These are my thoughts as a 2007 Stanford GSB grad after sitting on a career panel at The Columbia Graduate School of Business. Let me know what you think.

This has not been checked for grammar. It’s a freewrite. Thanks for reading.

MBAs are risk averse.

Business school students are among the smartest and hardest working, but they are some of the most risk averse people in the world. Many of us were driven by fear of not having, not succeeding, and not “making it”. We’re running as hard as we can, but we’re not necessarily sure where we’re running to. Sometimes it’s best to just stop, be still, and listen to your voice within. The greatest risk in the world is not taking any risk at all.

(Most MBAs wouldn’t do this with their career unless a lot of other MBAs were doing it too.)

MBAs are some of the most underemployed people in the world.

Underemployment is the biggest issue facing MBAs and the world. Underemployment is when you’re working below your full potential. Anyone who has said they hate their job is likely underemployed. Underemployment has nothing to do with income. It’s about how passionate you are about your daily work.

Imagine having a sample economy of 100 people where 10 are unemployed and the other 90 are only 50% engaged or underemployed. 90 x 50% ~ 45 people being unemployed which makes it 4.5 times bigger of an issue than unemployment. In addition to being some of the smartest and hardworking, MBAs are equipped with an amazing set of leadership and business skills that position them to building teams and solve the world’s greatest problems. The sad part is that most MBAs don’t seek professional paths that tackle the world’s greatest problem. If not us, then who?

(Underemployment has nothing to do with income. It’s about passion.)

MBAs make you money, not happy.

I even have classmates who are unemployed right now, but it is because they would rather be unemployed than underemployed. Their self-confidence gives them the strength to hold out so that they can find the perfect opportunity instead of potentially missing it because they are caught up somewhere else. Whenever someone is underemployed, not only are they unhappy, but the what they produce is not top quality, therefore the customer is unhappy, and then the company is unhappy. Everybody loses. Full employment means the perfect alignment of your passions and purpose with your profession. In a recent US job survey of 7.000+ workers, researchers found that:

• Only 45% of workers say they are satisfied (33 percent) or extremely satisfied (12 percent) with their jobs.
• Only 20% feel very passionate about their jobs; less than 15 percent agree that they feel strongly energized by their work
• Only 31% (strongly or moderately) believe that their employer inspires the best in them.

Your purpose and passion are too big to fit into a single profession or job title. Your career is just one avenue to exercise and fulfill them. Underemployment, unemployment, or full employment. You choose.

(These guys probably think their job is the $#!+)

MBAs should focus on creating value.

MBA programs, even online MBA programs, focus more on capturing value (business models) than creating value. Whereas leadership is the process of taking smart risk and creating value, management is the process of sucking risks out of a business and capturing value. Keep in mind that entrepreneurs don’t love risk—they actually hate risk. True entrepreneurs are just willing to take the risk necessary to achieve a larger purpose. The Masters in Business Administration (MBA) should be changed to an Masters in Business Leadership (MBL) or Masters in Value Creation (MVC). This would change the focus of the curriculum, students, and programming. Though most people go to business school to change careers, it has the power to change the world.

Do you realize that if you figured out how to create and capture 25 cents ($0.25) worth of value every minute of the day for a year, you would earn $131,400. That’s more than the average starting salary of a recent business school grad? What if you just focused on increasing this number instead of working like crazy for someone else for 40 years?

MBAs are taught to believe in the law of scarcity.

I think MBAs get it from economics which is based on the law of scarcity. Scarcity of natural resources. Scarcity of jobs (Get in where you fit in). Scarcity of great talent (the whole premise of business school). Scarcity of idea (someone’s going to take my business idea). The perception that things that are scarce are more valuable (i.e. MBA admssions) is killing us…literally. Mother Earth produces more than enough food for everyone in the world to eat, yet there is still starvation. Why? If the world is abundant, but everyone believes that it isn’t, then people tend to hoard or capture what they can get. People take more than they need and others are left without.

(Is that water in the background?)

MBAs should learn to value time over money.

The only scarce resource that really exist is your time, thus making it your most valuable resource. You choose how to spend and invest it, not your company, not your parents, not your family or friends. Anyone not in control of their own time is a __________________ (I’ll let you fill in the blank). You probably know exactly what’s in your bank account right now, but nobody knows how much time is in their time account. Whoever said time is money was all wrong. Time IS LIKE money in that you can spend it, lose it, waste it, invest it, and run out of it, but Time IS NOT LIKE money in that you can’t get it back or make more of it, or measure how much you have left. Even Bill Gates can’t buy another second of time. Everything costs time (not money). An iPhone priced at $300 cost the CEO who makes $100/hour 3 hours, but it cost the entry level employee who make $30/hr 10 hours. The CEO and employee are paid based on other’s perceptions of their ability to create value. We should embrace the law of abundance given our capacity to innovate and create value.

(Time is NOT money)

MBAs can create value by saving others time.

You can’t really save time as in store it, but if you can help people “save” time by getting them to where they want to go faster, safer, and easier, you can create extreme value for others and capture some of that value in the form of money. The reason a personal trainer is able to make a living doing what they love is because they can help someone move from 300 lbs. (point A) to 250 lbs. (Point B) faster than the person could have done it on their own. The reaon the iPhone is doing so well is because it helps people navigate their music, the internet, contacts, and other data faster and easier than the individual could do it on their own. It’s pretty simple. I call this your professional velocity. Your professional velocity is your ability to close the distance between point A and B for other people and organizations. The higher your professional velocity, the more value you will create and capture.

(Save time and create value)

MBAs shouldn’t seek jobs, they should create them.

