Tip of the Week #90                    Tip Index

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John's advice to young people for a great career and happy life (corollary to Good to Great)

    "It is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work." (Collins, p. 210)

In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't (2001, HarperBusiness), Jim Collins describes a "Hedgehog Concept."  Hedgehogs are unremarkable creatures that do one thing very well (roll into a ball with hard spines outward when threatened by a fox).  The Hedgehog Concept is a "simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding":

This compares with some advice from one or more sources that I picked up years ago.  Applying the Hedgehog Concept to a person, I suggest that for your career:

If you can find a career that fits these three concepts, then you can be paid for doing something you like. Then your career will be like never having to work.

Best wishes for a rewarding and fulfilling journey.


—John Schuyler, January 2002.

Copyright © 2002 by John R. Schuyler. All rights reserved. Permission to copy with reproduction of this notice.