1

C o n t e x t fo r S uc c es s

C HA NGI N G WORK PLACE

I n case you missed it, in 2005 Thomas L. Friedman published

a book titled The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-
First Century. He did not argue that the world was actually flat
but rather argued, very effectively, that the world is becoming
much smaller and opportunities are open to just about anyone
who is willing to take the risk and engage in the marketplace.
He argued that everything is changing. How we work, where we
work, how we compete, how we perform and are evaluated—it is all
changing. Also, he made the case that competition is not just within
our local areas but can come from anywhere in the world.
This change can be unsettling, but it also can be full of infinite
opportunity. Those people who know how to adapt and how to
operate in today’s marketplace will be able not only to survive but
to prosper.
Some of the more significant consequences of these changes
affect us directly in our ability to compete but also in the realization
that we must continuously look at what we do for a living and con-
firm that it has true value to our employer. There is simply way too
much competition today for anyone to become complacent and rest
on his or her laurels. The workplace is changing at breakneck speed,
and it is imperative that individuals who want to be successful in this

15
environment understand the value that they bring and be able to explain it again
and again to those who are constantly looking for a better way to get the job done.
Employers can draw from a global pool of talent, so you must be able to market
your skills effectively, both in the short run and throughout your entire career.

A SOBERING STATISTIC

Pew Research Center did a survey of college graduates and asked them what they
would have done differently while in college, and fully 50% said they would gain
more work experience, while 30% also admitted that they should have started
looking for work sooner. I have also heard it said that over 50% of recent college
graduates go into a job that they could have done with a high school diploma.
Whether you look at recent surveys or just conduct your own informal research,
you will come away with the understanding that it is critical for you to understand
and embrace the idea that the world of work is constantly changing and you have
to engage, get some experience, learn what you are good at doing and what you
do not like to do, and become fully engaged in the career development process.
Waiting until you are close to graduation is not a wise move and will not get you
the kind of opportunity you deserve.

CAREER PLANNING NOW! DON’T WAIT UNTIL

IT IS TOO LATE

Another way to think about this whole idea of career planning is to borrow
another page from industry. You might want to look at the idea of pursuing a
career along the same lines as a company pursues the idea of Just in Time Supply
Chain Management.
We all know that we will clearly need to find a new opportunity when we
graduate, but if we wait until then to start planning, we will be behind the curve
in the process. In much the same way that a company needs to do a large amount
of planning and preparation so that they can receive that needed part at exactly
the right time, you too should be thinking about your career planning process way
ahead of the time when you actually need to make the change.

16 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

 Also, even if you are a graduate student and already have job, don’t forget that
as you go through the career planning process and think about the value that you
are bringing to the job market, it will also benefit you and your current employer
in ensuring that you are valuable in your current role even if you have no desire to
change employers.
The bottom line is that you don’t want to wait until you need the job before you
start your quest. If you do so, you will be scrambling with your resume, frantically
looking for someone to “hire you” and can potentially fall into a state of significant
desperation.
As an alternative, take up the challenge now to begin to plan for the future in
much of the same way that a company plans for its future involving just in-time
inventory management. You want your career prospects to arrive “just in time”
and that requires significant planning ahead of time.

WHICH CAMP ARE YOU IN? IT IS YOUR CHOICE

There seem to be two camps when it comes to personal career planning and
development.
One camp is that of dependency. People in this camp are expecting some-
one else to do the heavy lifting when it comes to their career strategy. They
want to hire someone to write their resume. They want to rely on a place-
ment agency or their college career center to find them a job. They believe
that their college degree and other credentials are sufficient and that all they
need to do is to get the information out there, and someone will scoop them
up and pay them a nice signing bonus in addition to a comfortable salary.
Their biggest problem with this approach is that these people will get very
little play in the job world and spend most of their time waiting for something
to happen.
And then there is the other camp. These folks are hungry. They are looking
for opportunities every time they meet someone. They take personal ownership
of their career quest. They own their resumes and their elevator speeches. They
know the value that they can bring to an employer, and they are constantly on the
lookout for opportunities. Their biggest problem is that they wind up with several

