Project Creative Vision

Breaking Through the Fear

I've been thinking a lot in recent months about the fears that hold us back in life and how I can help those I'm honored to work with to break through those fears.  Fear is a natural part of who we are, and our great task in life is to face that fear down in order to grow stronger - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  This task, which isn't easy even in the best of times, has become even tougher since the beginning of the current economic crisis. 

So I wanted to share this email that a former client sent me a few weeks ago.  (I'm publishing it, of course, with his express permission.) It shows that sometimes all that's needed to break through the fear is the realization that, no matter the external circumstances, we all get just this one life to live.  In the end, that life will be judged not by how tightly we held on to what we had but by how bravely we faced our fears down and followed our guts into the lives we were meant to live. Thanks for the inspiration, my friend!

Hi Izabella!  I have some great news! Last week I was finally offered a great sales job with a [well-known company]. Work from home, great salary, and wonderful benefits.

So you may be shocked to hear that in the middle of the worst recession in 75 years, I turned down the job the day I was supposed to start, and have decided to move to [another state], enroll in a certificate program in theology at the Seminary there, take a few entrepreneurship classes, and in the next 6-months start my own business and probably one for my wife as well! 

A pastor of mine said a profound thing last year, “Nobody gets tomorrow.” Meaning - do it today because you might not be here tomorrow.  I decided that I cannot go another day pretending during interviews and not being honest with myself. I have never been more excited, and more filled with feelings of moving in the direction of my gifts, abilities and passions.

Laid Off from Lehman? Now Is Your Chance

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to."- Alan Keightley

With Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch and AIG barely squeaking by, I thought I'd drop a line to the employees of those companies who are now on the outs or are awaiting their fate. 

Believe me, I know what it's like to be part of a collapsing organization.  When you lose your job because the company you've worked for so hard collapses, it may seem as if your world is crashing all around you.  It's worse when it happens because of the dishonesty, greed, and incompetence of the management, whose sole preoccupation in these last moments is saving their own hide.

But here's a small bit of a silver lining:  Even though your job is over, your life isn't.

And here's an even bigger truth:  You are now completely free to do whatever you want with your life.

Come As You Are

Marci Alboher has two articles I'd like to point you toward. 

One is the most recent entry on her Shifting Careers blog.  The entry takes a close look at a family's finances after the husband leaves a corporate job to start a gourmet foods company.

Marci has also written an article for the June issue of More magazine called "Reinvent Yourself on a Shoestring," detailing stories of three women who took big career leaps "without stock options or sugar daddies."  The article highlights both the "hard" issues of career transition, such as finances, and the intangibles and fears that often hold us back.

I was particularly struck with the story of Robin Moorad, who said that her scariest moment was trading in her beloved BMW for a leased Honda CR-V.  It fits so perfectly with what so many of us feel in career transitions - or any major life transition, in fact.  No matter how much we are drawn toward something new, symbols of success from our previous careers are significant and hard to give up. 

Pangea Day: Making a Difference through the Power of Film

As stories of people following their own unique vision in life go, Jehane Noujaim's Pangea Day was truly inspiring.  As the four-hour event unfolded at the Letelier Theater in Washington, DC, and 1000 other locations around the globe, I found myself riveted by the short films it showcased - windows into human experience, portraits at once intimate, unique, and universal.  There was power in the simultaneous simplicity and depth of the stories.  There was power in the message that no matter how many walls divide us, we are all exactly the same and we are all searching for the same things in life. And there was power in the idea of a young woman making a difference simply by taking the courage to pursue her own path.

All of the film selections are available on the Pangea Day website.  Here are my personal favorites:

Dancing Queen, by Sumit Roy (filmed with a mobile camera)

Walleyball by Brent Hoff

I'll Wait for the Next One, by Philippe Orreindy

Mutual Recognition by Jehane Noujaim

More On Pangea Day - Who's Involved, Where to Watch

Here's some more information on Pangea Day (see my original post), which just landed in my inbox:

Who's Involved

Pangea Day films will be coupled with talks from CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Queen Noor of Jordan, child soldier Ishmael Beah, and many more.

