By Kent Johnson


Do you yearn to start a rewarding new career, but can never seem to find the time to take classes, study, or plan for it? Have you always wanted to start your own business, but you never seem to get around to setting the wheels in motion and actually do it? Do you start on a new career path, then lose interest after a few months when you realize how much work is involved, and then start all over again toward a different career?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, don’t worry, you’re not alone. I’ve met countless people who tell me that they’d do almost anything to have the job, career, or business of their dreams. But when it comes down to taking action toward making that goal a reality, they don’t do “anything” at all. They talk a lot-–and dream–-but never do anything about it. They spend their evenings and weekends watching television, or going out on the town with friends, or playing video games, or shopping, or any of a million other things not related to starting a business or a new career.

Now don’t get me wrong--I’ve been guilty of this same thing myself in the past. It’s hard to work all day at a job, then come home and work all night, too. People have spouses and children to spend time with, friends to socialize with, bills to pay, houses to clean, vacations to take, trash to take out, and countless other things to attend to.

Another problem is people who have plenty of ambition, and they’re motivated to learn, but they fall into the “paralysis by analysis” syndrome. They take classes, read books, listen to audio tapes, watch training DVDs, etc. They become seminar junkies, learning everything they can about a subject. But unfortunately, they never do anything with that knowledge. There’s an old saying that learning something, but never applying that knowledge, is the same as never knowing it at all.

And lets face it, change can be downright scary. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to just stick to your current job--even if you hate it–-rather than go out and face the possiblity of failure or rejection. What if you’re too young? Or too old? What if you’re underqualified? Or Overqualified? What if you start a new career and decide that you don’t like it any better than the one you have now? What if you start a business and it loses money and I go bankrupt?

The list goes on and on.

And these are all legitimate concerns. There are risks any time you step out of your comfort zone and try something new. But I would put forth that the greater risk is doing nothing at all, and staying stuck in a life that leaves you frustrated and feeling miserable.

Take action, now

If you really, really want to find the work you were born to do, and make your new career a reality, you have to work every day (or nearly every day) in the direction of that goal. There’s no way around it. No one is going to show up at your door, shake your hand, and hand you the keys to your new life (Unless you’re really luck and win the lotto or one of those publisher’s sweepstakes). 

I finally came to that realization a few years ago, after listening to an old Tony Robbins audiocassette course called “Unlimited Power” that I’d bought for a few bucks at a garage sale. Tony had spent years studying highly successful people–-from Colonel Sanders to Steven Spielberg to the man who founded the Honda Corporation in postwar Japan. And what Tony discovered was that all of these successful people:

     1. Knew what result they wanted. 
     2. They took consistent action to achieve that result.
     3. And they never gave up, no matter how many times they  tried and failed. 


Despite their fears, despite their doubts, despite their age (Colonel Sanders was 65 when he set off to launch his fried chicken empire), despite repeated failures, these people took action until they finally achieved the result that they’d envisioned for themselves.

I listened to Tony’s program three or four times, absorbing every word. It was one of those “light bulb” moments for me, and I realized why I’d never been able to achieve the dreams I’d had for my life. I’d always fantasized about working for myself and doing the things I loved and was passionate about, but I never did anything. I mean I read books, and I dreamed, and I read some more books, and I dreamed some more, but I never got any closer to making my goals a reality.

I finally decided to get my act together, formulate a plan, and start taking action every day toward my objectives. I didn’t care if I made mistakes. I didn’t care what anyone else thought about my plan. And I didn’t let failures (and their certainly have been some) stop me.  

And lo and behold, it’s working. I mean I’m not a Tony Robbins or Steven Spielberg, but I’m a lot closer to achieving my career dreams than I was a few years ago.

So if you don’t have a plan, get busy and make one. Figure out where you want to be in five years, and decide what steps you have to take to get there. Then do something every day to get yourself one step closer to to your objective. And always put a deadline to your goals. After all, a goal without a deadline is just a wish.

Keep Going, no matter what

Just as important as taking action, is the ability to keep going, no matter what. There’ll be days that you get frustrated or discouraged, there will be days that you’ll rather do anything else besides cold call a prospective employer or study another training manual. But you have to plow ahead anyway. Some of the greatest novels in the English language were rejected time and again before finally finding a publisher. 

Many people get excited about the possibility of starting a business or a new career. They start out strong, letting their enthusiasm carry them along. But then they hit a bump in the road, lose interest in the project, and give up with the objective was well within their reach.

A successful business startup or career change can be a lot of hard work, and it’s easy to become discouraged. But you have to take a long-range view of things. Always keep your objective in mind, and take small steps every day toward that objective. It’s much easier to keep going than to try and re-start after a prolonged layoff.

And learn how to manage the risks. Do your planning so that you know what you’re doing beforehand. Make sure you’ve taken the classes or studied the materials so that you’re prepared for your new business or career. Talk to people already working in your target career, and ask as many questions as you can. And better yet, see if you can arrange to work for a week or so as an apprentice to see if your target career is really right for you.

J. Paul Getty, the oil billionaire, once said “Before you start something new, decide what’s the worst thing that can happen if you fail. And then make sure that whatever it is, it doesn’t happen.”

If you fall down, get back up. Learn from your mistakes, make adjustments, and try again. Most successful people try many things before they finally hit on the right forumla for success. The only people who really fail are the ones who give up too soon.

Just keep imagining how good it will feel to achieve your goals and finally be working in a career that you can get excited about, one that has you looking forward to Mondays instead of Fridays. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather reach for the stars and fall short, then be 80 and kicking myself for never having reached at all.

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