Context for Success | 17

potential opportunities and do not know which one to pursue. Which, by the way,
is a very nice problem to have.
So which camp are you in? The first one is relatively easy, and is dependent
on someone else to do most of the hard work. The second one is actually hard. It
takes work and dedication, and it requires you to take a risk and put yourself out
there. It is fraught with potential rejection but it also has unlimited opportunity.
They key is that it is completely up to you to choose your camp. It is not driven
by your parents, or your significant other, or by your friends. It is your choice!
This has got to be one of the most significant decisions that you make in your
career quest. Are you in the camp that is hoping someone will give you a job or are
you in the other camp where you are totally in control of your career aspirations.
Choose wisely, it is completely in your hands.

F RE E M A RK E T E CONOM I CS
The reality we all face in pursuit of our career aspirations is this thing called the
free market. This is where goods and services are exchanged for a price. What is
important to remember is that while the nature of work and how it affects the
individual employee are going through a major transformation, the fundamental
concepts behind the free market are not changing.
The free market has been in place for a long time. It has been the creator of
fortunes for many people but has also contributed to the ruin of many others. The
ultimate irony is that the market can be both very cruel and infinitely rational and
fair. In fact, it is totally devoid of emotion. It does not care where your parents were
born, what language you speak, your religion, your age, or your gender. It only
cares if you are able to bring value to it in exchange for fair compensation.
It is important to understand but also respect and embrace this concept. When
we ask someone for a job, we are asking him or her to do us a favor and give us
something. But if we accept that we operate within the free market and decide
to bring our service into the market in exchange for a fair price, we are taking full
advantage of the opportunities that the market can provide. There is a profound
difference between asking someone to give you something—such as a job—and
offering to provide value to someone in exchange for compensation!

18 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

HOW JOBS GET FILLED

Dick Bolles in What Color Is Your Parachute has done an outstanding job contrast-
ing how jobs get filled with how people search for jobs. His argument is that
a job seeker begins with their resume, then might look at some want ads, work
through an agency and maybe contact some of their colleagues. They seldom
work through referrals, contacts, showing up at an employer’s office with the right
credentials or working within the company. The reason that people do it that way
is that they know how to do it. They can find a book on resumes or go to the want
ads or contact an employment agency for help. They do not know how to do it any
other way!
Contrast that with how jobs actually get filled. According to Bolles, hiring man-
agers look within the company, check with their networks or respond if the right
person comes along with the right credentials. They will go to agencies or the want
ads and grind through a bunch of resumes if they have to, but they would rather
get a solid recommendation from a colleague and go with that option.
This is what we want to help you understand in this book. We want you to learn
how to operate in the world where jobs are getting filled and to differentiate your-
self from the vast majority of people who still believe that the best way to get a job
is to send your resume to as many potential employers as possible. In essence, we
want to help you be better prepared to operate in a free market economy.

DOES THIS APPLY TO A MORE EXPERIENCED STUDENT

In the prior chapter we mentioned that this approach is good for both a newly
graduated student as well as for someone with more experience. In fact, someone
who has already been in the work force or has more extensive experience is going
to be even better able to take advantage of the ideas in this book and use them
to be more effective in working with hiring managers who are looking for talent.
By being able to leverage your current experience, you will be even better able
to reach out to hiring managers, make the kinds of connections that you need and
land a solid opportunity.
The key idea, regardless of your level of experience, is that you need to let go
of the old way of thinking about your career as a series of resume mailings and

Context for Success | 19

embrace the new approach where you are contacting hiring managers and making
the connection outside of the traditional job posting systems.

MY DEGREE IS: (PICK ONE)—DOES THAT DEFINE

THE WORK I NEED TO PURSUE?

Something else to consider when you are deciding which companies to reach out
to is to not be limited by the type of degree you have earned or are earning.
Too often, a student tries to make the direct link between their major and the
specific field where they will work. The problem with that approach is that most
universities focus on a broad education, as they should, and are not trade schools
focusing on a specific set of skills. They are preparing students to be critical think-
ers, problem solvers, communicators and leaders and the student’s major is an
area of focus but does not represent the entire spectrum of possibilities.
I try to encourage my students to give voice to their true passions. I want
them to take the time to decide what their “super powers” truly are and then to
pursue opportunities that will capitalize on those powers. When a political science
student says that he or she has to go into politics or when an economics student
feels that the only careers available to them are as economists, they are cutting
themselves short.
Take the time to understand and give voice to your passion. Understand
that employers want to know about your skills and knowledge but also about
your experiences and track record as well as how you can connect and relate
to others.
Understand what you are really good at doing, pursue some opportunities to
sharpen those abilities and continually focus on pursuing those situations that
will reward you for those abilities. Take advantage of the skills and knowledge
that a given major has afforded you, but don’t let it be a hindrance. Rather, let it
provide you with some basic knowledge that you can then leverage into a viable
career option.
The world has more opportunities than any of us can possibly imagine.
Approach your personal career quest from a perspective of abundance and go for
those opportunities that truly tap your potential.

20 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

 Take a little time to think about and reflect on the idea that the market will
reward or punish you, without emotion, based on the value you bring to it. It is as
simple and elegant as that. No emotion!
People often complain that the market is cruel because it does not care what
your personal needs are. In reality, it does not care that you have been working
for a company for more than fifteen years, that you just had a new baby, or that
your house needs significant upgrades. When people approach the market hoping
someone will “give them a chance” because they need or deserve something, they
are fooling themselves. In essence, they are asking an unemotional entity to be nice
to them and give them an opportunity to show what they are capable of producing.
Never forget that the market is not inherently cruel. It simply does not care. It is
infinitely rational and will give the best opportunity to the person who can deliver
results at the lowest cost and at the highest quality.
If you forget this fact, you can easily be lulled into a false belief that the firm will
take care of you. If you work for a certain company for a long time and then are sud-
denly fired because the company has decided that in order to remain competitive, it
must outsource some of the work, it is easy to feel betrayed and bitter. After all, you
have given that firm years of your life. You have been loyal, and now you feel betrayed.
If you feel this way, it is possible you failed to realize that for all that time, you
were being paid a fair wage by the company. You received what you were due
based on the agreement that was established when you were hired. However, if
you chose to naïvely believe the company would watch out for you in the long run,
and in so doing forgot to watch out for yourself, then you are the one to blame. You
simply allowed yourself to get lulled into a false sense of security.
What you might have failed to realize is that you needed to keep your personal
value proposition current and relevant. We will go into much more detail about
the idea of a personal value proposition, but it essentially represents the value
you bring to the market and ultimately to your current employer. And it is just as
important when you start your career as it is fifteen to twenty years later.
I have also heard it said that a regular paycheck can be similar to crack cocaine.
You get addicted to it and will do most anything to protect it—except review
your current value to the marketplace and develop a plan to ensure that you are
bulletproof.

Context for Success | 21

 I do not mean to imply that there are not managers within a given company
who are concerned for your well-being and will do what they can to help you in
your career quest. Managers are people too, and they do have emotions. It is just
important to realize the company will collectively behave in an unemotional and
rational manner, and you must accept that truth if you are going to flourish in
today’s economy.
However, that does not mean all is lost. In fact, even though the market appears
to be cruel, it is infinitely logical and fair to those who know how to successfully
operate within its constraints. If you bring the best value to the market, you will
find many different opportunities! This must represent how you approach the
market when you are initially looking for a position, and it is also something you
must do throughout your career. Understand what the market needs and don’t
wait around for someone to “give you a chance.”
You can do it! It can be unsettling at first and is definitely outside most people’s
comfort zone. The key is to embrace the concept and do a critical assessment of
your current skills and track record, and then develop a plan to build the capability
you need and promote yourself to the market. Then do your research so that you
can better understand what the market needs. Get rid of the belief that you need
someone to “give you a chance.” Create a personal brand. Learn how to market
yourself; if you do, you will be bulletproof.
It really is the only thing that has ever worked, and it is ingrained in the American
psyche to be independent and resourceful. Take control of your career and you will
never feel that you are leading the life of quiet desperation described by Thoreau.
We live in a time when psychological contracts are frequently broken between
employees and companies, record numbers of students graduate from college with-
out jobs, and our inner cities struggle simply to survive. All the while, there are jobs
going unfilled in technical fields as well as in other areas where we can be competitive.
This book is about taking control of your career destiny. It is not about how
to develop an award-winning resume or how to dazzle employers with the use
of social media. Those are valuable tools, and we will certainly cover them in this
book, but it is much more important to have a solid grasp of the context in which
you are currently operating before you try to develop the content. Most of the
book is focused on creating the proper context for a successful career strategy.

