often you find a how-to book packed to capacity with real-world advice that is also such a fun read.

I got my copy of the book last week. Since then, I have picked it up repeatedly and flipped it open at random. Again and again my reaction has been, "Oh, that's good." It's high on utility and low on fluff, all written in Michelle's irreverent style that will make you smile, chuckle, and occasionally guffaw (I kid you not! Actual guffaws!).

Even if it weren't so fun to read, this book has so much useful information that it would still be a mandatory addition to any freelancer's library.

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Need to re-energize your career?
Get started with 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work!

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

 

The Secret of Fearless Living

What would your life be like if you weren't limited by fear? Guy Finley wants to help you find out.

Finley's new book, "The Essential Laws of Fearless Living" is being released today in 142 countries simultaneously. As part of the launch, he is offering 108 free gifts (including my e-book, "The Five Fundamentals of Occupational Adventure") if you go to this site and buy the book via Amazon.

Here's a nutshell picture of what the book is about...

The Essential Laws of Fearless Living is a step-by-step guide to realizing your ultimate potential as a human being.

Each of its 40 concise sections reveals a fundamental secret of our living Universe, and contains a simple practical technique to help you harness its power to make lasting changes in your life.             

Check it out. It might just be the missing puzzle piece you need.

Enjoy!

Review: How'd You Score That Gig?

One of the steps I take my clients through, after we have identified a handful of paths that align with what energizes and inspires them, is digging in to get a deeper understanding of what each of those paths is really all about. That might involve online research, or informational interviews, reading books, or taking classes.

Or now, it might involve reading Alexandra Levit's new book, "How'd You Score That Gig?" In the book, Alexandra spotlights dozens of jobs, weaving together an overview of what each job is all about and insights from people who are actually doing it.

She starts it all off with a self-assessment test to help you determine of you are...

• An Adventurer
• A Creator
• A Data Head
• An Entrepreneur
• An Investigator
• A Networker
• A Nurturer

Within each of those categories, she examines numerous jobs.

One of the biggest challenges in figuring out "where to from here," is the fact that we don't know what we don't know; we can only explore what we're aware of. With this book, you get a sneak peek at a variety of possibilities, expanding the realm of what you know.

If you're ready for a career change, check this book out. It's a great way to start exploring, "Who am I, and what's out there that fits that?"

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

It's Not About the Coffee, by Howard Behar

I can always tell when a book really speaks to me because I find myself irresistibly compelled to break out my highlighter and slather the pages in line after line of bright yellow. It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks by Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks International and Starbucks North America, is one of those books.

I must confess, I'm not that much of a leadership lit junkie; the leadership-specific books on my shelf are few and far between. But I was drawn to this one because so much of what he talks about fits hand in glove with the ideas I talk about here in this blog.

Many of the ideas Behar discusses are just as applicable in our own personal career journeys as they are in a leadership context. For example, in his view (as in mine), it all starts with a solid, fundamental understanding of who we are ourselves. He describes it as one-hat living and one-hat leadership...

Wearing one hat is the epitome of personal leadership. It is the starting point - and the end point - of the lifelong process of discovering who you are and what you stand for. When you wear one hat:

• You know what makes you feel most deeply alive.
• You feel good about yourself.
• You have no need for secrets or pretending or posturing.
• You can lead yourself and others from a place of clarity and integrity.

Wearing one hat is essentially having a deep understanding of who you are, what energizes and inspires you, and what you value - and then acting in alignment with that. Behar goes on to say, "One-hat leadership, like one-hat living, is synoymous with honesty, clarity, passion, and a sense of being truly engaged and alive." (Sound familiar?)

"Know who you are" (i.e., wear one hat) is the first of ten principles laid out in the book. Those principles are:

1. Know who you are
2. Know why you're here
3. Think independently
4. Build trust
5. Listen for the truth
6. Be accountable
7. Take action
8. Face challenge
9. Practice leadership
10. Dare to dream

You won't find any magic epiphanies about successful leadership (or a successful life) in this book. Everything he talks about is simple and straightforward - yet often contrary to the approach we actually end up taking. 

Behar's experience and success gives weight to his message and the human element woven through it. Though straightforward, it's a message we need to hear again and again, in as many ways as possible. 

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dreams!

This morning Making the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland found its way into my morning reading rotation. After only a few pages, I found myself inspired to jump up and blog.

As I described in a previous post sparked by Lisa Haneberg's podcast interview with him, "Bill grew up in what he describes as a very bad inner city community. Today, he is the President and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, an organization that blends business and social change."

In the book, he describes one of the underlying keys to his transformation from "just another aimless kid, coasting through school, bored, and disengaged" to CEO of an organization that has been the subject of multiple Harvard Business School case studies and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant:

...one of the greatest obstacles blocking us from realizing that potential is that we believe, or are told, the things we want most passionately are impractical, unrealistic, or somehow beyond our reach. The story I have to share with you is the pursuit of one unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dream after another, and the remarkable consistency with which those dreams have come true. That didn't happen by magic. It happened because I refused to be limited by what conventional wisdom, or other people, or the cautious little voice we all have in our heads told me I couldn't do.

I love the idea of serial unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dreaming. Turning one dream after another into reality. It recognizes that, as we get closer to one dream, there's something else that seems way out there. Something else to make us stretch and inspire us.

And it always starts with where we are right now. Sometimes pursuing a dream means jumping in and starting to build it right away. Other times we first have to start filling in the hole we're standing in so we can stand up and scan the horizon. Sometimes the dream comes rushing up to meet us. Other times we have to diligently chip away at it to make it happen. Whatever the situation, it starts by taking steps.

What's your unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dream? What dreams are you saying no to because you don't see an obvious, readily attained path to get there?