Instead of focusing on job loss, lets focus on job creation. It’s a little known fact that more millionaires were made during The Great Depression than in any other time in U.S. history when resources are supposed to be most scarce. How is that? Value creation! Billion dollar companies like Microsoft and Google grew out of free ideas. But you can only get free ideas when you believe they exists. But capturing value only last for so long and that’s where scarcity applies. Once a leader creates value through innovation, then the focus shifts to capturing that value and that’s where management comes in. Management’s job is to suck all of the risk out of the business. Entrepreneurs aren’t risk lovers—it’s just that their vision and sense of purpose transcends the perceived risk. Fearlessness doesn’t mean having no fear, it means having less fear than courage. Yet, they respect all of the people like Phil Knight, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin & Larry Page, and Steve Jobs who took risks to develop and create major value. Together, these 5 people have created $666,000,000,000 in value and created 175,000 jobs. Imagine if Bill Gates followed the rest of his classmates to McKinsey or Sergey and Larry worked as engineers at HP. None of this value or these jobs would exist today.

(Squeeze the world’s sourest problems)

Passion is the GMAT of Success

You’ve probably heard of Good To Great and Built To Last, but have you read Success Built To Last? In the book, Success Built to Last, Jerry Porras (coauthor of Built To Last), Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson, interviewed hundreds of “successful” people—including some of the names mentioned above, many Nobel Laureates, government and community service leaders, teachers, scientists, and Olympians, as well as Pulitzer, Grammy, Peabody, and Academy Award winners—to identify common characteristics among them. Success was defined as having at least two decades of impact in one’s industry, field, or lane.

They discovered that successful people don’t obsess over what other people may think about their work. They also found that enduringly successful people are more concerned with doing what they love than being loved. They don’t treat their passions like a trivial pursuits or low-priority items. Successful people focus on being good at what is meaningful to them, and do that—not “whatever” just comes along. They understand their unique passions and allocate their view of the right amount of time to each, according to their own individually chosen preference. In summary, excelling at your passion is a pre-requiste to success in the same way that excelling on the GMAT is a pre-requiste for MBA admissions.

(Take your passion as seriously as you took the GMAT)

So how do I find my passions?

First and foremost, I don’t believe that you don’t know your passion. It’s an easy excuse. You’ve likely been using your passion all of your life whether you know it or not, but you’ve probably never thought about it in a professional context. For example, I think Bobby Fisher, one of the greatest chess players to ever. But what if chess was only a manifestation of his true passion for strategic thinking? Lets say he didn’t want to become a professional chess player. What else could he do with that passion? I think he would make one hell of a strategy consultant, sports coach, or military general. Why? Because the same mind set required to be a great chess player is required to be great at those other things. If he could see those careers as one big chess board, the transition wouldn’t be that hard. In the same way, there is no difference between someone who is passionate about bargain shopping and someone who does mergers and acquisitions for a living. It’s the same game on a larger scale.

List all of your favorite activities, projects, books, movies, TV shows, and discussion topics from childhood to now. After that, ask yourself what part of this thing did I love. For instance, lets say that you used to want to be an archeologist when you were younger. That may indicate your passion for digging for information, studying history, or comparing cultures. Once you complete this list, you’ll be able start to see patterns and uncover your true passion because all of the things you engaged with.

(Sir Richard Branson, Founder & CEO of Virgin at work)

Can I make money with my passion?

You can monetize any passion if you’re passionate enough and (you get) other people (to) love it too. It’s more of marketing question than a money question. Tony Sheih of Zappos has monetized studying happiness. Ben & Jerry monetized their passion for ice cream. Walt Disney monetized his passion for art and animation. Herb Keller, CEO of Southwest as passionate about injustice, but law wasn’t the only way to manifest that. He saw an injustice in the airline industry that the average American could fly so he set out to create the lowest cost airlines ever. Ivan Chounard’s passion for rock climbing has become Pategonia. Phil Knight monetized running and athleticism. He didn’t have to be a professional runner to pursue his passions. The deeper you delve into your passions, the more business opportunities you will see. Don’t expect to put your big toe in the kiddie pool and expect to find hidden treasure at the bottom of the sea. Immerse yourself in your passions.

(Ben & Jerry sharing their passion for ice cream)

So if I follow my passions, the money will come?

Not quite. You’ve probably heard the saying “Follow your passion and the money will come.” They skipped a step. It’s follow your passion, get great at it (meaning crystallize it into a skill), and then the money will come. The only difference between a professional athlete and an amateur is that they are able to replicate success at a given activity more than an amateur. Do you realize that you be great at almost anything you want if you commit to it? Unfortunately, many millennials are non-commital and self-discipline is a scare resource. But, the worst thing you can do is get great at something you hate. In Hollywood, it’s called typecasting. You take a role that don’t like and you do well. All of a sudden, those are the only roles that come your way. Breaking out of that mold is 10 times harder than starting off on the right path.

(Murder mediocrity and sharp shoot for your dreams)

How do I crystallize my passion into a skill?

Since finding your passion is all about exposure and the recruiting process only exposes you to a limited menu of options, you can start your own 30 Day Do It group with classmates. This will help you crystallize your passion into skill during school. We have structure and accountability at work and school, but for some reason, we don’t have them for our personal goals. A 30 Day Do It is a group meets every 30 days to set goals and hold each other accountable to last month’s goals. The self-discovery process needs structure just like school has structure and work has structure. That’s why I wrote The 8 Cylinders of Success and Good Excuse Goals. Together, both books will show you how to answer the life questions school doesn’t ask and setup structure and accountability to find answers. Imagine if you and 4 other classmates spent your first 6 months of schools doing deep dives into different career paths. At the end of 6 months (around February) you would be open to 30 (5 people x 6 months) career paths that you never considered before.

Once you find your passion, you have to commit to greatness at it. As Malcolm Gladwell states in his book Outliers, to become an expert at almost anything requires at least 10,000 hours of practice. That’s 20 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 10 years. Luckily, you’ve probably already accumulated time toward a particular passion, but despite classes and other activities, you have to create at least 20 hours of space in your week to practice your passion. Since, we’re not playing a sport, practice can be hard to define, but it can include anything related to your passion such as additional reading, networking with people who share your passion, meeting with professors who are experts, conducting passion related research, creating a company related to your passion, leading a student group, or interning among other things. Ask yourself, what can I do today to be the best I can be at my passion tomorrow?

(What do you love doing and why?)

What about on-campus recruiting? Avoid it!

