On Monday I gave my favorable (8 stars) review to Career Intensity, the book about proactively managing your career (which, by the way, is your single-biggest financial asset). Today I get the joy of sharing part 1 of a two-part interview with the author of Career Intensity, David Lorenzo.
Here goes:
Free Money Finance (FMF): To start, please tell Free Money Finance readers a bit about your background and why you’re qualified to write a book on managing your career.
David Lorenzo (DL): I have always been fascinated by success. This fascination combined with a curious streak in my personality, drove me to study successful people. This study was informal at first – mainly asking questions of people who were great at their jobs. Over the years I honed this craft and in the process, learned some things that helped me in my own career.
From the time a begin working I wondered what people did that contributed to their success. This continues to this day. When someone is introduced to me as “the best” at something, I immediately ask what they did to get where they are.
Everywhere I go I ask people to talk about their career and give me some insight into why they do what they do. I ask them to describe what success looks like to them and how they plan on getting there.
When I worked in the hospitality industry, it was easy to have these conversations with people. After all, hospitality is about talking to people and making them comfortable. When I entered consulting, these conversations became far more intense. This is partially true because I often work with executives who are under enormous pressure. After all, you don’t call a consultant when everything is going well.
After a couple of decades, I noticed some patterns in the way successful people managed their careers. They do things differently - things that anyone can learn.
That’s my talent. Noticing things that seem unrelated and making sense out of them – and then describing those things to others.
I could tell you it was years of school or years of experience that qualifies me to write this book. That might be true. Ultimately, I think it’s my ability to listen, and observe and share information.
FMF: Why this book now?
DL: All around the world people are unhappy in their jobs. In America this dissatisfaction is the highest it has ever been. A study conducted by the Conference Board last year determined that 50% of all Americans were dissatisfied with their jobs. Believe it or not, this is actually a CONSERVATIVE number. There are studies that say that 70 to 80 % of the working population is dissatisfied with their career.
Most often this unhappiness comes from a perceived lack of control over our own destiny. Career Intensity provides people with a strategy and some tactics to exercise control over their future. It also motivates people to aggressively pursue careers that they feel passionate about.
That dissatisfaction will not begin to decrease until people begin taking control of their future. Career Intensity is a tool they can use to do just that.
FMF: What do you hope to accomplish with the book?
DL: I hope to give people a framework that they can use to develop a career that they find fulfilling and rewarding. I want the reader to learn how to discover his/her passion and use that passion to get the reward they deserve out of their jobs. For some people, this reward will be financial. For others, the reward is doing meaningful work that helps others.
In the end, I want the reader of this book to control their own destiny. If Career Intensity helps one person feel that way, I’ve done my job.
FMF: If you had to boil down the book to a handful of key thoughts, what would they be?
DL: 1. Each of us must take control of our career. Our destiny is in our own hands. Evaluate yourself and your career choices. Evaluate the environment around you. Ask yourself who your customers are. Who values your services? How can you provide better service to these people? How can you provide something better / different than everyone else? I call this a Personal Situation Analysis.
2. After you decide where and how you can provide the most value, do it! If your current job does not allow you to provide value to your boss or your coworkers or your customers then you should find a way to get into another job that allows you to use your talent more effectively. Find a job where you can strive for greatness every day. This requires passion. If you passionately provide value to the people you work with and work for, you will be in high demand. When demand is high, reward follows.
3. Finally, once you understand where your opportunity to provide value lies, and when you know how to create value for others, you need to begin to promote or demonstrate that value to the world. People need to know what you have to offer. This demonstration must begin with you. If you do it well, it will spread like wildfire.
These three things are a process of continuous improvement. They function in a loop. The end becomes the beginning.
FMF: Why should someone buy this book?
DL: This book is a guide that can help you manage your career as if it were a business. Think about how seriously we plan and strategize in business. Yet in our career we often find ourselves jumping from job to job.
I was a victim of this myself. At age 16 I was a dishwasher in a restaurant. That led me to culinary school. Why? Because I worked in a restaurant and that was all I knew. Once I realized that I was a terrible cook and I had no desire to work in 100-degree kitchens, I moved outside the kitchen and into the lobby of the hotel as a bellman. Why? Because the school I attended was a culinary and hotel management school. That was all I knew.
My point is that many of us get tunnel vision when it comes to our careers. Career Intensity provides you with the insight and the motivation (through stories of my own career and the careers of people I’ve spoken with) to look outside of your comfort zone. It also will help you discover what you can do beyond your current occupation – the tips in the book can be applied to almost any industry or career.
Although you may not have experience in a particular job or industry, Career Intensity provides you with a framework that will benefit you in any role as well as in planning your personal career.
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That fourth question above (and David's answer to it) is what makes this book so good. It's looking at yourself as a brand and marketing your skills -- just like you market any other product. Let's face it -- a brand develops around each of us. It's either accidental (happens on its own) or intentional. Wouldn't you rather it be intentional, something you influence, especially when it's your largest, single, financial asset?
The timing of this book's appearance couldn't be better for me. I'm in the middle of evaluating my career and making big decisions regarding the future. The idea of taking control of my career (not letting others control it) is very refreshing. It forces me to see my strengths and weaknesses. It also allows me to project where I want to be professionally. I can't wait to read this book!
Posted by: CW | April 05, 2006 at 01:51 PM