“I hated doing something I loved outside of work, feeling alive and engaged, only to have it all disappear the moment I walked through the door of my day job…I just hated that the 40 hours of my week didn’t feel anything like the few hours of my weekend when life made sense.”
My brother gave me this book last year for Christmas. It turned out to be the second best book I
read in 2012. (Mere Christianity by CS
Lewis took #1). I tend to be unsure
about my job and my career path. I
believe most people in their 20s or 30s have the same problem. This book is about looking at your day job
through a different lens and learning to “Use your day job to build your dream
job”. Your day job may not be so bad
after all. Here are my notes from the
book:
·
I hated doing something I loved outside of work,
feeling alive and engaged, only to have it all disappear the moment I walked
through the door of my day job…I just hated that the 40 hours of my week didn’t
feel anything like the few hours of my weekend when life made sense (p2).
·
For the 25-34 year old, the average tenure is
3.1 years (p4). (That was me exactly
haha)
·
While you can is a weird phrase. If you weren’t married, no one would tell you
sleep with a bunch of women while you can.
·
We buy into the lie that work is usually
miserable. We buy into the lie that it’s
possible to separate who we are at work from who we are outside of work.
·
The Donnies (analogy for bad bosses) of life-
bills: electric, car, Trader Joes, Chase Mortgage, Verizon, Comcast…
·
Keep your no’s open. It’s ok to say no when you have other options
or incomes. You lose that ability to say
no when you have no other options.
·
Dreams tend to challenge the status quo
(p18). At the heart of a dream is
change. Few people like this. People get comfortable and often see dreamers
as threats.
·
Jon was able to write for CNN- a non-Christian
company- because he had a day job. If
things didn’t work out he could always go back to it.
·
I know it sounds crazy, but people with day jobs
tend to have more creative freedom than people without. (P21).
Don’t quit your day job.
·
We often demonize our day jobs when we
dream. We make them enemies of what we
really want to do. But if you dream the
right way and learn how to quit the right way, your day job can actually be your
dream job’s greatest ally.
·
Whenever you start trying to actively figure out
what is it you want to do, whenever you start to search for the thing that
makes you come alive, something weird happens.
You imagine you are going to discover it. (P32-33)
·
Start With Why by Simon Sinek. He calls our dreams, our calling, our
WHY. More often than not, finding out
what you love doing most is about recovering an old love or an inescapable
truth that has been silenced for years, even decades. It is a process of recovery (P33).
·
When life gets full, it’s a shame that your
dream is one of the first things to get lost in the fray (P36).
·
How many artists are in the room? All kindergarteners say yes. 1/3 of
third graders, 1/10 12th graders, 1/100 adults…
·
Trying to discover you’re something and trying
to recover something is a world of difference.
There are a million different things you can do with your life. Instead, ask yourself what have I done in the
past that I love doing? Instead, you are
left with a manageable amount of things (P40).
·
To find you hinge moment, ask
o
What do I love to do for free?
o
What do I do that causes time to feel
different-times when you look at the clock and realize you haven’t ate dinner?
o
What do I enjoy doing regardless of the opinions
of other people?
o
If only your life changed, would that be enough?
o
Are there any patterns in the things you like
doing?
·
Every dream has risk associated with it (as does
love). If it doesn’t, then it’s not
really a dream.
·
CREATIVITY IS A WILD MIND WITH A DISCIPLINED EYE
o
The creative person has the ability to feed his
mind all these different topics and ideas, then see a connection between previously
unconnected things in a way no one has ever seen before
·
There are different ways of looking at risk:
o
The Magnifying glass- Blowing up every possible
consequence and avoid looking at the potential grand reward
o
The Kaleidoscope- Seeing all the potential
problems and then intertwining them into other areas in your life in a
ridiculous sort of way
o
The Telescope-you acknowledge that the risk is
there but there is such a great distance between you and the risk that you can
overcome it and plan for it
·
We have to murder perfectionism- better 90%
right and shared then 100 perfect and stuck on your hard drive.
·
Get comfortable with A minus work. A lot of people don’t see the countless hours
you put in to make something perfect.
·
I want you to be excellent at passion, not just
passionate.
·
It’s such a toxic phrase- If I really wanted
to. It’s a get out of jail free
card. It’s not my lack of ability that
is holding me back- it’s my lack of desire.
We shift the blame for our dream not coming true. We maintain the appearance of having the
skill to make the dream come true, just not the will. AKA apathy.
Apathy is a good friend when opportunity stares you in the face and you’re
afraid to actually find out what would really happen if you tried to follow
through with a dream or job or a desire.
·
Average America spends and additional 163 hours
per year on the job. See the “The Overworked American” book.
·
We always say it would be easier if I didn’t
have a full time job but your job gives you the creative freedom to risk and do
things you normally wouldn’t be able to.
Same with debt- Debt constrains your ability to be creative. It is a Donnie.
·
It would be easier if I wasn’t married: often
times the partner support is paramount is succeeding in something.
