Find your Magic
I found myself in the position of searching “my thing”. The Magic Thing that has to be what I do best. During my last months of self-teaching I read countless articles on the internet, by famous entrepreneurs and gurus. They all invited “me” and everybody else to only begin the activity we love, the field we really master, or that we truly feel passionate about.
They all seamed to have found their “labor of love” and then grew rich by just doing it with infinite pleasure. No, not really… but close. They say that work is many times hard and it is easier for anyone to surpass obstacles if they just do what they like the most. It is the thing that many times they can even call not work, but fun.
This should be easy: do what you like and grow rich; a little easier said than done. I like to watch TV and drink red wine while playing with my kids and dogs. Now, all I have to do is find a way to make money out of it 🙂 .
I was fighting with myself in the search of “the thing” and then I discovered a way to find it just by doing something I really love: reading.
While editing Jim Bagnola’s book, How To Become a Professional Human Being, I found an interesting fragment that is just depicting this very “thing”. It is about the method of finding out how you like to work. Here is what Jim says:
“Magic Discovery Checklist Self-reflection is an effective way to pause in your life and figure things out. Take some time to ponder these questions. The answers will reveal clues to what your magic is. Take out a sheet of paper and write down your answers. Don’t overthink it. Just write what first comes to you. What are five things you’re especially good at? What are three things your friends have told you you’re good at? Which two of the ideas you’ve written down so far can you become especially good at? What three activities were you drawn to when you were young? What is one thing you like to read about, learn about, and talk about? In school, what subjects did you enjoy most? What subjects did you get the best grades in? What activities do you find yourself completely absorbed in, to the point of losing track of time (besides computer solitaire, Internet, and TV)? What three things do you do that satisfy you and heighten your self-esteem when you’re done? If you won the lottery today, what work would you do? If you had extra time, what kind of volunteer work would you do? Which of your talents can make a difference in other people’s lives and your own? What skills have you used that have made you successful thus far? Did you find this intriguing? On your list you should now have some great ideas about yourself. Let it all simmer. You may need to take some time away and come back tomorrow to your list. You may want to revise your list. Now, which three things stand out to you? You should have a new picture of your talents. “
I did what he said and this is how my sheet of paper looked like:
<Reading/ writing/ language Writing/ Letters
Critic
Be nice
Politics/ Speeches
Coordination/ Organizing
Listening
Sales/ Networking
Literature/ languages Scientist
Reading/ Information
“I would write books”
“I would lead tribes.”
Positive thinking/ Can do attitude
Networking>
This might mean something 🙂 . I have 16 links (out of 26 ideas) to the notion of “word/ words”. So, I think that whatever I do it has to imply talking, reading, writing, communicating, teaching, connecting, presenting, promoting, relating, buying and selling. Easy…
I know just the thing!
I noticed that everyone of us has to have 3 jobs in life. Every day. For successful living we have to be good sales-persons, good managers, good leaders.
Now what does this mean?
1. All life is about SALES. You might say that an accountant doesn’t have to sell, because he gets his job from anybody else and does not have to get in touch with any customers.
WRONG. He is human… “zoon politikon” as Atistotle said. He has to interact with other people. And what is interaction? We always try to make a good impression, we SELL our image. The accountant had to be hired by somebody. In the interview he SOLD his ability to be a good professional. He got the job because he closed the sale, somebody bought his skills.
Next he will want a raise or a promotion. He will not get it just by being a great professional. Somebody has to notice that, he needs people that can promote him in a better job to see his great work, and what better way to do that than SELL them the great services even after they were done. If the managers will BUY, then the accountant will get the promotion or the raise. And the better salesperson he is, the faster he will get what he wants.
Have you noticed some of the accountants get to be CEO in a short time, while others spend their entire life being underpaid and delivering the same service for 40 years? It is the same like some beginner salesmen become managers, CEO, presidents and entrepreneurs, while other reach the pension in the same position as in which they begun their selling carrier. It is about the same situation, with the amendment that you have to get a really lousy salesman to get to 65 years old with the same position as he had at 20 years old. It is more likely to find examples of non-developed accountants because they think they don’t have to sell in order to evolve.
Think a little bit about the situation when an accountant has to date a girl. Will he SELL anything? Yes, he will… No girl will date him twice if he will not put up a good time for her and demonstrate that he is a good-value. He has to market himself as a “provider” and a person that is worth spending time with…
Conclusion 1: Good salesmen get good prizes; even if they are accountants.
