Are you working at your job and wondering why you aren’t doing what you love? Maybe your passion is surfing, finance, or knitting. Regardless of what your passion is there is always a way to make money off what you enjoy doing. That is if you can find the right angle. You just need to find a way to deliver value to people so they will pay you for your skill.

The “doing what you love” method of making money is a popular topic lately. Many people are flooding into this market. The problem is that they don’t have enough true wins or losses in their past to be considered an expert. They just talk a good game.

We must separate the fakers from the real deals. After meeting Jonathan Fields at South by South West I’m confident that he is the real deal. His book, Career Renegade, takes the reader through the steps necessary to take his/her career to the next level.

Stressed Out Lawyer

Jonathan was a stressed out lawyer who discovered that he had to make a life adjustment unless he wanted to die a young man. When a person’s health forces him to make a change, the creativity often surges out of him.

Jonathan realized that he could make money pursuing his passion of health and fitness without creating some new style of workout. He leveraged the existing market and found a way to deliver more value than his competition. He created health and fitness companies that changed tens of thousands of people lives. He used this success to become a writer, speaker and consultant. Quite an amazing career. I know he poised to implement even bigger and better ideas.

“The task, big or small, must be clearly defined and the steps needed to get there must be laid out in detail or at least be highly delineated along the way. Getting there does not have to be easy, but you need to be able to see, even from a distance, where you are going.”

- Jonathan Fields Career Renegade

Your Career

You can create the career that will make you feel like you are the luckiest person on earth. You just have to discover what strengths you can use to make it a reality.

Fear has probably dictated many of your choices up to this point. It’s natural. It’s important to be able to relax with your fears and not allow them to prevent you from creating a career that makes you happy.

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
- Henry David Thoreau 

You don’t need to live a life that isn’t fulfilling. You can create the life that will fill your bank account and fill your soul.

Career Renegade

This book will give you tips on how to build a business through the internet, networking and sheer creativity. If you already have a dream career in mind, then buy this book. You’ll find helpful stories and unique ideas that will help you build a career you are passionate about.

Career Renegade was written for a person like me who is trying to build his online presence. My favorite chapter was chapter 11 “Is the world ready for you?” In this chapter, Jonathan writes about separating from the pack and finding a niche in order to position yourself as an expert in your desired field of work.

The ideas in this book have helped me to assess my own choices and figure out better ways to deliver value to you.

Like any good non-fiction book, Career Renegade gives the reader a few good ideas to help take life to the next level.

Go to Amazon and buy this book - Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love

Also visit his two blogs Career Renegade and Awake at the Wheel. There are only a few people that will challenge you to improve your life and Jonathan is one of the best at it.

If you like this review then check out:

• Escape From Cubicle Nation – Book Review
• Personal Development for Smart People – Book Review
• Procrastination Dissolve-o-Matic Program Review

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

You probably look at cubicle walls and wonder, who the hell designed these ugly monstrosities? But that’s not even the point. Why would any company put their valued employees in these little human pens?

Do they really care about what I think, and if they do then why don’t they ask for my opinion?

If you’ve ever worked in a cubicle, you probably have had these thoughts. The corporate world often does what is easy instead of what is right.

There have been signs of corporate culture changing in large and small companies, but it doesn’t seem to happen fast enough.

I’m trying to push the change. It’s difficult to steer the stubborn elephants to consistently use work happiness methods. We needed to bottom out, which I hope happened in 2008. We need major changes in the infrastructure of American companies. It’s time for a shift in the way we communicate, think of work processes, treat each other, and have fun at work.

Escape

For those of you who can’t wait for the change to take effect, “Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur” is the perfect book for you. Check out the first chapter right here.

This guide to starting your own business gives you stories from which you can learn, tips for creating your plan, and strategies on how to implement your ideas so you have a better chance of success.

Pam Slim the author created a well rounded book that will help people escape their dreaded cubicles. I’ve read about a lot of these concepts on her blog, but the book gave me advice that was new.

As most of you know, I’m in the process of building my business foundation in order to expand my own company. I’m excited to be out there, helping companies improve their work environment, but I can always improve. EfCN taught me a few lessons about subjects that I had failed to research – insurance is one of my weaknesses. I’m still young and don’t go to the doctor very often so it hasn’t been a priority, but I understand that I need to stay on top of this otherwise I might get burned by a bad choice.