Avoid on-campus recruiting. It creates career tunnel vision and the time line is screwed up. Have you ever been in a crowd an experienced everyone just start running. You’re not sure why people are running, but you figure that you better run too. That’s exactly what on-campus recruiting is. Just because the companies are ready to hire doesn’t mean you’re ready to be hired. A successful on-campus recruiting season is not measured by the number of offers you get. It’s actually measured by how FEW interviews if takes for you to find your fit. Since business schoolers like to golf, you understand that hole-in-ones are better than bogies. There are more jobs in the world where you could create (and capture) extreme value than the limited number of ones that come to campus. Get off campus and go find them.

Don’t be recruited by a company. They will never know you the way you know you. All they are really look for is a huge ball of clay talent to mold. You can try to fit in, but you are who you are. Therefore, recruit the company you want. Find the company that will fit you by thoroughly researching opportunities (usually off-campus). I would recruit like an archer instead of machine gun. Rather than shooting everywhere hoping something hits, I would take my time, take aim, and release. You save a lot of rejection, inauthenic conversations, and stress that way. When I went to business school, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I failed to position myself as an entrepreneur post-MBA due to some poor leadership choices, product delays, and lack of funding, I knew myself so well that I interviewed with one company and got the job.

(Don’t be recruited. Recruit the company you want.)

Won’t business school help me find what I love?

Business school is simply a space for you find yourself and what you love if you choose. Most people come to business school or grad school in general to hide out for two years because they hated their previous job and don’t know what they want to do yet. Everyone is hoping that business school will help them find IT, but in reality, they must find IT using business as a time and tool. What sucks is that recruiting starts right after mid-terms as if the student has had time to do real self-discovery between the time they left their previous job and started school. The problem is that grad school buys you more time, but it doesn’t guarantee self-discovery. Most people graduate from grad with a masters degree but no mastery of self. If you know who you are and what you have to offer, you will always be able to find a place to fit and a way to contribute and create value. If you simply know your options, but don’t know who you are, the likelihood of you finding a fit is a shot in the dark.

A masters degree doesn’t mean self-mastery. You have to make time for that just like you would a class or else you’ll end up in the exact same situation you were in after undergrad in a new company and perhaps industry with a new title making more money. I repeat, school does not promise to help you discover your passions, purpose, or profession. Maybe you’re okay with that. How is that hundreds of the world’s best and brightest all want to do the exact same few jobs? consulting, banking, and brand management. Do you really know that that is what you want to be? Why? How do you do know?  How many people have you talked to that do that? Do any of your mentors do that? How did you decide on this? What other (non-traditional) career opportunities did you explore? What made this one the best? Don’t lead on a an employer who wants to get married when you aren’t even “engaged”. They will find out. You can only fake love for so long.

(A master’s degree doesn’t mean self-mastery)

So what should I do in business school?

Do everything you couldn’t do if you weren’t in business school. Fail BIG. Travel EVERYWHERE. Create VALUE (from scratch). Be GREAT.

Finish unfinished business.

First and foremost, do what you didn’t do in undergrad. If you’re in a good business school, you likely did well in undergrad, but if you could do it all over again knowing what you know now, you might flip undergrad a little differently. Check out this list of 66 things every college student must do before graduation. Though it was written with undergrads in mind, you may have some unfinished business to handle in graduate school. The list was designed to help you maximize your personal, intellectual, social, and financial capital while in school using the school’s intellectual, social, and financial capital as well as your time outside of class. Since I finished undergrad in 3 years, I didn’t get a chance to study abroad, so that’s one thing I regret. Business school affords you the time to travel all over the world—some even require it.

Fail BIG while trying to create extreme value.

Usually starting a company is the best way to fail. When I say fail big, I don’t mean fail intentionally. Try to succeed. But do something that you’re not sure you can do. Stretch yourself. Even if you fail and you don’t get the outcome or income you expected, you will still have stretched and expanded your idea of what’s possible. I failed at two businesses while in business school—an online green products store and a people-based search engine. These were the greatest leadership lessons I could ever have. The process of trying to create value from scratch and building a team challenged me in a way that a classroom couldn’t. Most people in the world, even MBAs haven’t made more than $1,000 on their own outside of a company. Try to create value (innovation) and capture it (business model) whether you intend to be an entrepreneur or not. People who have an entrepreneurial mind will lead in the 21st century because they know how to identify problems, develop iterative solutions, and execute. The world is evolving too quickly for you to think you’re going to be able to hide inside a company and take an elevator to the C-level suite without solving a major problem. Any company not solving a major problem in the world will not last and likewise, any employee now solving a major problem for a company won’t last either.

(Escape the cubile. Dig within. Smell freedom

Declare your greatness.

Like I said before, you can be great at anything so why not get great at the thing that you want to be great at. Declare what you are committed to being the world’s greatest at. As talented as MBAs are, if I asked everyone in this room the question, “What is the one thing you are committed to being the world’s greatest at?” many people wouldn’t have an answer. We’ve become comfortable with “good enough”. We were good enough to get into b-school. We were good enough to get that grade or GMAT score. We were good enough to get that job or internship. But what are you great enough to do?

Take a second. Think about it. If you had to choose one thing to be great at, what would it be? If it immediately comes to mind, then write it down. If not, then write the question down until you choose an answer that resonates with you. with the exception of biological feats like the world’s tallest person, nobody in the Guinness book of world records got there by luck. Everyone made a conscious choice as some point in their lives to be the best. And no matter how obscure the thing they chose, most of them are making a living doing what they love. Now keep in mind that I when I say best, I don’t mean better. This is not a competition with anyone else. This all about you. You can be your best without being the best and your can be the best without being your best.

Is entrepreneurship the only way to find the perfect career?

No. I’m confident that if I wasn’t an entrepreneur, I would be perfectly fit for a leadership position in HR at a company I cared about or student life and admissions at a major university. How many people MBAs do you know would even consider that as a career option? Too many people are looking for the sexy jobs when the ones they should marry are right around them. There are more companies than the 50+ that recruit on campus and there are more paths out of business school than 5.