What one step could you take in that direction today? What one step could you take this week? This month?

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Reviews: 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work

My book, 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work, has been out for three months now, and one of the things I've loved is hearing all the great feedback about it.

What are they saying? Well, here's a taste, with all the blog posts I know about that have written comments about it:

Doing software development in Chicago

"I am enjoying reading this book and taking it slow. I would recommend it to anyone..."

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Gautam Ghosh

"The writing is upbeat, and the message is written straight from the heart...There is a strong bias towards tools to help yourself too. People who like to focus on "so what" from a book, would gets lots of techniques to deploy it.

In that way, it's a book for the dreamer and the detail-minded. I think the message from Curt's book is that to be passionate about work you have to be both."

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Innovation Weblog

"...it is packed with thought-provoking insights and exercises that you can put into action today to revolutionize how you approach your talents, dreams, aspirations and ideas."

It can be read like a regular book, or you can use the topical cross-index (which serves as a more useful version of a table of contents) in the front of the book to zero in on the areas you really want to focus on. Each chapter is only 1-2 pages in length, so you can easily digest one nugget, think about it and take action on it. Each chapter ends with a set of "taking action" bullet points that are designed to help you explore it further and make it your own.

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legal sanity

"Curt offers a lot of practical insight and action points for reenergizing our current work or reorienting towards a different job or career that rewards us on many levels – financial, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. There’s a hefty helping of material here. But, Curt makes it very easy to consume by breaking it down into bite-sized tips, ideas and inspirational perspectives."

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Make It Great

"If you're not 100% in love with your job, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Curt Rosengren's new book 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work. It's packed with (you guessed it) 101 ways to get wild about work. It's an easy read, as you can take each piece as your own daily to-do. Not only does this book have information, but it has (my favorite) action steps. Curt calls the ends of his chapter "putting it to work" and they are invaluable ways for you to love your job more.

...I strongly encourage you pick up a copy of 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work for you and for those you work with."

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Management Craft

"This book offers 101 ways, and each is written up with energy and inspiration. Yes, there are lots of practical ideas, too, but I just like the "vibe" of this book.

I think it would be a great book to give to all employees as a nice surprise. Just slip one into everyone's mailbox (you know that place crammed full of boring memos and tedious reports?) and let it do the work."

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If you have a review that I've missed, please let me know and I'll add it to the list. And if you have read it and have any feedback to share, drop me a line. I'd love to hear it.

One pleasant development has been several multi-book purchases (the largest order was for twenty). My guess is that it has been managers buying the book for their employees or co-workers, but I don't really know because there's no way to see who made the purchase (so if one of those was you, I would love to know about it!).

If you want more of a taste of what the book has in store for you, you can find three sample chapters here.

Enjoy!

 

Check out 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Be Bold: Create a career with impact

I started a new book for my morning reading today, titled, Be Bold: Create a career with impact. So far, I love it. Here's the description from the back of the book:

The most important decision you will ever make in your life is how you show up in the world. This includes choices you make about your career. Finding your passion and applying it in the service of others is a sure path to a meaningful life. Let Be Bold guide you on this exciting journey.

Be Bold is written by Cheryl Dorsey and Lara Galinsky at Echoing Green, an organization that, through its "prestigious fellowship program, has supported over 400 visionary individuals around the world in their efforts to create bold, groundbreaking nonprofit organizations."

While the book is written with a focus on a career in the non-profit sector, the ideas it outlines are relevant for anyone wanting to make the most of the rest of their lives. The basic structure focuses around four core elements they have identified in finding and pursuing that path to a meaningful life. Those elements are:

Moment of Obligation: identifying what means most to you and committing to carrying out your dreams

Gall to Think Big: believing you can take on the world and developing a clear and expansive vision for change

New and Untested: questioning the status quo and creating new solutions to address seemingly intractable social problems.

Seeing possibilities: identifying solutions when others can't and having hope when others don't

The bulk of the book is made up of short success stories of Echoing Green fellows who embody those concepts.

Finally, in addition to insights and inspiration, the book also offers a bucketload of great questions to help you explore what being bold means to you.

Definitely a book worth adding to your library.

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Sneak preview: 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work

[Update: The book is now available here.]

Whoo-hoo! I've been working on it off and on for over two years, but I'm finally just about to publish 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work.

I'm completely psyched to finally be ready to share it with you. It has the potential to spark a lot of positive change in people's lives, and I can't think of much that lights me up more than that!

The book is packed with insights and action steps to  help you turn your dreams into reality. Each bite-sized idea stands on its own and is short enough to easily read, absorb, and put into play in your life.

You can either start at the beginning and work through it front to back, or take a self-customized approach, flipping through it and working with ideas that feel particularly relevant to where you are at the moment.

Here's a sneak preview of what you'll find:

Introduction (suggestions on how to use the book)

Topic Guide

#1 - Define Tomorrow by Its Potential

Want to be among the very first to know when it's available? Drop me an e-mail and I will send you a note to let you know (hint: It will be in time for New Year's).

Inspiring books: Stone Soup for the World

I try to make it a habit to start my day off by sitting down with a freshly brewed cup of coffee and an inspiring book. For a few weeks, my book of choice was Stone Soup for the World.

It's a compilation of short true stories about people who are working to make the world a better place. The cast of characters ranges from the rich and famous to the completely unknown, and all points in between. 

It was a great source of energy and inspiration for me. Invariably I would come away from just a short time reading charged up and ready to change the world. And because I rationed it out to just a handful of stories each morning, the book lasted me for weeks.

I always have my eye out for more inspiring books to add to my library (see my Recommended Reading page for a few more I have on my shelf). What books have inspired you lately?

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM