Sebastian Klein over at Lifehacker/Fast Company had an interesting blog and a great point recently. He pointed out that for many people, changing careers and following your passions is not nearly as good of strategy as refining the skills you already have.
As I have come to be in the Leadership business, many of my clients find themselves in changing jobs or their industry being downsized or their job being eliminated or themselves not being an ideal fit with their current organization. I resonate with this situation, having faced it myself some six years ago.
I learned the hard way how difficult it is to follow your passions while placing a roof over you head and putting food on the table. It is not that I cannot see ways to monetize my passions, it is much more that my experience and education limits the boundaries of how far I can stretch this particular bankability. It is a difficult wall to climb, a pulverizing realization that although much is written about doing what you love, the older you are when facing these types of situations, the more pinned in you may find yourself. The time and freedom and opportunities to change fields of work dwindle with age.
My life (and yours) is a mosaic of jobs held and done (experience) and educational choices and history. That defines most of the possibilities on the horizon. I wanted to get out of the clergy/cross-cultural worker field and I wanted out badly. Burned out toast to the crispy max, I wanted something completely other. So I resigned the post that I held and left the parent group I had worked with for 23 years. My wife asked me what I REALLY wanted to do now? Don't laugh, but I told her that I wanted to repair motorcycles (that is the subject of a future blog perhaps!). So I resigned, and started researching motorcycle repairing.
I know, the smart way to have done it (if it can indeed be done) would have been to line up all the necessary parts and pieces of this change in vocational industry BEFORE I left my paying job. But that only seems to happen to hard core planners or gypsies who can foresee the future. Mind you, I had been thinking about changing industries for years, but the urgency of the now, pretty much kept my hands full all the time, and there was not enough urgency to send me to motorcycle repair school, Yes you heard me correctly, motorcycle repairman have to go through at least a full year residential program (move the family and feed them while going through school kind of residency program) in order to be certified to qualify for a job. And that in and of itself is no guarantee of job at the end of the year of learning. With three teenagers (two in college) at the time, no savings, and no margin, changing industries/changing career fields in my mid-late 40's was a practical impossibility.
Don't get me wrong, the opportunities are the very much the same in my opinion, for everyone regardless of age, but what is not the same is the freedom of choice. So Klein is very much on to something when he advocates refining your current skills and refocusing your current experience. This is what I have done. This is what I am suggesting to most of my clients. Although I am a huge Seth Godin fan, he suggests regularly that only desire and bravery (= passion) and the willingness to risk are required to change your career, what you do, how you provide value, and to what you accomplish.
Klein's blog was/is so much more practical at most levels in my opinion. Instead of "doing what you love" he suggests that you "learn to love what you do." He references Cal Newport's book, "So Good They Can't Ignore You" as a basis for this. When these ideas are considered together with Godin's ideas, the result is a powerful possibility that can change your circumstances significantly. Become a craftsman of what you do. Practice hard and get out of your comfort zone. Acquire rare and valuable skills in your vocational area. Become so good that they can't ignore you indeed!
I would add one more suggestion to these fine one's here. Acquire some objectivity about your vocation. Involve others so that you can see it through fresh eyes so that you can discover new areas within your area of expertise. So I still work in the clergy/cross-cultural worker fields, but I am doing something few others do within those areas of vocation. I provide a service where few others do, and with people who can't access the resources that I can provide them.
Still it was and is unnervingly risky, and I am constantly navigating new waters and my learning curve is terrifying. But I am doing far more learning to love what I do than I am spinning my wheels (pun intended) on motorcycle repair. While I still may get to the bikes eventually (doesn't that sound like a a great second career after retirement?!), for the moment, I am refining 35 years of education and experience into something more valuable and meaningful. (You can read Klein's post by Googling "Focus on the Skills you have instead of following your passion.")