22 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

Tools are important, but they must be used to support the context we develop and
pursue on a consistent basis.

G UI D I N G C ONTEX T
What is this context? The idea is quite simple. Be an entrepreneur of your own
career destiny and use the following graphic to help chart your course. The three
dimensions, represented by the three sides of the triangle, are what employers
look for in an individual.

SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE, TRACK RECORD,

AND RELATIONSHIPS

The skills and knowledge dimension represents your ability to actually do the job.
Do you know what you must do in order to be successful? Furthermore, can you do
it, and do it at a level of performance that will be acceptable to a given employer?
How we satisfy this dimension is constantly changing. Technology rapidly makes
some skills obsolete while introducing new ways to perform work. You should
always be aware of the skills and knowledge that are valued in the workplace and
focus on continuing to enhance your ability to compete.
Take a look around you. Look at how other people are able to do their jobs.
Look at what you are able to do. Ask yourself if you are staying current with tech-
nology. Are you learning the new processes in the workplace? Are you curious
about the new skills and knowledge that are emerging? It is easy to look back and
see how PCs displaced many people who were tied to mainframe computers and
the associated technology.
Embrace the changes. Look at your abilities, and constantly look for ways to
improve your overall skill and knowledge related not only to what you currently
do, but even more importantly, to what you want to do in the future.
However, just knowing how to do the job is not enough. Recruiters want to
know how you will do it—or even if you can do it in their environment. Hence,
we have created the second side of the triangle, which is the track record. Having
the ability is only part of it; you must be able to discuss instances when you have
demonstrated the ability to perform.

Context for Success | 23

 Think about why so many recruiters ask for a certain number of years of experi-
ence. It is the track record dimension that they are looking for. Realize that fact,
and if you do not have the experience related to what you want to be doing, figure
out how to get it. You may need to do some volunteer work or even a part-time
second job in order to get the experience. And do not forget, it has to be current.
What you did several weeks or months ago rapidly becomes obsolete. Keep your
track record current and relevant!
Lastly, there is the relationships side of the triangle. You must be able to dis-
cuss how you will fit in with the organization. What kind of values do you share
with other people in the organization? It is crucial that you be able to discuss the
relationships you build, both to assure the recruiter that you will fit in to their
environment and to help assure yourself that it is the kind of environment where
you want to work.
Building relationships takes time and effort. It is not simply about having some
names in your address book. It is about making connections and nurturing those
connections even when you do not need them to do something for you.
We have created repeatable processes that will help us develop these three
segments. These processes are represented by the diagram in the center of the
graphic in figure 1.1 and contain the key activities for you to pursue in order to
develop your career-acceleration plan, much in the same way an entrepreneur
would develop a viable business plan.
The major sections of the book will go into much more detail on each of these
elements, but suffice it to say that you will need to consider nine unique and highly
integrated processes in your career pursuit.
I have known many executives who complain that people often contact them
only when they need a favor. If you are one of those people who only reach out to
your contacts when you are looking for a job, then you are not nurturing a relation-
ship. You have to be willing to go beyond your comfort zone and meet new people,
and you also have to commit to taking the time to invest in the relationships, and
maybe even offer to help your contacts in addition to asking them to help you.
This dimension takes just as much time and effort as do the other two. They are
all important and will not develop and flourish unless you give them the dedicated
effort that they require.

