The advice from the Pro-from-Dover

 

Motivators

The-Pro-from-Dover offered me the following free advice.

"Know thy self" is the first step in finding work.

One path to doing that is to look at what you do for fun. What brings you joy? Be very specific.

You might go to a kid's basketball game and see adults coaching. Others will be reffing. Still others will be recording statistics.

The coaches chose that role because they are energized by achieving results through other people. They are not on the court, the kids are. "Achieving results through other people" is a core element of supervising. Only one person in every forty lists "Achieving results through other people" as their prime motivator.

The tasks involved in being a ref are similar to the tasks done by traffic cops and quality inspectors.

The parents recording the statistics are motivated by the clusters of tasks that are similar to keeping books and auditing.

The-Pro-from-Dover is very involved in the performing arts scene in Lansing. Actors and actresses are motivated by the same things that make very effective salespeople. Actors and actresses are typically under-employed because they never consider "sales" as a natural extension of their passion.

A key point is the tasks that give us joy are not necessarily the ones we are good at, and vice versa. Golf is a good example. There are far more enthusiastic golfers than there are good ones.

Skills

Skills, like motivators, tend to exist in clusters.

Skills

Now I want you to take a leap of faith. The first wheel, motivators, is the rear-wheel or power wheel of a bicycle. The second wheel, skills, is the front or steering wheel of the bicycle. 

The rear wheel drives. The front wheel steers.

Integrating the two

Network. Talk to your friends. Talk with some mentors. Share what you consider to be your prime motivators AND the ones you consider soul-sucking. Share what you consider to be your strengths. Don't be surprised when they point out several other strengths that you took for granted.

Then, brainstorm some "jobs" that are the intersection of those "best" motivators and skills.

What Color is Your Parachute

Once you have a list of potential jobs or positions that play to your strength, look at the local employers and industries and envision WHO needs somebody what you are offering.

Bypass the HR department. Find somebody with sufficient authority to direct HR to hire you. Give them your fifteen second elevator pitch. Make an appointment to elaborate when it is convenient for them.

The Psychology behind this method

Did you know any people who were desperate for romance in high school or college. They threw themselves at every passing person who might, maybe be interested in them. How often were they successful, haunted as they were by the smell of desperation?

Now consider the person who made a careful study of the 300 girls at his high-school. He narrowed the field down to a top-five. They suit his interests, his pocketbook and his other requirements.

He approaches the one who lives closest to his house...or has a car...or whose dad owns a liquor store...and informers her that he is very attracted to her and that he would like to spend time with her.

He ignores the other 299 girls while he is pitching his case. If he goes down in flames, he waits a suitable amount of time before approaching number two on the list.

Which Romeo is most likely to be successful?