I’m not saying that you have to be an entrepreneur. You can also be an intrapreneur. Instead of trying to fit into a job description on a company’s website, you can propose an entrepreneurial idea that will solve a huge problem in their company or industry. We do it in our case studies in class all the time. After railing on an entrepreneur for decisions in the past (even though their company is worth billions today) we come up with these great ideas for companies that we could actually propose as jobs, not just ideas. Dissect the company or industry you want to work for and make a proposal. As long as you can demonstrate that it will create more value than the cost of your salary, you’re a go. But again, most people haven’t gone through the process of creating value and capturing it on your own. That’s why I highly recommend taking on a project or entrepreneurial venture that will allow you to explore that during business school.

(Understanding how to create and capture value will make you forever rich)

What if you hate your summer internship or first job out of school?

Look at your all of your work experience thus far like it was just more school (with a scholarship to cover living expenses). But here’s the catch, you have to set your graduation date. When you set a graduation or departure date it will force you to maximize your experience by building relationship and developing skills. I call it a bridge job. A bridge job is a time-constrained career move you use as a stepping stone to get to your next job that doesn’t take up more that 50 hours/week. It’s almost impossible to build a bridge if you spend all of your time on one side fo the career river. You commit to leaving the bridge job at the 18 month mark or once you’ve saved up 6 months of basic living experense—whichever comes first. This keeps you from not get too comfortable in a situation you don’t want to be in. Knowing that this is just a bridge job forces you to keep your living expenses low so that you don’t trap yourself. Increasing your living expenses, is the worst thing you can do (no matter how much money you’re making) if you’re in a job you hate. I have friends who hate their job but bought houses. Now they are stuck because they have to “pay the bills”. Hold off on that stuff into you find something you love. I took a bridge job after school when my companies didn’t work out and 17 months later I saved up and started a new one. I gained some invaluable intellectual, social, and financial capital while there and created extreme value while I was there.

(Sometimes bridge jobs are necessary to get where you want to go)

At the end of the day it comes down to this. If you were in an abusive relationship, but they were paying you $10,000/month to stay, would you? Leave! It’s your time and your life. Don’t believe the lie that work sucks no matter where you work so you might as well just stay where you are. Keep in mind that there are known possibilities, options, and unknown possibilities. Up until this poin, you have been operating in the ream of known possibilities and your options within those possibilities. There are literally 100,000s of possibile career paths and companies, but they are only available to you if you’re open to them.

What do you think about making money and then giving back?

I don’t believe in philanthropy or charity as a solution to the world’s greatest problems. I believe you are the solution to world’s greatest problems. Philanthropy and charity are nice-to-haves, but how many charities or foundations do you know have obviated themselves because they solved the particular problem they were created to address?  I’ve heard the quote “I can’t give back to the poor if I’m one of them.” That’s B.S. Has it every cross your mind that it’s not money that the poor need—it’s actually financing for all of the million dollar ideas they’ve thought of because they’ve been undercapitalized (not poor) for so long. (Shout to my classmate Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva.org). Gandhi proved you don’t need money to make HUGE impact. Bill Gates proves that even with a lot of money impact isn’t guaranteed. The world needs you now! As stated earlier, your time is your most valuable asset, not your money.

In his book The Monk and the Riddle Randy Komisar talks about the Deferred Life Plan in which there are two steps 1. Do what you have to do and then hopefully 2. Do what you want to do. According to Komisar, most people stay in step one unaware that they can freely move to step two (or even skip step one) once they’ve discovered their passion. In avoiding the Deferred Life Plan, he makes a clear distinction between passion and drive. “Passion pulls you toward something you cannot resist. Drive pushes you toward something you feel compelled or obligated to do. If you know nothing about yourself, you can’t tell the difference. Once you gain a modicum of self-knowledge, you can express your passion. But it isn’t just the desire to achieve some goal or payoff, and it’s not about quotas or bonuses or cashing out. It’s not about jumping through someone else’s hoops. That’s drive.”

In conclusion…
In closing, I hope that I’ve created life changing value for you. Though you’re reading this online and accessing it for free, it cost me to create this. I’ve invested years of disciplined study, spiritual practice, self-evaluation and reflection to produce this insights for you. I believe that the wisdom I’ve shared with you will bring you abundance personally and professionally, otherwise I wouldn’t have written it.

I’m trying to create my 25 cents/minute worth of value in the world. If you found this valuable, please help me get there by purchasing one of my books at:

Sincerely,

1. Seek and accept exceptional opportunities despite pay or prestige.
2. Take as many risk as possible before buying a house or starting a family
3. Develop one or two extremely valuable skills through dedicated practice

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t. I love my life the way it is, but for those of you who wish you had a do-over or are preparing to raise children, check this out:

Train Your Parents (Age 0-5)
Use crying and other tactics like playing using mother against your father to get your parents in the habit of giving you what you want. This will be important later. When you do this, make sure you impress them when you get it.

Ask Your Parents (Age 6-14)
Ask your parents to expose you to as many things as possible until you find your passion. If it interest you, ask. Make them say no. Offer to do chores and get straight As if they say yes. Find friends who do cool things and mention that “Jonny’s parents said it would be educational”. Once you find your passion, stop playing with it and start practicing and studying it like it’s homework. This is how you can crystallize it into a skill. If your parents don’t come through, as a kid, you can raise money from all of their friends at work, church, and in the neighborhood. Raise half the money for that trip or those lessons on your own and then ask your parents to match it.

High School (Age 15-18)
Commit to being great something…anything. Nobody in the Guinness Book of World Records got in there by chance unless it was biological. Everyone made a conscious choice to be great at whatever they chose. Choose something! Use your free-time after-school and in-school to develop your passion. No matter how obscure, if you become a expert at a subject or skill, you’re almost guaranteed to get paid in the long-run. Continue to tap your parents’ bank accounts until they encourage you to get a job. If you end up getting a job, don’t take any old job. Do minimum wage work for a person or organization that you’re passionate about.

