I’m a big believer in the silver lining — that what initially looks negative can turn out to be a real positive. You might just need to be willing to accept that disguised gift. The New York Times recently ran a story headlined Weary of Looking for Work, Some Create Their Own. Part of the story says: Plenty of other…
I grew up Catholic, and I’m not sure how old I was when I realized everyone wasn’t Catholic. It seemed everyone in my life not only celebrated Christmas and Easter but had a first Communion and knew what Lent was. Turns out lots of people know about Mardi Gras/Carnivale/ paczki day, but don’t necessarily know that the celebration of Fat…
Welcome to all my new visitors. Thanks in large part to Jim Carty’s Paper Tiger No More, I’ve had a huge spike — for me — in blog visitors. Jim gave my interview with Tony Dearing props on his blog last night, and my Monday stats were about four times my previous best day. Since I suspect many of you…
If you’ve taken even a single management seminar, you’ve heard about how people hate change. You’re warned that no matter how terrible the problem you’re solving, your staff will likely cling to the way we’ve always done things and resist the new way. But we don’t just resist change when it’s imposed from outside. We often put blinders on to…
Apparently I’m not the only one who finds exploring career transformation interesting. Check out MSNBC’s package of stories including individual stories of how people are adapting to a changing economy as well as pointers on reinventing your career. Then pop over to Career Diva to read Eve Tahmincioglu’s reaction to some of the audience comments generated by the MSNBC stories. They’ll give…
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up somewhere else.” ~ Yogi Berra My birthday is Monday. Those of you who know me already know that I seriously love birthdays. Now those of you who don’t know me know that, too. I like to think of my birthday as my own personal New Year. My old roommate, Karen,…
I’ve had a huge spike in traffic to my blog in the last 24 hours or so, and almost all of it seems to have come from people looking up the search term “Chuck Close” or “Chuck Close portrait” and landing here. In case that sounds familiar, and you’re wondering why on earth you landed on a career blog, here’s…
This isn’t a change someone has made but one I’m asking you to make: Before it’s too late, think about the businesses you love that are still around and make a short list of the ones you’d be devastated to see shuttered. Then make an effort to throw some support their way.
Previously on Newvine Growing (read that in the Battlestar Galactica opening sequence voice) I’ve profiled people who’ve reinvented themselves by changing jobs and starting down a new career path. That’s all well and good, you think, but when unemployment is hitting double digits in some states, maybe this isn’t the best time to make that big switch. Not only are…
You can always tell when I’ve been traveling — I love reading fluffy fashion magazines when I’m flying, and our trip last weekend was no exception. I brought Glamour and Marie Claire onboard a puddle jumper headed to Pittsburgh when we went for a lovely weekend with friends. I got excited when I saw this article headlined “The Art of…
You might not think of Joel Peterson as a transformation story — he grew up in a wine-loving family, and he started Ravenswood in his 20s then stuck with it until he made millions from a wine that’s become a household name. But I think the way it happened speaks to evolution and passion. And since it’s my blog, I not only get…
After I wrote about transitioning out of newspapers, I emailed a few recovering reporters to ask for their take. Nancy Ross-Flanigan, one of my favorite coworkers at University of Michigan, took the time to craft a thoughtful email on her leaving the Detroit Free Press to take up university PR part-time. She continues to have a thriving freelance business with…
A few years back, John and I stayed in a beatiful bed and breakfast in Amsterdam as part of a European vacation. We were pretty worn out from an overly aggressive agenda in France, so by the time we got to Amsterdam, we accomplished close to nothing on our list: no boat ride on the canal, no Van Gogh museum,…
It would be hard to write a blog about change without mentioning the historic events in Washington this week. But while it’s easy to hold up a “Change” poster at a campaign rally, real change can be hard. It would seem particularly so in politics, where not only…
I can’t stop reading about Flight 1549. You can’t even call it a plane crash — it was more an unplanned landing in the Hudson River. It would be easy to spin the story to make it fit with my blog’s theme of transformation. The Times today has a story about how a brush with death can change survivors of something…
If you’re humming “Love the One You’re With,” you’re on the right track. Even if you are dating yourself a bit. On a December work trip to London, I picked up Red magazine. I’d never read Red, but it appears to be a British version of Glamour or Elle. Since the nice people at Hachette Filipacchi, which owns Red, apparently…
Eight years ago, I had one of the worst weeks of my life. One day I was laid off. The next day my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I was newly married, a new home owner, and the primary bread winner in our household. I’d left a newspaper with a job-for-life promise to its employees to pursue a new opportunity,…
One of the cliches that stuck with me from business school is that industries change either through evolution or revolution. I think that applies to people, as well, and I find both kinds of change interesting. Last weekend, the New York Times ran an article that expressed well some of what I’ve been feeling lately — that society gives so much attention…
