Career path. Part-1 Your passion and skills

After a long break, Mike finally returned to his blogging habit and is now fully committed to it. #hurray

This time Mike is going to talk about the way people apply for a job, and the types of mistakes they might make during the long (full-time job) job

1. Think about "What you want to do NEXT"

Before moving to the SF Bay Area, questions like "What are you passionate about?" or "What do you WANT to do?" were more cliché for him than anything else. But after spending a couple of years in the area and being surrounded by such an intense and competitive startup environment, he realized that it's the mindset and not the skills-set that drives success in entrepreneurship. This distinction is lost in situations like the endorsement option on LinkedIn for "Entrepreneurship" as a skill.  For a successful start you better think about what exactly it is that you want to do next, because your thoughts will lead the way you talk to people, the way your facial emotions and micro-emotions are match or mismatching with your words, etc.

Exercise: This is a social-behavioral test. Take a moment and spend 5-10 mins of your time on this. Take a pen and paper. Draw a line down the middle of the paper, creating 2 columns. Name the first column: "What I can do". Name the second column: "What I want to do". After you have the sections ready, Mike would like to ask you to think about each question for about 5 minutes and write down 3 bullet points for each section. You don't need to complicate the list - keep it short and simple.

(Example: I can do coding, I can do photography, I can do teaching/coaching/mentoring)

Take another 5 minutes to think about what you WANT to do.

After you finish with these tasks, compare the columns. Don't be surprised if the the second set of 3 bullet points does not match the 3 on the first one.

Note: If you have a 100% match of the left and right sides, you probably fall in one of the following 3 different categories:

1.     You are a Unicorn, and you don't need to read this (apparently you will find the position you are looking for).

2.     You are a full-time employee and are just dreaming now, so you better do something useful. :)

3.     You are cheating at some point, which means you have fears regarding your "What I can do" side.

Now, when you have done the exercise and found differences, think about how the left side can interconnect to the right side.

Let's break it down here:

What I Can Do What I Want to Do Coding Photography Teaching Travel Teaching Sports

Clearly, you can see some overlaps here. Here are some examples of what you can do, so you will have a sense of your skills and passion match.

• Create a web site to teach photography to travelers
• Create a news portal about sports activities and post pictures from sporting events
• Travel, be a freelance developer, and teach photography

These 3 bullet points are only some examples of the things you can do if you pick an entrepreneur adventurer lifestyle. Alternatively, you can apply for a job, where your skills and passion will meet. And Mike is going to talk about the details of this alternative next time.

To be continued...