Read an Excerpt

THE CAREER CHALLENGE

This book is your call to adventure. Your guide to adventure, too. If you want to have a creative career, you need to become the hero of your own life story.

Heroes set off on an adventure for one of two reasons: either change is forced upon them by unexpected life circumstances, like getting fired or divorced, or being assigned to the Boss from Hell; or else they are nudged into change from within, because of their own dissatisfactions. Maybe they’re bored, or desperate to leave home, or they yearn to make a difference. However it comes, change is difficult.

Change is relentless, too. Sometimes it seems like our frenzied world of work is changing so fast that even superheroes will be swept off the face of the planet! Other times it seems like the village blacksmith model of employment is returning, as more people return to a private business venture that blends their work life with their home life. We’re losing traditional job security and benefits in exchange for greater freedom and ownership of our work—except now our little “village” is vulnerable to global competition, staggering income inequality, and cataclysmic events occurring anywhere in the world.

What’s a creative person to do?

Embark on your own career adventure!

This book will point the way to finding and following your own path. Your path may be fun at times—exhilarating, even—but it may not be easy or direct. Joseph Campbell, a famous scholar of the hero’s journey, once put it: “If you can see the path laid out in front of you, step by step—it’s not your path!”

That’s why a creative career is an adventure. You’ve been told that treasure lies ahead . . . but to where is that map really leading? On a quest to find your personal workplace paradise, you will likely encounter conflict, setbacks, and discouragement. But you’ll also find friendly allies, opportunities for personal growth, and a chance to bring more creativity into your life.

Ahhh. Creativity. Now that’s worth taking some risks for. Creating can be so fun, so joyous, so naturally motivating and engaging that it feels more like play than work. Creating something new makes us happier and brings us more fully alive. This book promises to move you in that direction, so that your work becomes more creative and personally fulfilling.

But true creativity does not result from a few quick tips for your job search. Instead, it results from a deeply experienced spiritual quest to become the person you were born to become. The adventure begins when you set out to develop your own unique potential, instead of following conventional expectations to become like someone else. It is a hero’s journey, undertaken not only to develop your own potential but also to return with a gift for the world.