·
What does your dream have to do with your
job? Remember why you work
·
Your job is a blessing (98)
o
I can eat because I went to work
o
I can sleep under a roof because of work
o
I’ll wear shoes today because of the job
o
If I break my pelvis, I will have the insurance
to pay for it
o
I can support a non-profit because I work
·
Your job can give you lessons for you dream job
(100)
o
Starbucks is going to teach you about money
o
Starbucks is going to teach you about people
o
Starbucks is going to teach you about marketing
·
Ways to ruin you day job and dream job at the
same time (108)
o
Steal from work
o
Think of your job as your adversary, not you
advocate
o
Demand that your job meet the needs of your
dream
·
The plan myth- if we just needed a plan, Malcolm
Gladwell wouldn’t have had to wait until his 40s to publish these huge best
sellers (119)
o
He had a passion
o
Then He practiced it
o
Then he planned it
·
Focus on your passion first. You passion will always fuel your plan. Rarely will a plan fuel a passion (125)
·
I like that because so often developing our
dream job is less about grand balls at grand castles and more about bringing
lunch. It’s the process of doing small
necessary things, over and over again, and letting the momentum build instead
of getting decked out by a fairy godmother and being escorted to prominence (130)
o
I want to have two people show up to one of my
events and deal with awkwardness of that before I try to lasso the moon- show
up to speak at the big Catalyst Event (130)
·
“We knew that google was going to get better
every single day as we worked on it, and we knew that sooner or later, everyone
was going to try it. So our feeling was
that the later you tried it, the better it was for us because we would make a
better impression with better technology.
So we were never in a big hurry to get you to use it today. Tomorrow would be better (131).
·
The safest man in the world is the man who has
everything to lose. One of the costs of
notoriety is safety. Anonymity allows
you to make big, gross mistakes without everyone watching (131).
·
Anonymity is the best creative label because
you’ve got nothing to lose. Anything is
possible. (133)
o
The gift of invisibility
o
Stay dangerous.
Stay bold. And for longer than
you probably want to, stay invisible (134).
o
When you first start out, expect Nebraska years
(small crowds). Every dream goes through
Nebraska (137).
·
There will be hustle (Ch. 6)
o
Push harder, dream further, work longer,
faster…HUSTLE (140)
·
Do I want ____________? Then I have to ____________.
·
Dreams start in the morning. I have less excuse in the morning (146).
·
Like verses love list. I like watching the real world, sports…etc., but
I love _______. Hustle to keep love a
bigger part of your day than your like (150).
·
He was originally going to call the book Hustle.
·
To get a 50000 page book, he had to write 10
times that much or 500000 words (152)
·
Things I learned about giving stuff away for
free
o
People won’t pay for what they can get for free
o
You have to weigh the long-term benefits of
doing something for free
o
Free pays dividends towards expertise
§
Practice, exposure, audience, and eventually
expertise
·
Competition is a great motivator but a horrible
measurement (162).
·
If your dream is to open a restaurant, become a
missionary, go back to school, or anything else, what should you measure
first? HUSTLE (168)
o
Did I speak as often as I should have?
o
Did I write the best book I could?
o
Did I market to the right crowd?
o
Always look at how much you hustled. Look in the mirror.
·
The reason success is so dangerous is that we
get arrogant. No one gets cocky when
they fail (174).
o
“Incompetence irritates me, but overconfidence
scares me. Incompetent people rarely
have opportunities to make mistakes that greatly affect things. But overconfident leaders and experts have
the dangerous ability to create disaster.”
Malcolm Gladwell
·
Define your Enough
o
Write and email to yourself for the future- 1
year ahead
§
I was working on a project with big money and opportunity
and it was killing me. I was ill,
stressed out, unhappy. I had the clarity
to send myself a message in the future that basically said don’t do this to
yourself again. (176)
·
Pat riley called it the disease of more. Success is often the first step towards
disaster (179).
·
Use futureme.org to write your email and define
what you enough will look like (180).
·
Don’t burn out.
Don’t burn the candle at both ends.
We often see exhaustion as a badge of honor, a mark of excellence (181)
o
I burn my
candle at both ends, it will not last the night. But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, it gives
a lovely light by Edna St. Vincent Millay
·
Burn your dream bright. Pursue it with the best of who you are. But don’t confuse hustle with burnout. Hustle fills you up. Burnout empties you. Hustle renews your energy. Burnout drains it. Hustle impacts every other aspect of your
life in a positive way. Burnout impacts
every aspect of your life in a negative way (183). this
reminds me of ravi zacharias quote about if it replenishes you then it is okay
and that if it doesn’t distract or take away from you faith, then it is good
for you.
·
Don’t fall into the land of later myth.
·
I have never heard a 13 year old say” my dad
really wasn’t around the first 10 years of my life, but I have a really nice
bike now so it evens out” (184).
·
Don’t turn your platform into your prison.
·
To have a legacy that is bigger than our
individual lives and actions. To have
multigenerational dreams (192).
·
The percentage of dream time is a good
measurement to begin with when it comes to determining somewhere stable to
land.
·
3 reasons why youll igone everything you just
read in this book
o
You’ll think life exists outside your walls-
work is what I do, not who I am…
·
If you quit your job without understanding why you’re
quitting, you’ll just jump from job to job without understanding why you’re
quitting
·
The common denominator with every job you quit
is you
·
When you get tired of you job 2 things could
happen
o
Admit to all your co-workers your job doesn’t
matter
o
Become a jerk
·
You’ll think your job funds the other parts of
your life
·
You’ll think work is never meant to be
fulfilling
·
“The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the
greatest of things without” Carl Jung
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