2. All life is about LEADERSHIP. You might say that an accountant doesn’t have to lead, because there are other people that do that and he has no followers… Oh, let’s leave the accountant alone for a minute and pick on somebody else: let’s say a… waiter. Does he have to lead?
YES, HE DOES.
He has to lead the team in the restaurant for every order he gets. He has to take care that the cook understood the customer’s order (has to ask for feedback, and also give feedback), notify his boss if the customer has “special demands” in order for him to manage the fulfillment of those demands and he has to SERVE. This is what good leaders do: SERVE. If you don’t trust me, just read the book of Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller, The Secret: What Great Leaders Know – and Do, known to set-up the “S.E.R.V.E.” leadership system.
Some waiters think they don’t have any followers. As a matter of fact they do: at the moment a waiter is taking an order from a customer HE IS THE LEADER and the MISSION is to deliver great service from all the team to the customer. If the food is undercooked or overcooked who will you pick on? The waiter. So he has to make sure that the team (including the chef, other cooks, the chief-waiter, even the owner of the restaurant, all follow… the waiter’s instructions as he is the one that knows best the order and the wishes of the customer). If he will fail in LEADING the team, you will know (cold soup, burned stake, spilt wine, warm beer, etc), and not be very happy about it.
Waiters can be great leaders that can “make your day”, or evening. Or they can believe that leading is somebody else’s business and totally mess-up you time spent in a restaurant. I am sure that in time you’ve met both kinds of waiters. No wonder that some of them grew up to have their own restaurants, while others are still barely making a living.
Conclusion 2: Good leaders get good prizes; even if they are waiters (I heard about some record tips that are equal to what I used to make in a year).
3. All life is about MANAGEMENT. You might say that an accountant doesn’t have to manage, because there are other people that do that and he has no direct reports… Oh, poor accountant… seams that people think that accountants don’t have to do or to be anything J.
Let’s leave accountants again and turn to Managers. Yes, you wouldn’t believe it, but a manager has to DO that also, he has to MANAGE. First of all he has to MANAGE himself, like everybody else. He has to MANAGE stress. He has to MANAGE his reports, his boss, his peers, his customers, the relationship with competition and the relationship with authorities. That’s a lot of management to do. No wonder there are good managers and a lot of failed managers.
But I want to guide you to a place that MANAGERS often think they do not have to MANAGE. Home.
We all have to manage at our private spot. Even if most of the managers think that they can leave somebody else to manage their life. They are so tired of managing that when they reach home they just let things on their own. Being a manager is the second most difficult job in the world. Do you know which is the first difficult? Being a parent and staying married.
Most of the managers are also parents and are married. You can imagine the stress on their head. That is why most of them fail in at least one respect.
But we will focus on the successful managers. These guys quickly make it to the top of the company, and also have great relationships with their family, while their personal fortune is rising and rising.
I personally know too few people like this, but I admire them from the bottom of my heart, I want to be like them and I try to get them to be my mentors.
Story is similar to all professionals: accountants, on-line marketers, waiters, leather technicians, gurus, teachers and… you name it. We all have to be managers of our self, our family and our life. There is no way around this.
Conclusion 3: Good managers get good prizes; even if they are … well… MANAGERS.
Final conclusion is that while I was taking Jim Bagnola’s directions in finding my magic, I remembered that in my childhood I dreamed of being a poet. I knew then that poets don’t make money (but they get the best girls J), and as I grew-up I admired the professionals that succeeded in their trade and then succeeded in being great teachers and coaches for others’ success. They wrote books that helped millions of people get POETRY in their lives. I could be a Poet of well-being. It is close enough to my childhood dream.
I was a salesperson all my adult life so far, I will always sell.
I had a nice experience as a manager and I will always want to manage my life.
I had and have followers, and this is the only thing that counts if you want to call yourself Leader. “A leader with no followers is not leading; he is just taking a walk.” I will always check for my followers.
Being that I enjoyed all these roles and had quite a success with it, I will continue to do it all.
The new thing that I will develop is teaching it to the others and writing about it.
I spent almost 2 hours writing this small text, and it felt like 2 minutes.
I guess I found “My Magic”.
I love to do it for free and it would be great if I would get paid for it sometimes. If not, well… I will just have a lot of fun.
Wish you all find your MAGIC.
millionusd 