Above All…Be an Original

I recently returned from a trip visiting my son and daughter-in-law. They just had twin girls so life is good as well as chaotic. My son, otherwise known as “Fun Boy,” was asking for career advice. I reminded him of his college rock band days when he played bass for “Burley Paul” (the name of his band). Here’s the gyst of my advice.

A few years ago, Chris, a great friend of mine was attending a summer concert featuring a Beatles Tribute band. They were dressed up like 1965 version of John, Paul, George and Ringo. They had their accents and music down. They were an amazing group of musicians perfectly imitating genuine rock stars. And they were fake. After twenty minutes Chris couldn’t handle it. He actually left his family sitting on the grass and spent an hour walking home. He couldn’t stand listening to “fake Beatles.” To this day, Chris tells me that if were a musician, he would rather spend his life playing his music in small bars and clubs then playing someone else’s music to crowds of Baby Boomers’ trying to re-imagine their past. Chris is an original. He is not about to sing someone else’s song.

Turns out, this is great career advice. “Be the rock star of your own life!”

So, what if you were a rock star? What if you wrote your own music, sang your own songs, and enjoyed a unique identity that was the best expression of you at your core? “Remember,” I said to my son, “the people you most admire are all originals.”

Your career is not your job. Not the job you have now, nor your next job. Your career is your evolving means of self-expression, or better yet, soul expression. We are free to express our design and pursue our desires. We have permission to pursue our destiny. That’s the core idea of the American Dream. That’s what career should be all about.

Today, more than ever, it is crucial to be consciously aware of our unique design. As Americans, we don’t have the automatic job advantages we once had. We can no longer count on a safe thirty-year career at a booming American corporation. If we are going to succeed and be happy in the new millennium, we need to leverage our unique traits and talents to their highest potential. It’s our innate qualities that must be constantly expressed and developed throughout our careers. These are the qualities that turn out to be portable, that we take from job to job, that can’t be wiped out by a surprise new technology.

Over the past 25 years, corporate America has developed a new social contract with its employees. That is: no contract. We are on our own. So we need to figure out how to make ourselves indispensable. Otherwise, we are all just laboring in dead-end temp jobs with important-sounding titles. The key is to define and create Dream Jobs for ourselves. Jobs that fit our traits, talents and desires. Jobs where uniqueness creates value.

A lot of career counseling is lame. It’s based on trying to figure out where you fit into the world, rather than who you are. Fitting in will never make you outstandingly valuable. Rather, it is often where you don’t fit that you can create your highest value and reap your greatest success. It is called unconventional job fit.

If you took an assessment that revealed your personality and interests, most career centers would try to find you jobs that aligned with your test results. If you tested out as a math oriented, problem-solving introvert, for example, you might be told to become an accountant. But let’s look at the real world. The people who really put accounting firms on the map are gregarious, visionary and great at sales and client relationships. These are the kind of people that can add the greatest value to an accounting firm. They manage the mathematical introverts.

Flip it around – who is the most valued worker in Hollywood? Not the one with the big personality who can sing, dance and act. Those folks are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. The value worker is the quiet, organized one who shows up on time and can get projects completed. The one who takes care of the details. Are you getting the point here?

Look for a career where your particular traits and talents make you a stand out rather than a fit in. (If you want to get a clear idea of your core traits, go to the VIA Signature Strengths website and take the assessment. Get acquainted with yourself.)

Figuring out what brings us our greatest satisfaction, and how we must make a difference is not easy and it’s never ending. In fact, it’s the journey of life. Go on the journey and never settle for being a fake Beatle.

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