Community College (Age 19-20)
Live at home and go to a community college for your first two years and save up to $20,000 in tuition and living expense. Do the minimum necessary to get the grades you need to transfer. Use the rest of your time to develop your passion. To become an expert at something requires 10,000 hours of practice, which equals 20 hrs/week, 50 weeks/year, for 10 years. If you start now, you’ll be an expert by 30.

Top-Tier Public University (Age 21-22)
Transfer to the top in-state public university for your last two years. Get out of the house for a second. Apartments are cheaper than dorms. Continue developing your passion during this time. Join clubs, national organizations, and activities that will develop your passion. If you can find classes that support your passion, then great, but in most cases, your college won’t have any. Maximize your student loans (it’s the cheapest money you’ll find) and use it invest in yourself and/or your business.

Post-Undergrad (Age 23-26)
After graduation, move back home and defer your loans. If you’re an entrepreneur, get a part-time job (20 hours max) that covers your living expenses and allows you to invest in your crazy ideas or save a little bit.  At this stage of life, time is your most valuable/expensive resource. While your friends work, you should be creating. If you’re the employee type, commit this four-year period to entry-level grunt work FOR YOUR DREAM JOB (not just any job, especially high-paying ones). Get so great at what you do, that you have the skills to start your own company or advance in the organization. When you have the option to leave, that’s when you get the highest pay.

All Eggs In One Basket (Age 27-30)
Move out! By now, you should have a little bit of savings to buy some real estate or an idea developed to the point where it’s generating revenue on the side. For the employees, take a risk in your career and go to business school and/or pick something specific to get great at based on where you see the industry you love going. If you’re at a Blockbuster-like company and see a Netflix-like company on the rise, jump ship. For the entrepreneurs, take it to the next level and commit to following your passion full-time. Use the intellectual, social, and financial capital you’ve gained since college to making a living doing what you love.

Aaron Lazansky
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http://flyladydi.blogspot.com

Hustlenomics
http://hustlenomics101.blogspot.com

Ileana Ferreras
Life coaching
http://ifonlylifecoaching.blogspot.com

Jaramogi
http://www.jaramogi.blogspot.com

Jason Tsai
http://jaskclothing.blogspot.com

Jeffrey Dessources
http://www.writemeifyoucan.com

Joshua Alafia
http://joshuabeealafia.blogspot.com

Jullien Gordon
Passions + Purpose + Professions
http://www.julliengordon.mvmt.com
http://www.julliengordon.com

Kalonji Nzinga
http://kellikan.wordpress.com
http://thelinesdrawn.blogspot.com

Ken Billups
Business and community happenings in Los Angeles
http://www.kenbillups.com/blog

King Jody Rucks
http://kjrucks.blogspot.com

Kyra Gant
http://getrelated.wordpress.com

Leandra Williams
http://www.whatmyworldslike.com/blog/

Lichiban
http://lichiban.blogspot.com

Lizz Carroll
http://lizzloves.wordpress.com

Lukas Brekke-Miesner
Oakland arts & entertainment blog with a focus on Bay Area hip-hop and community matters
http://www.38thnotes.com

Marquis Parker
The career journey of a business professional with top-tier strategy consulting and technology experience who is a recent MBA graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business
http://marquisweblog.blogspot.com

Matt Windowe
http://iinnovate.blogspot.com

Michael Cordero
http://conscioushustler.blogspot.com

Mike McNulty
http://brazilmike.blogspot.com

Mitzi Miller
http://www.mitzimoments.blogspot.com

Myriam Jean
http://www.underdogsvoice.blogspot.com

Mylinia
How to be exceptional in a world of averages
http://www.mylinia.com/blog

Nesanet Abegaze
Health & wellness

http://healthandwellnes.wordpress.com

Nicholas Barcelo
http://www.goodmorningatzlan.blogspot.com

Nick James
http://thefreeexperience.blogspot.com

Nicole Linsday
http://strongseed.blogspot.com

Pamela Jackson
http://www.theprofileproject.blogspot.com

Pueblo Nuevo
http://pueblonuevoartspace.blogspot.com

Raquel Wilson
http://theculturalist.org

The Reconstruction Period
http://thereconstructionperiod.blogspot.com

Regina Jennings
Earth, Wind, & Fire the band
http://reginahjennings.blogspot.com

Ronethea Williams
http://www.liferonethea.blogspot.com

Ross Rocketto
http://forwardingtheconvo.com

Sallome Hralima
http://www.sallomazing.blogspot.com

Selome Araya
http://www.selomearaya.blogspot.com

Sista Sphere
http://sistasphere.blogspot.com

Socheat Poeuv
http://newyearbabythefilm.blogspot.com

So Live Arts
http://solivearts.blogspot.com

Syreeta Gates
http://thegatesoflife.blogspot.com

Tanisha Drummer
http://evolutionoftanisha.wordpress.com

Taneeka Wilder

http://resurrectedmind1127.wordpress.com

Yaz Higashiya
http://www.old-soulz.blogspot.com

Yu-Kai Chou
http://yukaichou.com

Zebi
http://lilraggamuffinsummercamp.blogspot.com

Passions are like magnets within us that attract certain people, information, and opportunities to us. Whether you’re aware of the magnet or not, it is still working for you. By naming your passion, you’ll see how accurate the magnet has been all of your life.  Our passions consumes us and we consume them.  So by examining what we’ve been consuming in regards to information and what has been consuming our time, we can discover what we’re passionate about.

We’re going to take a passion inventory of your life.  All it requires is a piece of paper folding in half the long way and a pen.  At the top of the left column write “PERSON/PLACE/THING” and at the top of the right column write “PASSIONS”.  Now go through as many of the short activities as you need to until you feel you starting to see some patterns among the related passions. Finally, choose the three that stand out the most and see if they resonate with you.

1. Friends

Since birds of a feather flock together, a great way to discover your passions is to start by listing all of your friends’ passions.  List your top 10 friends (usually those on speed dial) and then list two of their passions. I’m certain that you’ll see some commonalities among them all. If we look closely, we can see ourselves in others.  That’s part of what leads us to befriend people in the first place.  If you can’t think of their passions off the top of your head, go to the info section of their facebook profile and look at all of their interests.