So for those of you who have been laid off, fired, or bribed to leave (or maybe you just hate your job) then pick this book up and find out how you can succeed on your own.

Building Your Dream Business

Working for yourself is not for everyone. There are some great companies to work for (Google, Southwest Airlines, and Zappos to name a few), but many of you probably have a dream of creating your own hours and answering to no one. If this describes you then this book may be just what you need.

When you read this book you will gain a better understanding of some of the problems and joys that will occur before you start your own business. As you know, it won’t be easy.

Don’t forget, once you start your own business then bring me in. I’ll help you create a culture that doesn’t force your employees to buy this book and want to start their own business.

Buy it on Amazon: Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur

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Sage advice is hard to come by and one of my favorite bloggers/philosophers is Lance of Jungle of life.

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You need some quick work happiness advice every now and again then try me out on Twitter – @workhappynow.

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If you enjoyed this review then check out:

• Personal Development for Smart People – Book Review
• Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, Book Review
• Your Company Should Do Annual Career Counseling

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

This is a guest post from Christine Gallagher of Communicate Value.

Gen Y grew up with the internet.  Some of us first encountered it in high school; others of us can’t remember a time when we were ever without it. 

We’re used to doing everything online.  We know how to find things there—anything we care to.  The physical yellow pages are an oddity.  If we come across a brick and mortar store that doesn’t have a website, we’re aghast—and feel somewhat sorry for them.  If we meet you, you are under 35, and you don’t have a Facebook account, we get thoroughly confused.

“But, but, I don’t…understand.  You’re not ON it?”

Ok, perhaps some of this is a slight exaggeration.  However, it’s not too far off.  Technology is a way of life.  And not just in the sense of socializing and looking up facts and figures or the closest coffee shop. 

Education and Work Experience

The question has been raised in the blogosphere recently, most notably by Brian Solis, about whether a traditional education experience is necessary or benefitting of a 15 year old who has already run and sold a start-up company in their spare time. 

I’d like to take this further and ask whether the traditional scholastic and work experience is necessary for a good portion of our youngest generation.  That may sound overboard, but for people who graduated school in recent years with lots of student loan debt, multiple degrees and disillusioning and boring experiences in their subsequent jobs—the question seems more than fair.  I can only imagine the typical educational and work experience is appearing more and more irrelevant to a good number of young people. 

Of course, there will still be those for whom it makes sense to achieve higher education credentials in order to learn certain skills they need for particular vocations.  But what about those with more entrepreneurial leanings or whose interests lay in areas our school systems are ill-equipped to teach or refuse to pay attention to?

Entrepreneurial Stirrings

Just as much of a concern is the working world many members of this generation are entering into.  The oldest Gen Y have only inhabited this world for just less than ten years now.  Surely there are others who have found it to be slow to adapt, technologically behind, exceedingly rigid and creatively unfulfilling.  One redeeming quality is that it may help awaken entrepreneurial stirrings which allow you see a way out.

Those stirrings lead some to the same place that many younger people have been exposed to since before they were even enrolled in school–the web and its myriad ways to earn a living.  It’s becoming tougher to abide by the traditional workplace and its restricting, old school policies and stiff upper lip.  Things have been changing for awhile now and they haven’t been keeping up.  Stifling schedules, long commutes to the office, lack of adaptability and different definitions of success have caused us to follow our passions elsewhere.  It’s a shame for Corporate America but extremely promising for the future of entrepreneurship.

Embrace Progress

That’s not to say that there aren’t companies out there who are breaking out of the mold and offering young folks a more collaborative and stimulating environment. (Google, anyone?) It’s just that it’s the exception to the rule, and that’s a real problem.

It’s yet another lesson that those who fail to acknowledge or embrace progress will be left in the dust still clinging to old paradigms—while others reap the rewards gained by keeping up with change.  And our generation doesn’t like to wait.

Christine Gallagher is an Online Marketing and Social Media Consultant and Small Business Coach.  Check out Communicate Value, her social media marketing blog, for more on how small business owners can get results with online marketing and social media techniques.

If you like this post then check these out:

• Empower the Employees to Improve the Company
• Don’t Be Afraid of the F Word
• Open and Honest Communication

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!