24 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

 ge
led

Tra
ow

c
Kn

kR
nd

ec
a

ord
ills

ICMC
Sk

Relationships
Internship and Career Management Center
FIGURE 1.1. T R IA NGLE O F S UC C E S S .
Copy r i ght © by I nt ern sh ip & C areer Man agem en t C en t er, Univ ers ity of M ichig a n-
D ear bor n. R e pr i nt e d wit h perm ission .

These three dimensions are important, and you want to keep them foremost
in your mind as you develop your career-acceleration plan. In fact, we will go into
a bit more detail about them later in the book.
That said, one problem with using these three dimensions alone is that they
can paint a static picture. They do represent an ideal state, and it is certainly some-
thing we should work toward, but we need a guiding process to help us in the
pursuit of that ideal state.
We drill down to the next level of granularity with the elements that go toward
making up your potential career-acceleration plan. Just like an entrepreneur, you
must take a comprehensive look at what is important in your life and what brings
you the most joy and excitement. We refer to this segment as “Exploring Your
Passion.” The second section involves entering the marketplace with value, and
we refer to it as “Discovering the Opportunities.” Lastly, we realize that it is critical
you are able to effectively communicate your skills and abilities in today’s market,
so this segment is titled “Telling Your Story.” Each segment has separate processes
that are aligned with what a business plan would contain if you were launching

Context for Success | 25

 I Inc.
Career Planning and Development Using Proven Entrepreneurial
Concepts

Discovering the
∙ Self-assessment Opportunities • Written form
∙ Entrepreneurial
• Social media
mindset/innovation • Develop your personal • Oral form
∙ Survive/adapt/flourish brand
• Find your personal value
proposition
Exploring Your • Identify the under-served Telling Your
Passion need Story

FIGURE 1.2. C A RE E R A C C E LE RA TO R.

your business, but these processes are specifically tailored to be appropriate for
someone who is launching a personal career-acceleration plan. The graphic in fig-
ure 1.2 depicts these three segments, which should be viewed collectively instead
of on a hierarchical basis.

LEARN TO EXPLORE YOUR PASSIONS

The first segment is on exploring your passion and contains three different ele-
ments. You want to be able to give yourself time to reflect and develop a per-
sonal approach that will serve you. The items in this section will help you do the
following:
Perform a critical self-assessment so that you are able to use assessment tools
as well as proactively engage with others whom you trust and who will give you
honest and candid feedback about your abilities. It is important for you to develop
the ability and willingness to be open to hearing what others say about you and to
be able to take that information and channel it toward your ideal career strategy.
Develop a deeper understanding of what it means to have an entrepre­neurial
mind-set and embrace the concept of I Incorporated.

26 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

 Learn to develop short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals so you can
survive in the short term, learn to adapt in the intermediate time frame, and
ultimately flourish in your career pursuits.

LEARN TO DISCOVER THE OPPORTUNITIES

The next section focuses on discovering the opportunities in the market, and it too
has three distinct elements. It is imperative that you are able to operate in a com-
petitive marketplace, and these three elements will help you be more competitive
in your endeavors. In these chapters, you will learn how to do the following:
Develop your personal brand so you consistently project what you want people
to think about you and so others think of you within the desired context when they
are thinking of people for a given position or opportunity.
Be able to be creative and develop your personal value proposition so you
can adequately represent your value to the marketplace when you are given the
opportunity to do so.
Be able to boldly look into the market and find the under-served need. If you
are going to set yourself apart and be more valuable, you must be able to identify
where you can have the biggest impact; hence, the under-served need.
Be able to creatively bring these three components together in a way that will
create your unique sweet spot that will effectively differentiate you from the rest
of the competition.

LEARN TO TELL YOUR STORY IN A COMPELLING MANNER

The final section relates to how you tell your personal story. You have done the
work in creating a solid understanding of your personal abilities and desires and
have also done a great job of understanding the potential opportunities and how
you can bring value to those opportunities. Now you need to effectively tell others
about your ability to contribute to these opportunities.