Left Column: Friend’s Name
Right Column: Their Passions

2. 360 Degree Feedback

Sometimes are passions come so natural to us that we don’t even recognize them. There is a great tool called the “Superhero Survey” at PeerSupport.me that you can use to get 360-degree feedback from your friends to see what they think you’re passionate about. I guarantee that you won’t get “nothing” for an answer.  Our actions always communicate something to others.  PeerSupport.me provides the email template for you so it will literally take you less than 3 minutes to send out to your top 10 friends.

Left Column: Friend’s Name
Right Column: Passions Mentioned

3. First/Favorite Toy

Einstein’s father gave him a compass at age five, and he puzzled over the nature of a magnetic field for the rest of his life. On his sixth birthday Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, was given a 12-foot python.  These memorable toys shaped who these men later bacame. Think back on your first or favorite toy and ask yourself why you liked it so much. If you can’t remember, ask your parents.

Left Column: Toy Name
Right Column: Related Passions

4. Books & Magazines

Takeaway all the “required” readings and text books from school and then examine your book shelf and magazine collection. Since passionate people like to share their passions, you might have given them away.  Don’t fret.  Login to your Amazon.com account or wherever you buy your books from and review your order history.  Click on the books and take an inventory based on how Amazon categorizes them and see which category rises to the top.

Left Column:  Book or Magazine Name
Right Column: Related Passions

5. Movies & Television

What movies have you gone to see on the opening night or bought DVDs of?  What moved to you have to see it as soon as it came out or buy the DVD?  What was  general topic. For instance, I like The Matrix and V for Vendetta because they are about challenging the status quo and empowering individuals. Other movies in my queue are Coach Carter, Finding Forrester, and Lean On Me because they are about empowering the younger generation through informal education which is directly in line with my workd today. List all of the movies you’ve see premiere or have DVDs for and write a the potential passions associated with those movies.

Left Column: Movie or TV Show Name
Right Column: Related Passions

6. Employers & Organizations

Your time is your most valuable resource, so whenever you give it to something you don’t have to give it to, it says something about you.  List all of the organizations that you’ve worked for, been a member of, volunteered with, or donated to.  For instance, I worked with Management Leadership for Tomorrow because it tapped into my passions for public speaking and reaching millennials.  Someone else may work there for different reasons, but these were mine.  Consider the passions that drew you to the organization as opposed to just the passions of the organization.

Left Column: Organization Name
Right Column: Related Passions

7. Hobbies & Personal Projects

How do you spend your time after work or on weekends?  I’ve realized that even if people had a year to do whatever they wanted, many don’t know what they would do.  If you have any idea of how you would spend a year, it probably has something to do with your hobbies and personal projects that have been squeezed out by the demands of your job and life.  Take a moment to list all of your sports, hobbies, collections, and personal projects since childhood. One of my favorite things to do is make collages.  The related passions are organizing information and looking for good amongst garbage.

Left Column: Hobby or Project Name
Right Column: Related Passions

8. Causes/Problems

We can gain a lot of insight about what we love through examining what we hate.  If there were three social problems that you could erase from the world with one wish, what would they be?  What makes you cry when you hear about it, see it, or experience it?  Now consider the opposite of what it is that you hate and you may discover what you love. For example, I hate alcoholism and to me, the opposite would be spiritual-fulfillment.  I also hate irrelevant education and the opposite to me is purpose-filled and self education.

Left Column: Cause or Problem
Right Column: The Opposite

9. Online Communities & Websites

Nowadays we spend a lot of time online and are finding community there as well. It may be easier to find a supportive online community than it is to find a local one in your neighborhood. The types of communities we seek and subscribe to communicate a lot about what we’re passionate about.  List all of the websites that you have on your bookmark toolbar, that you’ve subscribed to newsletters for, or that you have login accounts with.  I subscribe to the Zen Habits blog because I am passionate about inspiration and inspiring others.

Left Column: Website Address
Right Column: Related Passions

10. Events

What’s the last event you bought a ticket for?  What was the purpose of the event?  Going out to an event can be a lot—buying tickets, coordinating friends, getting dressed, and traveling.  The ticket isn’t the only cost—there is also your time.  List all of the events, conferences, retreats, concerts, shows, exhibits, performances, readings, etc that you’ve been to over the past few years and ask yourself why. What drew me? Last year I went to the Landmark Forum because I’m passionate about self-transformation.

Left Column: Event Name
Right Column: Related Passions

11. Subjects of Interest

When you’re chilling with your friends, what do you tend to talk about a lot?  If you’ve ever visited TED.COM, you’ll see a variety of 20-minute talks by people who are passionate about many things.  Check them out and ask yourself “If I had a 20-minute presentaiton, what do I feel I could speak about passionately for that amount of time?  You can think about things like school subjects that interested you or conversations that you would eavsdrop on. If I ever heard someone mention the word “teleology” I would stop and listen.

Left Column: Subject
Right Column: Related Passions

Finally, visit squidoo.com to see what other people are passionate about a perhaps discover and/or share yours.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thank you Miss Dawson, teachers, and parents for giving me the opportunity to address your bright children today. If you don’t mind, I would like to turn the podium to address them.

There were two students from the same neighborhood who went to the same elementary school, P.S. 329, also known as Surfside School in Brooklyn, New York.

One student’s name was Alex. Alex was a straight A student. He excelled in every subject. Alex did exactly what he was told to do. He goes home to do his homework after school. Alex only dreams at night.

The other student’s name was Francis. Francis was a crooked F student—they say it is impossible to get all Fs and be straight. Francis didn’t like any subject AT SCHOOL though she liked learning and as a result she was often caught daydreaming. She was really passionate about art and would get in trouble for doodling on her desk. After school she would walk the streets looking for murals and graffiti. Her homework incomplete.

Who would you rather be? Alexis or Francis?