The program will be hosted by Lisa Ling, Current TV's Max and Jason, and June Arunga.

Pangea Day will also include live music, including performances by the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, Gilberto Gil, Rokia Traore, Mohamed Mounir and Iranian rock band Hypernova.

Where to Watch

Watch on the Internet:

Watch the live webcast on MSN International.

Starting at 18:00 GMT, MSN will stream the live 4-hour program in 23 of its markets:  Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Arabia, Australia, Canada, UK, Indonesia, Ireland, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Latin America, Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Brazil. MSN is a world leader in delivering web services to consumers and Pangea Day is thrilled to have MSN International come on board as our exclusive online live streaming partner. The live webcast will also be streamed on the Pangea Day website.

Watch on Television:

Tune in and watch Pangea Day on television - available in over 150 countries.

Watch on your phone:

The program will also be available on video-enabled mobile phones. Just point mobile your phone to mobile.pangeaday.org.

Watch Together:

Thousands registered Friends of Pangea Day watch parties are being planned in over 100 countries. To attend a local event, check out our google map .

Live Interaction!

Interact with people around the world online on Pangea Day. Let us know your thoughts, opinions and feelings about the live broadcast by writing on the Pangea Day blog. We want to hear your voice!

Share your videos and images from May 10th on OviShare - one of the hubs of Pangea Day activity. Pangea Day, with support from Nokia, is encouraging people around the world to share their photos and videos on OviShare for possible inclusion in the broadcast! You could also win a Nokia N95 and Filmmakers pack by sharing your mobile film.

Take Action!

Inspire others and make a difference on Pangea Day.

Take a moment to look at the list of incredible organizations featured on the "Act" section of our website. Express your voice on an important social issue or fund a life-changing project. Move the Pangea Day message forward.

Email act@pangeaday.org and tell us how Pangea Day inspired you to take action.

Join Pangea Day This Saturday: See the World Through Someone Else's Eyes

This may seem off-topic for a career-related site, but we are taking a global, big-picture view of the world and our lives here.

There are choices each of us makes in our lives, and this event, taking place this Saturday, May 10, is a result of one woman's choice and a desire to make a difference.

In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, best known for her documentary Control Room about Al Jazeera, won the TED Prize, a prestigious annual award granted at the TED Conference. (Previous winners have included Bono and Bill Clinton.)

She was granted $100,000, but, more important, she was granted a wish - a wish to change the world.

Her wish was to create a day in which the world would come together through the power of film and, rather than seeing all the things that divide us, see the common quality - the humanity - in each other. Pangea Day grew out of that wish.  "Pangea" refers to the name of the supercontinent that existed some 250 million years ago prior to splitting into the six continent we know now. 

(Watch Jehane Noujaim’s 2006 acceptance speech and read an interview with her.)

From 2500 submissions, 24 short films were selected "based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person's eyes." 

The films will be broadcast live from six cities - Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro - in a single four-hour event, which will start at 1 PM EST, and will be available simultaneously online, on TV, and at many local public screening locations.  With 1500 screenings planned in 100 countries, total viewership is expected to exceed 500 million.

So go on, join a local screening or get together with friends to watch online, and be a part of an extraordinary event that grew out of one woman's wish.  Watch, be inspired, and most important, let no one convince you that you can't make a difference in the world. 

And for further inspiration, here's an email from Chris Anderson, TED Curator (reprinted from Andrea Lee's fantastic blog):

From Television to Archaeological Cruises: A "Bold Moves" Interview

This interview is part of a "Bold Moves" interview series. If you are a client or have subscribed to our free bi-monthly Bold Moves e-zine, you have already received the link to the full audio and transcript of the interview. If you haven't, please click here to get access to the full interview. (Why do we ask you to subscribe?)