Context for Success | 27

 You will become much more effective in telling your personal story by doing
the following:
Develop the key written media that you need to tell your story. Your resume
and cover letter are key in this section, as are your business card and any other
written material, which must all convey the same message. These written forms
must discuss your value and how you can contribute to the appropriate market
opportunity.
Take advantage of the opportunities provided through the use of social media.
How we represent ourselves online is crucial in today’s job scene. Learning how to
effectively use the electronic tools that are available will go a long way in helping
you communicate your personal brand in a thoughtful and compelling manner.
Learn how to tell a compelling story orally whenever you meet someone in
person or on the phone. You need to develop a compelling elevator speech and be
able to effectively connect with people in networking events. Also, it is absolutely
crucial that you prepare your interview skills so that you are crystal clear about
the nature of the under-served need and how your personal value proposition will
serve that need.
Lastly, we will take you through a process that will provide you with a suitable
framework in order to help you pull all these elements together into a personalized
career-acceleration plan, which will serve you now and for the foreseeable future.
Part of the career-acceleration plan will allow you to apply the concepts of “rinse
and repeat.” Your career quest will never end. You will be pursuing these concepts for
the rest of your professional life, but once you learn how to apply them, you will be
able to rinse and repeat them again and again. Each time they will get stronger and
will continuously help you in the pursuit of a viable, challenging, and engaging career.

C A L L T O AC T ION
Throughout the book and consistent with this overall approach will be a common
theme encouraging you to take action and do things differently than you might
have done them in the past. This is not about being passive and waiting for the
results to come to you. It is about making the commitment to change your behav-
ior and then following through on the required actions.

28 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOR

I want to take this opportunity to introduce you to a concept that many counselors
use today in helping their clients change their behaviors. Essentially it is applying
the concepts consistent with cognitive behavioral psychology and can be summa-
rized in the following graphic.
Essentially the idea is that if you change your behavior, it will change how you
think about something that will then change how you feel about it that will result
in you wanting to change your behavior. The key is that it starts with a behavioral
change, and as you go through the cycle, your thoughts and feelings will drive the
new and desired behaviors.

BEHAVIOR

YOURSELF

CORE
BELIEFS

OTHERS FUTURE

FEELINGS THOUGHTS

FIGURE 1.3. CO G NIT IV E B E H A V IO RA L T H E RA PY

Copy r i ght © U r s tadt (C C BY-S A 3. 0) at h t t ps: //en . wik ip ed ia .org /wiki/File:Dep icting _
b a s i c _ t e ne ts_ of _ C B T. jpg.

Context for Success | 29

 Regarding your career quest, it will require that you start to behave differently.
You will need to embrace the idea that you can market yourself effectively and you
begin with new behaviors that can be reinforced by your thoughts and feelings.
It is these new behaviors that we will be discussing in this book. It will require
you to understand them, practice them and then become more and more profi-
cient in their execution.

BE RESOURCEFUL, RECEPTIVE AND READY

We all know that many college students around the country are having trouble
launching viable careers upon graduation. In fact, some reports are saying that
over 50% of recent college grads are going into jobs that they could have done with
a high school diploma.
Now, there are lots of very dedicated professional people in the career field,
trying to help students launch their careers, and the available resources are
continuing to grow. Some examples are: different software applications to help
connect students with employers, better use of video interviewing techniques and
more networking and mock interview opportunities.
However, I have come to realize that the student has to be able to truly take
advantage of these support structures in order to be successful. In short, they have
to be resourceful, receptive and ready to take action.
If you find yourself in this situation, take a moment and think about how
resourceful you truly are. Are you able to find networking events or mock
interview opportunities? If not, put a plan in place to expand your degree of
resourcefulness.
But simply being resourceful is not enough, you have to be receptive to the
concepts that you are exploring. Are you viewing them from the traditional mind-
set of making a resume and posting it to job boards, or do you truly have a different
mind-set and are fully receptive to these new ways of pursuing a career?
And then, after you have considered your sense of resourcefulness and have
committed to being receptive to the ideas, you have to take action. You have to be
ready to make a change and pursue your prospects from a totally different paradigm.
In essence, your degree of readiness will make all the difference in your career quest.