Fast-forward a few years to high school. Finally…electives. Francis gets to take an art class and her passion for learning starts to show. She gets her first A. Alex the A student is taking biology for the first time and he is struggling. He is afraid to ask for help because he has never had to ask for it before. He associates asking for help with being dumb instead of courageous, so he continues to fail and gets his first F.

Francis can’t wait to show her parents her report card. No murals today. When she shows it to them with a big smile on her face, all they see are the Fs. Her parents immediately withdraw her from her art class and instead she is given a study hall period to bring up her Fs.

Alex’s parents know when his report cards come so they ask about it even though he tries to hide it. Despite 5 As in his other classes, all they see is the F. He is taken out of P.E. and given the same study hall period that Francis has so that he can focus on bringing up his F.

Who would you rather be? Alexis or Francis?

You see…in the long run, Francis and Alex end up in the exact same place. Alex was a hard worker. That’s would got him straight As. But despite his good grades, Alex’s true intelligence was never challenged. For the most part, school was a walk in the park for him, but he needed someone to push him to run or better yet fly. It’s not until you push someone to their limits that they realize that they are limitless.

Despite getting crooked Fs, Francis is extremely smart. It’s just that her creative energy was never channeled. She was lead to believe that her creativity isn’t valuable when in fact, creativity and innovation is what keeps our economy alive…it’s what keeps her alive.

In reality, Alex doesn’t like school just as much as Francis doesn’t like school—he could fake the funk but she couldn’t. Where Francis has a leg up on Alex is that she knows what she was passionate about…what makes her tick…what she loves to do at an early age. Everyone is encouraging Alex to be a teacher, doctor, lawyer, or accounting because he’s “smart”, but nobody is encouraging Francis to be an artist.

Why not?

Graduates! Our parents grew up in a world where being well-rounded was the thing to be. Be a well-rounded student and be a well-rounded citizen. But the world has changed. Whereas our parents were only competing against the person sitting next to them in their classroom, you are competing against everyone your age across the entire world from India to China and Europe. This leveling of the playing field is called globalization, which is a hard concept to understand if you have yet to travel outside of New York or the United States. In today’s world, a 4.0 isn’t even enough on its own. And passion isn’t enough on its own either. Success requires hard work AND passion.

In addition to globalization, the internet has changed the way we live and learn. In our parents’ day…you know B.C…before cable, it was possible to be an expert at multiple things. But today, information is expanding so rapidly that it’s hard to stay ahead on more than one or two subjects and since everyone has access to same information at the same time, nobody has an advantage. It used to be that if you had an Encyclopedia Britannica set at home, you were ahead of your peers, but now with the internet and Wikipedia, the playing field is flat…and packed.

Whether you happen to love a school subject or a subject NOT taught at school, the way to win in the 21st century is be your best. They say that to become the best in the world at something…to be an expert…you should consider the 10,000 hour rule. The 10,000 hour rule suggest that you need to practice whatever it is that you want to be great at for 10,000 hours before achieving expertise. 10,000 hours equals 20 hours per week 50 weeks per year for 10 years. That’s equivalent to studying one subject from kindergarten to today every day, so you better start now…now as in this summer…at least 3 hours per day 7 days per week.

Speaking of 10 years…10 years from now Francis and Alex will be graduating from college. They will be 22 years old. Imagine who 12 year-old Francis could become if she could bring up her other grades just enough to get her parents support of her art so that should could CHANNEL her passion into her art during and after school and begin chipping away at her 10,000 hours. Imagine who 12-year-old Alex could become if he could combine his academic excellence with a passion that CHALLENGED him.

In elementary school, A stands for ahead or excellent, but in on the global playing field an A here could stand for average elsewhere. Sometimes when we try to be great at everything…the jack-of-all-trades…we master none. Alex understands hard work, but imagine if he focused his energy on something he genuinely loved to do so he could experience his inner excellence.

In elementary school, F stands for failure, but in life it can mean fearless. Fear of failure is the #1 inhibitor of dreams. They say if you haven’t failed, then you aren’t dreaming big enough.
Francis understands failure well—she’s been doing it all of her life. And she also understands her passions. Imagine if she could pursue her passions fearlessly.

We each have a little bit of Alex and Francis inside of us….parents and teachers included. To succeed in life we need Alex’s work ethic and self-discipline and we also need Francis creativity and passion. Greatness is inside of each of you like the tree inside every seed. If you’ve ever looked at a package of seeds, it never just says SEEDS. They are always named by the tree they are destined to become. Before me, I see more than just 5th graders…more than just a bunch of seeds—I see an amazing amazon forest of unlimited potential and endless possibilities.

Follow your passions and seek excellence at anything you do and I guarantee that you’ll keep growing up.

Congratulations to the college class of 2020!

P.S. Also watch this amazing video on TED.com by Sir Ken Robinson

STEP 1. Cut, copy, paste, & edit the email template below.

Subject: Looking for some quick peer support…

Hey,

I hope all is well.

As you know, I’m always looking to grow and I value what you think about me. I found this fun survey for friends to give feedback to one another regarding their strengths, passions, and careers. I’m only sending it to 5 people and one of them is you!

Can you please take 5 minutes to complete the survey at the link below? It’s only 4 questions. Your answers will help me tremendously as I consider what’s next for me. The more specific your answers, the better.

http://jullien.wufoo.com/forms/superhero-survey-by-peersupportme/

I’ll share with you what I discover about myself.

Sincerely,

STEP 2. Select 5 close friends to e-mail it to.

Above are examples of the types of people you may want to send the email to. Make sure you choose 5 or more people you think will be honest with you and have demonstrated commitment to your success in the past.

They will get this…

…And you will get this…

Email suggestions for revision or new surveys here.

What if could align our passions and profession? I think it’s possible and here’s why.

One day I met a woman who worked in HR at Google. I asked her if this is what she was passionate about and she responded “I really love archaeology.” As our conversation progressed we realized that she was still pursuing archaelogy. Instead of digging for fossils and artifacts she was digging through talent pool of resumes to find hidden gems in people.