Career transitions are tough at any age.  For many of us, our first re-evaluation of the career we’ve chosen comes in our early 30s.  By then, the search and the uncertainties of our 20s are over, and we find ourselves, for the first time in our lives, in a position to step back, take stock of our accomplishments, and look ahead to where the path we are on might be leading us.

The decisions we make as a result of this first re-evaluation hinge on many factors.  For Peter Sommer, an award-winning filmmaker, whose documentaries have been broadcast on PBS, BBC, and CNN, the factors in favor of continuing with his career in television were many:  the achievements and promise of an exciting profession; the prestige and status associated with it; the financial security and ability to provide for his young family. 

The Change Is Here!... and an Interview Preview

Well, here it is, my new format, logo, and color palette.  It feels less formal, warmer and livelier.  Is it too bright?  Let me know what you think.  If I hear too many protests, the old look is just a button click away.

In other news, I've just done a fantastic interview for my Bold Moves e-zine with Peter Sommer, owner of Peter Sommer Travels.  A former TV documentary producer and director, whose work was broadcast on PBS, CNN, BBC, and Channel 4 (UK), Peter undertook a radical career change and now runs a fantastic travel company that offers exclusive, informative, fun, and completely and unbelievably beautiful archaeological cruises of Turkey aboard a gorgeous sailing boat.  Peter is a friend and former colleague, and I had the pleasure of being a part of his very first trip back in 2002.  It remains one of the most memorable experiences of my life.  In the interview, Peter and I talk about the challenges of leaving a well-established and well-paying career behind, the difficulties of transition, and combining head and heart when following your dream.

If you'd like to be the first to receive access to the audio and transcript of the interview, please leave me your name and email address using the form below.  Don't worry, this won't cause a flood of spam arriving in your inbox.  I hate spam myself, and I won't do it to you or anybody else.  (And what would I spam you about, anyway?)  I anticipate Bold Moves to be a bi-monthly publication, so that's about the frequency, with which you can anticipate hearing from me. And you'll always be given an easy option to unsubscribe.

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The Millennials' Escape

The Millennials' abandoning traditional career track and going off in search of meaning continues to fascinate mainstream media.  The most recent contribution on the subject is this piece on Conde Nast's Portfolio.com, "Escape From Corporate America."

Millennials - those in their 20s, whose distinguishing characteristic is placing job satisfaction and lifestyle concerns ahead of simply moving up the corporate ladder - no doubt also have corporate America freaking out.  Who's going to fill in the lower-rank corporate-slave spots in the big consulting firms' corporate sweatshops?  Who'll be chained to their chairs 120 hours per week at our nation's most prestigious law firms, living on the promise that one day 20 years from now they'll make a partner? 

Not these kids.  No wonder the older folks have no idea what to make of them.  "The Millennials Are Coming" segment that ran on CBS' 60 Minutes last November paints a dim picture of them, presenting the Millennials as slackers and an entitlement generation. 

Launching "Bold Moves"!

Today I decided that I am going to publish my very own e-zine after all - Bold Moves.  I've long wanted to have a reason to go out and interview some of the most extraordinary people I've come across in my life.  They are extraordinary not because they have some amazing artistic talent that showed itself at age five, nor because their lives have taken place under some unique circumstances. 

They are extraordinary because they were just like the rest of us - until at some point they chose to buck society's notions of what one "should" do with one's life, left their successful careers behind, and pursued their dreams.  They are people in their 30-s and 40-s - old enough to have achieved success in their first careers, but too young to have accumulated so much money as to not have to worry about making a living.

The things I'm going to be asking them are those that worry all of my mid-career career-changing clients:

How did you know that that was what you wanted to do with your life?

How did you overcome the naysayers, the fears, the gremlins?

What gave you the courage - the boldness - to continue after your dreams?

There is inspiration in such stories, and quite a bit of learning.  So stay tuned. 

This will likely be a bi-monthly, and I already have an amazing person in mind for the first issue.  To receive your e-zine, please subscribe by filling out the two-box Bold Moves form on the right margin of the blog.