30 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

 The bottom line is: strive to be resourceful and seek out new options. Strive to
be receptive to the new ideas and do not judge them from an old paradigm and
lastly, strive to be ready to take action and to make the commitment necessary to
achieve success.
Do not accept that you will be a statistic and part of the 50% who are not able
to capitalize on their college education. There is clearly an alternative. Be resource-
ful, be receptive and then be ready to take action.

C A R EER P L AN D E V E L O P MENT PROCES S

One thing that is important for you to realize is that this is a process, not an event.
It is not about just doing one or two things and then launching a successful career.
Now, it do not need to be a grueling process or one that is filled with uncertainty,
but it does require you to think about what you want to change, identify the spe-
cific steps to take and then follow through on their attainment.

MAKE A COMMITMENT
Give yourself the benefit of making a commitment to do things differently. Give it
some serious thought, but when you are ready, commit to yourself that you will,
indeed, change your behavior.

WRITE IT DOWN
In the “Additional Resources” section of this chapter, I will list several resources for
you to use in the development of your career plan. One is my web page that has
a career plan template on it for you to use. Regardless of what tool you use, take
some time to document your plan in a way that makes sense to you and can be
used to track your progress.

JUST DO IT
We have all heard that expression from Nike and it rings very true in this setting.
You have to plan but more importantly, you have to execute the plan. Think about
it, make the commitment, and then take action.

Context for Success | 31

VIEW THE RESULTS
Periodically, set aside some time to see how you are progressing against the plan.
If you build the plan but never review the progress, you will miss the opportunity
to review, improve and continue to grow.

RINSE AND REPEAT

We will talk a little more about this later in the book, but the idea is that this is an
ongoing process, and you will want to do it over and over again. Each time you do
it, it will get stronger and more productive for you. Know that it is a process that
you will be pursuing throughout your professional career.

A DDI T I O NA L RE S O URCES
One key resource that I want to introduce you to in this chapter is my personal
website: https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/mike-callahan/college-students
Take a look at it and see if it can help you. We do run periodic online sessions
covering the I Inc. content and advertise these opportunities on the website. There
is not charge other than to have a copy of this book.
Also, feel free to connect to my LinkedIn account. I frequently posted cur-
rent announcements and updates on this site: https://www.linkedin.com/in/
mikecallahancareerhelp
We will also include other additional resources for each chapter that will
give you access to more information beyond what is covered in that respective
chapter.

N OW W HAT ?
Let’s briefly review the chapter. We talked about the changing workplace, the free
market economics, a guiding context for you to use, a call to action, an overview of
career-acceleration plan, a process to follow and finally, some additional resources
that you might want to check out.
Here are some suggestions about ways for you to further your understanding
of these concepts:

32 | I Inc.: Career Planning and Personal Entrepreneurship

1. Take a look at the following website and identify three or four ways that these
changes will impact you directly.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/08/22/the-future-of-
work-how-millennials-are-changing-the-workplace/
2. Make a list of three pros and three cons of the free market system and discuss
them with someone in your personal network.
3. Critically review the triangle and identify one or two ways that each of the
three sides can help inform career-related decisions that you might be making.
4. Go back and review the nine elements of the career-acceleration plan and see
if you can come up with one tangible way for you to strengthen your abilities
within that specific element.

Throughout the book, we will explore ways for you to apply the concepts in
your own career quest. It is not about memorizing a list of details and then repeat-
ing them on a test. Instead, it is about taking these concepts, internalizing them
so that they serve you, and then applying them directly within your own career
strategies. The more you can learn to use them in that manner, the more they will
serve you now and for the rest of your professional career.

R E F E R E N CES
Bolles, Richard N. What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-
Hunters and Career-Changers. New York: Random House, 2013.
Friedman, Thomas L. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
Morgan, Jacob. “The Future of Work: How Millennials Are Changing the
Workplace.” Forbes, August 22, 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobm-
organ/2014/08/22/the-future-of-work-how-millennials-are-changing-the-
workplace.
Pew Research Center. College Days Reconsidered February 14, 2014
Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience and Other Essays. Mineola, NY: Dover
Thrift Editions, 1993.

Context for Success | 33