Passions are action-based where the interest are topic-based. Archaeology was her interest, but digging and finding were her passions. The same framework may apply for someone who has manifested their passion for strategizing through playing chess. Someone like that may want to explore a career in consulting.

Believing that our passions and professions can and should be aligned would revolutionize the career exploration process and hiring process. Instead of hiring based on Grade Point Averages, employers would hire based on Great Passion Advantage. And instead of searching for jobs by industry, company, or title, we would search for jobs by actions.

Here is a simple process to do this for yourself:

1. List five things that interest you now and as a child.
   Ex. baseball

2. For each entry write down all of the actions associated with that interest.
   Ex. playing baseball, coaching baseball, collecting baseball cards, watching baseball

3. Circle all of the action verbs that excite you.
   Ex. coaching, collecting

4. Identify career opportunities that would allow you to do those actions regularly.
   Ex. life coach, executive coach, sports coach, IRS (collect money), forensics (collect evidence)

In this example, baseball just served as the vehicle to exercise the person’s true passions for coaching and collecting. Just because everyone can’t make it to the major leagues, doesn’t mean that there aren’t career opportunities that will allow you DO what you love. In this economy, we have to think outside of the box…and the diamond.

Send this to anyone you know exploring new careers.

Get out a notepad and pen and
Watch Now!

This is a tribute to some of my entrepreneurial friends (mostly) under 30 who are self-employing themselves full-time or part-time with their passions. Thank you for reminding and inspiring me with your bold examples.

CLOTHING & APPAREL

Olatunde of Esface
Dania of Fluffy Jo
Tracy of Dangerous Negro Apparel
Andy of Bonobos Pants
Olu of Lambano Shoe Company
Aaron of Hoodie People
Ras of Saxidat
Michael Cox of E3 Clothes

MUSICIANS

Jidenna the Chief, artist for DarkWater Productions
Daniel Farris, pianist, drummer, songwriter, & producer for Woodworks Records
Nasambu, singer and songwriter for Streets the the Hill
Honey Larochelle, singer and songwriter for Honey Larochelle
Felica Khong of Jazmin
Manghoba, Shibanmbo South African Drumming
Shani Kulture of Planet Ubiquity
Sara Araya aka Cia Moon, singer, pianist, movie scores
Novena of Baby Stone, performing artist, song writer, pianist
Clifford Worley of Livemyhustle.com

THE ARTS (Film, Photography, Writing, Etc)

M.K. Asante Jr., Director and Producer
Daniel Davila of Momentum Cinema
Nakia of 7/8 Productions
Lesha Patterson Photography
Jody of King Rucks Productions
Babatunde Akinloye of Tunde Productions
Sallome Hralima of the Re:Construction Period
Alicia Boone of So Live Arts Movement
Alixa & Naima of Climbing Poetree
Arcelie Reyes Photography

PERSONAL CARE

Tiffany Wheeler Day Care Services
Sean & Kumi of Mr. Barber Shop

CAREER & LIFE COACHING

Allah Jesus of Talking4Real.com
Rob Ryan of Center for Health, life coach
Ruth of Ruth Littlejohn Consulting
Cindy of Less Drama, life coach
Mareza of Doostang.com

EDUCATION

Mandla of New World Education Consulting Group
Chris Balme of the Spark Program
Scott of Transformative Action Institute
Michael Del Ponte of ConsciousLifestyle.org
Katrina Scott George of None But Ourselves
Adam of Learning Enterprises

HEALING & MEDICINE

Dr. Toni Daniels, pain & addiction alleviation
Larissa, dietician and living consultant
Nasambu, massage therapist
Sophia, massage therapist
Julie Brown, Healing/Nutrition/Detox, & Colon Hydrotherapy

FINANCE & BUSINESS

Wil of Wil Ash & Associates Tax Services
Kimberly of New Venture Consulting Group
Rolando Brown of Parallel Movement
Jessica of Kiva.org
Inman of Finfo.com

REAL ESTATE

Keidrick Cole
Gerren Bennett

FOOD & DINING

Carmen of Carmen & Family BBQ Restaurants
Mark of Karibbean City Jamaican Food
Abezero of Vital Ital Calabash
Nader of Foodspa.com Online Catering
Jenny Park of Adele’s Frozen Custard
Robyn Goldman Ice Cream
Mark Karimi of the Meridian Hooka Lounge

PUBLICATIONS

Tom of Newsiasm.com

ELECTRONICS & TOOLS

Sam Goldman of Dlight Designs
Andre of MDG Tools

TECHNOLOGY

Harland Gaston Seedplay.com
Will of Cre8object.com

JEWELRY

Monique of Monique Pean Jewelry
Mia Watson
Kimiko Boyd

GAMING

Erik of Chess.com
Nick of NP Games
Adam Tolnay Games

MODELS & ACTORS

Mia Franco
Juan Session

OTHER

Billy Parish of the Energy Action Coalition
Simon of Speededate.com

Thinking long and hard about my answer helped me develop my philosophy about life. Ultimately, I just wanted people to reach their full potential so that the world could reach its. I simplified that into the equation Passions + Problems = Purpose.

I looked back at my own life and saw that I had always been using the things that I loved to do to change the things that I didn’t like. My passions are the things in the world that I love doing and that love is the strongest positive emotion/energy in the world. My problems are the things in the world that I hate and hate is the strongest negative emotion/energy in the world. You can see my problems and passions in the blog heading. I think that if I can find creative way to use my passions (synonymous with talents, strengths, or gifts) to positively impact my problems, I will maximize my life fulfillment. In a sense, I’m dually motivated by both love and hate and that’s a pretty powerful combination!

When I use the word hate, I am simply using it to draw out what I truely love. Oftentimes, it’s easier for us to say what we don’t like about a situation, a person, or a thing than it is to identify all the things that we love about it. For example, if I say that hate injustice, racism, and poverty, what I’m really saying is that I love justice, culture diversity, and economic equity. When it comes down to it, the PurposeFinder formula is just a framework that I use to direct my life. I try to live it every day and so far it has worked out nicely!

Live purposefully!