Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love

Good book. Focused on developing one's own business.

This is a well-written and energetic book about developing one's own passions into self-employment. Like many books in this genre, it will probably be most helpful to those who are outgoing and confident in themselves and their skills. To his credit, the author does try to help the reader reflect and identify his/her particular interests. Depending on your abilities, interests, personal situation, and mental state, this may or may not work for you.

The book has some limitations of course. For example, it doesn't delve into how a sixty year old middle manager who spent 17 years with a company only to be dumped on the sidewalk might go about resurrecting a career and a modicum of self-esteem. But of course that's not the intent of the book.

There is quite a bit of focus on "modern" (as of early 2009) communication modes and the use of social media to promote one's business. For the most part, the information seems sound and well-organized. Because web technology changes so rapidly, I think this book will need to be revised every three years or so, but for now it is a good guide.

Permission - and Assistance - to Celebrate Yourself

Jonathan Fields has created a 'how to' book that goes far beyond the borders of explaining a plan for self-improvement. CAREER RENEGADE: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love is a timely transfusion for many people caught in the current economic stagnation or those who face the enforced retirement package. In a smart, very readable book Fields gets real about infusing a sense of well being and confidence in every reader who takes the time to pick up this friendly manual.

Somewhere along the way each of us was told that our lives could/should be divided between career and hobby, that making a living was key in allowing us to find space to live out the dreams in little sheltered moments. The work ethic has become the beastie that governs our lives and too often leads to fractured relationships and even physical distress.

Enter Jonathan Fields, a man who at the peak of success in law and fortune fell ill enough to have that wake up call to change. And change he did, embracing all the things he loved doing, finding (surprisingly enough!) that he could (and did) make a fine living from following his dreams. This book is about taking the risk of stepping out of the corporate cubicle or its equivalent and jumping into the middle of a fountain of youth via discovering what it is we really love and committing ourselves to pursue that which makes us happy to the point that it is the source of our income.

Yes, there are well-devised steps outlined in this book: it is after all a guide to taking control of life. But it is the manner in which Fields writes and offers examples and suggestions in such a user-friendly way that makes this book so valuable. It challenges the reader to follow dreams and it backs up that challenge with some excellent resource data to assist the willing to fulfill their desire. This is a happy book and could not come at a better time! Grady Harp

Great Guide at the Perfect Time

Jonathan Fields, mega-firm lawyer and entrepreneur has written a compelling, well-researched book about how to replace your mundane job with a lucrative career doing the things you love the most. It is not full of nebulous advice that goes nowhere but rather a guide detailing the tools, techniques and resources you will need to get off the corporate treadmill and really start living life as it was meant to be.

Career Renegade really struck a cord with me for two reasons. First, as a corporate director for a fortune 500 company I am witnessing first-hand the devastating impact the current recession is having on people¿s lives. As livelihoods are snatched away overnight, many people find that they had put all of their eggs in one basket. Placing false hope in loyalty to their employer, they find themselves without a plan, without a lifeline. They stumble around in the shadows of their former passions and ambitions. This book will rekindle those passions. Put forth is a blunt, easy-reading style, the ideas in the book will provide guidance and hope for those that have had the rug jerked from under them.

Second, from a personal perceptive, I totally agree with the subject of this important book. While I still maintain my 9 to 5 life in the corporate world, last year I signed a contract to publish my first business book - Wingtips with Spurs. Now two others are in the works. I only wish that I had read Career Renegade several years ago thereby inspiring me to put my energy and time in the things I have passion about.

Jonathan Fields has produced a work that is, authoritative, comprehensive and extremely relevant.

I hope you find this review helpful.

Michael L. Gooch, SPHR

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