Small Business Success Strategies

How to Turn a Negative Experience Into a Positive Way to Make a Living

In my last article, Profit from Experience: The Key to Your Right Livelihood May Be Right in Your Own Backyard (ChangingCourse.com/archives/issue136.html), I talked about the fact that all three of the businesses I’ve started were born from my own personal experiences. In this second of a two-part series we’ll look at how even negative experiences can be the catalyst to a positive career change.

You know the old expression, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. You’re about to meet seven people who took adversity, bad habits, betrayal, and loss and turned these sour experiences into satisfying livelihoods. The experiences and approaches to generating income vary. Some wrote about their experience, some created products, some now teach or counsel others on how to avoid or handle the same problem they once lived through, some created recipes, and one even syndicated his humorous take on a bad situation.

Read Valerie's entire article How to Turn a Negative Experience Into a Positive Way to Make a Living

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Changing Careers? How to Get Around the 3 Major Mental Roadblocks to Success

A part of you can't wait to dive into your new career -- but you're also smart enough to know that you can expect a few bumps along the road to success. By far, the biggest roadblocks exist between your own two ears!

Let's take a look at three common mental roadblocks and learn how to overcome them.

ROADBLOCK No. 1: Wishful Thinking

How many times have you wished you'd hit the lottery? Now, how many times have you actually won the lottery? Far too many people spend far too much time wishing when they should be dreaming.

Read Valerie's entire article Changing Careers? How to Get Around the 3 Major Mental Roadblocks to Success

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Profit from Experience: The Key to Your Right Livelihood

We all know the story of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Swept away to the enchanting but forbidding Land of Oz by a tornado, Dorothy endures all manner of challenges in an attempt to achieve her one and only dream of returning home to her family in Kansas. It is not until the end of her frightfully wondrous journey that Dorothy has an epiphany. "…if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again," she tells Glenda, the Good Witch of the North, "I won't look any further than my own backyard." More often than not it’s the same way with career options.

Too many people either fail to see – or outright dismiss – how the personal experiences in their own "backyard" are ripe with possibilities for income streams or indeed complete careers. Every small business I ever had originated from some event, realization, or challenge I’d personally experienced.

For example in the early 80s, I took a course at the University of Massachusetts called Dynamics of White Racism with a dynamic and utterly passionate doctoral student named Judith Katz.

Read Valerie's entire article Profit from Experience: The Key to Your Right Livelihood

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Real Life Entrepreneurs Steal the Show:

One reason for the rise of an entire new television genre known as "reality TV" is that the people in the shows are one of us. There are no trained actors, no scripts. There are just regular people rising and falling, triumphing and struggling, winning and losing. Two new series – one on television and one online - follow the true life stories of aspiring entrepreneurs.

In a recent piece on National Public Radio about ABC's new reality show American Inventor, the commentator posed the question "Can it do for geeks what American Idol did for pop singers?" Given that one of the shows' producers is infamous American Idol judge Simon Cowell, it just might.

The show seeks to search for the next great invention with wide consumer appeal.

Read Valerie's entire article Real Life Entrepreneurs Steal the Show:

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Recreate Your Life: Summer is the Perfect Time to Grow a Dream

Has the school calendar of your youth hardwired you into seeing September as the time for new beginnings? If you yearn for a new job, a career change or maybe even a total life makeover -- summertime is by far the best time to act.

Summer is synonymous with fun. It's possible to make a change and still have time for recreation. In fact, the word recreation literally means to "re-create." And what better way to spend your summer than recreating your life! Here are six ways you can use the rest of the summer to grow a dream:

1. Catch a falling star. When my best friend, Elaine, and I weren't building forts or skipping rope we could be found lying beneath a shady tree or a star-filled sky.

Read Valerie's entire article Recreate Your Life: Summer is the Perfect Time to Grow a Dream

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

How to Make Money by Breaking the Rules

Too many people who want to work at what they love seem to suffer under the misguided notion that there are certain "rules" that must be followed. Let me give you a quick example. At the beginning of every career consultation, I ask clients to describe their ideal life. To prompt their thinking I pose a series of questions such as what time do you want to get up in the morning, would you like to work at home or outside the home, do you want to work with other people or do you prefer to work alone? The question that gets the biggest reaction is, "Would you like to have summers off?" Invariably someone will say, "Oh, can you do that?"

I'm always tempted to say, "I don't know, let me consult the official Work-Life Rule Book." The thing is I don't know if you can have summers off or not. But what I do know is this -- if the desire to have your summers free is not consciously on your mental radar screen, then the likelihood of it happening is next to nil.

Read Valerie's entire article How to Make Money by Breaking the Rules

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

The Three Simple Things You Need to Realize Your Dream

Nothing pumps me up more than hearing about someone else's success. And when I know the person? Well, I literally get goose bumps. I'd no sooner arrived home from last weekend's Work at What You Love workshop in Ventura, California when I already received our first "success story." By the next morning there were three more.

You can make it a whole lot more complicated, but I think going from dreaming to doing takes three simple things. I could just tell you what they are but that would be too easy. Like most powerful lessons it's best if you learn them for yourself. So as you read the following success stories see if you can pick them out:

Steve Robinson is the author of a self-published book called "Why Stevie Can't Date."

Read Valerie's entire article The Three Simple Things You Need to Realize Your Dream

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Career Change?

As I drove alongside the Connecticut River today, I spotted two snow-white swans gliding elegantly atop still waters. I felt so blessed to have been in that place at that time to experience such a serenely beautiful moment. I feel lucky that way . . . a lot.

I don't think I happen upon these moments any more than anyone else does. I just "see" them more than others do. I believe that's because gratitude is so central to both my life and my work. I also happen to believe that maintaining a state of gratitude is fundamental to the process of changing course. Yet, I'm not sure I've ever heard another career counselor talk about gratitude as an essential element of career change. Come to think of it, I'm not aware of any career related books that talk about the importance of being thankful either.

Read Valerie's entire article What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Career Change?

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Turning Problems Into Opportunities

"In the middle of difficulty," observed Albert Einstein, "lies opportunity." Some of the best opportunities often originate from problems – either yours or someone else's. Like a lot of parents, Debra Cohen's problem was that after her first child was born she wanted to find a way to be a stay-at-home Mom.

Around that same time, Debra became aware of a real problem for most homeowners – namely finding someone reputable to do home repairs or improvements. By putting these two problems together, she came up with the perfect solution for both her problem and that of her neighbors.

Read Valerie's entire article Turning Problems Into Opportunities

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

Planting Seeds and Watching Dreams Grow

The Garden is an occasional series featuring the steps fellow readers are taking to lovingly grow their dreams . . . one day at a time.

Photographer and Arts Lover Duane Gamble

I first met Duane Gamble two summers ago at the annual Work at What You Love seminar. That's when I learned that this mechanical engineer with a passion for freelance photography was steadily working towards completing a book that he hoped to add to his current profit center.

Read Valerie's entire article Planting Seeds and Watching Dreams Grow

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert