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":

What you can be the best in the world at
What drives your economic engine.
What you are deeply passionate about; and

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:

Find something that is easy for you to do and that others find difficult.
This work must create or add value so others will pay you for doing it.
This is work that you find enjoyable and preferably something that you are passionate about.

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.