Bouncing or building?

A client recently described his business (bustling in the midst of what many consider an "Oh, woe is me," economy) as playing that game in the arcade where the object is to strike the toy animal in the split second that its head pops out of a hole. Working effectively in the basics of relationship selling, this client is growing his young firm and refining systems to service what he sells.

I sense that many people operate their careers by playing a form of this game. The object, it appears, is to guess where the money-making opportunity will pop up, be standing there and ready to pounce, cat-like, before the money and the opportunity go back into hiding.

This "career roulette" seems particular evident in today's economic climate. People are second-guessing their choice of employment withi many looking around for something better. They may be coming off some abundant years in which their standard of living rose as quickly as their personal income. Then, with a slowdown in their business, the discomfort sets in and they begin looking around for the Next Big Thing.

I'd like to have a dollar for every time someone has asked me, "So, are you still doing the same thing?" If you're asking whether I've stuck to the knitting and continued to improve in my chosen profession and craft of organizational development and related disciplines, yes. It's what I do. Sure, I've tried some things through the years that simply don't fit within my gifts and passions. I've also learned the accompanying lessons, some more costly than others. The point here is that I never left.

How about you? As you look back on your career, are you bouncing or building? If you're bouncing from opportunity to opportunity, from job to job, looking for that big payday, you've probably experienced disappointment more than once. If the mother lode continues to elude you, perhaps there's a message in there.

If, on the other hand, you're building, you might be experiencing the ups and downs that come with the cyclical economic times in which we live. If you're building, you're looking for and trying approaches that will apply the very best of what you've learned to take full advantage of marketplace opportunities.

For example, if you happen to be a real estate professional, you have some choices. You can bounce to another business altogether since sales are down from their all-time high perches of just a couple years ago. You can also build by adapting your selling and service to opportunities that the market affords you. An enterprising entrepreneur in a free market economy can always find and exploit a niche if one looks closely enough and is willing to be flexible.

I find that when you love what you do, you're more likely to get better at it, find something closely related to it or simply retool your approach to do what you've been doing more effectively and efficiently. When you're in it for the money, it's easy come, easy go, and the repeated pattern of bouncing commences once more.

As my friend and mentor Nido Qubein says, it's not about timing the market; rather it's about time in the market. I encourage you to go to your favorite search engine and find Acres of Diamonds, a talk given by Russell Conwell, founder and first president of Temple University. Read or listen closely to the message in the story and consider the diamonds under your own feet right where you are. Then get moving to use your gifts, work within your God-given passion and make the most of what's right in front of you right now.

Keep the faith,
John Earl Carroll