One more hurdle standing between me and some "ideal" job is my skill set. I have relatively none. I know a little about the printing and bookbinding industry, but my love as far as manufacturing goes all falls under precision machine work or skillful woodworking. Thoughts of Paintball Airsmithing or production of Custom Flashlights comes to mind as something I occasionally think I would like to do. Or so many times I might look at someones handiwork with wood furniture as nigh unto magical and think about how that would be a fulfilling line of work. To be able to actually point to a well crafted product and be able to say "I made that." Right now my best days allow me to sit back and say "Nothing fell apart." That just doesn't speak to me quite the same way.
How am I to go about figuring a job that plays to my strengths if I don't even know what my strengths are to begin with? How should I go about developing my skills to where they could be used to make a living? The biggest problem there once again comes back to not knowing which direction I should go. Which one of my desired pursuits would I be able to develop enough to bring in money? I guess I need to start off by just purely listing what things I enjoy doing. Maybe that has to be the first step.
Showing posts with label hurdle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hurdle. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Hurdles to overcome
I have always wanted to work for myself. The issue with that is I am a colossal chicken. My risk tolerance for falling on my butt is quite below the threshold necessary for attempting to start my own business, mostly owing to the fact that I have a family for which I am responsible. If it was just me, I could live with the concept of strictly ramen noodles for weeks on end if I thought I had a chance. Now however I need to be far more convinced of a guaranteed nature of a business model before I subject my family to that possibility.
I am continuously scratching the surface of interesting business concepts that would require some work to bring justice to an attempted launch. My problem is that I can never bring myself to delve deep enough into the project to achieve the possibility of getting off the ground. (Do you like my conflicting metaphors?) Admittedly, some of the reasons that I don't seem to give it a full fledged attempt is that I am unsure of how much I like my own ideas. I have come up with so many ideas that seem great at first glance but the longer I look at them the less appealing they become. This has created a kind of gun-shy attitude toward my own concepts. However, the rest of the time I find myself unwilling to invest enough effort into a project is because it has such a propensity for failure.
Some failure I can live with, mostly the type that doesn't really leave any lasting consequences. The bigger issue comes with the fact that for a career level project to succeed, you must invest heavily to the point that a failure usually will hit rather hard. You have to pass the point of no return if you want to build up enough speed to jump the canyon. If you still don't manage to get going fast enough the results are disastrous. If you do, then you have an achievement to be proud of. My problem is I can't get past the possibility of the spectacular fireball.
Am I nothing more than incapable of beginning my own enterprise or am I just missing out on methods of not betting the farm. Maybe my uncertainty is just an indicator that it isn't going to work anyway and I just have to wait until I find the one that I know will be able to sustain it's own existence.
I am continuously scratching the surface of interesting business concepts that would require some work to bring justice to an attempted launch. My problem is that I can never bring myself to delve deep enough into the project to achieve the possibility of getting off the ground. (Do you like my conflicting metaphors?) Admittedly, some of the reasons that I don't seem to give it a full fledged attempt is that I am unsure of how much I like my own ideas. I have come up with so many ideas that seem great at first glance but the longer I look at them the less appealing they become. This has created a kind of gun-shy attitude toward my own concepts. However, the rest of the time I find myself unwilling to invest enough effort into a project is because it has such a propensity for failure.
Some failure I can live with, mostly the type that doesn't really leave any lasting consequences. The bigger issue comes with the fact that for a career level project to succeed, you must invest heavily to the point that a failure usually will hit rather hard. You have to pass the point of no return if you want to build up enough speed to jump the canyon. If you still don't manage to get going fast enough the results are disastrous. If you do, then you have an achievement to be proud of. My problem is I can't get past the possibility of the spectacular fireball.
Am I nothing more than incapable of beginning my own enterprise or am I just missing out on methods of not betting the farm. Maybe my uncertainty is just an indicator that it isn't going to work anyway and I just have to wait until I find the one that I know will be able to sustain it's own existence.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
How do I know who I am?
...Very often find confusion
In conclusion I concluded long ago...
In my head are many facts,
Of which I wish I was more certain I was sure!
Is a puzzlement!
- The King and I
I certainly know how the king felt in that song. It pretty much characterizes my life at the moment. Mostly it relates to the things that I thought I wanted to do with my career. The "What I want to be when I grow up" type stuff. I don't know if I ever have known what I wanted my life to look like when I hit 20, 30, 40 or whatever. The one thing that I have often come back to is I want to flex my creative muscles. The biggest problem with that is that my creative muscles are the equivalent of a 98 lb. weakling that is trying to show off in front of the mirror until Hercules walks in the door. I have been reminded so many times that my version of creativity is sorely lacking compared to most people I know who may stand a chance at pulling in a job in those fields.
How do I even start attempting to figure out what I enjoy enough to identify a career path to tread? Where does one begin when they have to go back to the beginning? What does the step one look like for something like this. I don't think I ever knew.
In conclusion I concluded long ago...
In my head are many facts,
Of which I wish I was more certain I was sure!
Is a puzzlement!
- The King and I
I certainly know how the king felt in that song. It pretty much characterizes my life at the moment. Mostly it relates to the things that I thought I wanted to do with my career. The "What I want to be when I grow up" type stuff. I don't know if I ever have known what I wanted my life to look like when I hit 20, 30, 40 or whatever. The one thing that I have often come back to is I want to flex my creative muscles. The biggest problem with that is that my creative muscles are the equivalent of a 98 lb. weakling that is trying to show off in front of the mirror until Hercules walks in the door. I have been reminded so many times that my version of creativity is sorely lacking compared to most people I know who may stand a chance at pulling in a job in those fields.
How do I even start attempting to figure out what I enjoy enough to identify a career path to tread? Where does one begin when they have to go back to the beginning? What does the step one look like for something like this. I don't think I ever knew.
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