Born for This: How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do

by Chris Guillebeau

Overview

Have you ever met someone with the perfect job?

To the outside observer, it seems like they've won the career lottery—that by some stroke of luck or circumstance they've found the one thing they love so much that it doesn't even feel like work—and they're getting paid well to do it.  

In reality, their good fortune has nothing to do with chance. There’s a method for finding your perfect job, and Chris Guillebeau, the bestselling author of The $100 Startup, has created a practical guide for how to do it—whether within a traditional company or business, or by striking out on your own.

Finding the work you were “born to do” isn’t just about discovering your passion. Doing what brings you joy is great, but if you aren’t earning a living, it’s a hobby, not a career. And those who jump out of bed excited to go to work every morning don’t just have jobs that turn their passions into paychecks. They have jobs where they also can lose themselves for hours in the flow of meaningful work.

This intersection of joy, money, and flow is what Guillebeau will help you find in this book. Through inspiring stories of those who have successfully landed their dream career, as well as actionable tools, exercises, and thought experiments, he’ll guide you through today’s vast menu of career options to discover the work perfectly suited to your unique interests, skills, and experiences.

You’ll learn how to:
• Hack the job of your dreams within a traditional organization by making it work for you
• Find not only your ideal work but also your ideal working conditions
• Create plans that will allow you to take smarter career risks and “beat the house” every time
• Start a profitable “side hustle” and earn extra cash on top of your primary stream of income
• Escape the prison of working for someone else and build a mini-empire as an entrepreneur
• Become a rock star at any creative endeavor by creating a loyal base of fans and followers

Whichever path you choose, this book will show you how to find that one job or career that feels so right, it’s like you were born to do it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101903988
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

CHRIS GUILLEBEAU is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The $100 Startup and The Happiness of Pursuit, and is creator and host of the annual World Domination Summit, a gathering of cultural creatives that attracts such speakers as Susan Cain, Brené Brown, and Gretchen Rubin. Guillebeau speaks at dozens of events, companies, and universities, including Google, Facebook, SXSW, Evernote, LeWeb, and more. He recently completed a personal quest to visit every country in the world (193/193).

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Excerpted from "Born for This"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Chris Guillebeau.
Excerpted by permission of The Crown Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Plan of Attack 1

Terms of Engagement 3

1 Flip the Script 9

Objective: Choose the Winning Ticket to Your Career Lottery 9

2 Your Money and Your Life 25

Objective: Have Both 25

3 Always Bet on Yourself 57

Objective: Beat the House 57

4 Prison Break 101 77

Objective: Master the Right Skills 77

5 The Answer in Your Inbox 101

Objective: Find Your Thing 101

6 Life Coaching from Jay-Z 123

Objective: Expand Your Options, Then Limit Them 123

Next Steps: A Menu of Options 140

7 Side Hustle 143

Objective: Make More Money 143

8 You, Inc. 175

Objective: Build a Small Empire 175

9 How to Become a Firefighter (or Whatever You Want) 195

Objective: Play the Came That Will Increase Your Odds 195

10 The Self-Employed Employee 221

Objective: Become Indispensable 221

11 DIY Rock Star 243

Objective: Recruit a Small Army of Fans and Supporters 243

12 How to do Everything You Want 263

Objective: Refuse to Choose 263

13 Winners Give Up All the Time 287

Objective: Pursue the Right Opportunities (and Say Farewell to the Wrong Ones) 287

Appendix 1 Tool Kit 303

Appendix 2 "Here's How I'll Make You a Lot of Money" (Email Pitch) 306

Appendix 3 Never Lose at Tic-Tac-Toe (Bonus Lesson!) 308

Index 310

Editorial Reviews

Born for This is chock-full of inspiring yet practical advice to develop new streams of business, build your fan base, and invent the job of your dreams. If you’re looking for someone to help you find your footing on the new frontier of work, Chris Guillebeau is your man.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive
 
“Chris Guillebeau makes getting your dream job seem less of a dream and more of a reality. Through actionable tools and inspiring advice, Born for This is a must-read for those yearning to find that perfect career path.
—Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet
 
“Intensely practical and packed with real-life examples, Born for This is the essential guide for a career that will bring you not just a paycheck but true happiness.”  
—Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before
 
“Seven years ago, I sat in awe reading a blog from some guy named Chris Guillebeau. I couldn’t believe the hope and hustle he was writing about while I sat there stuck in a cubicle. Seven years later, he’s still a sage guide to me and millions of others who love the books he writes. If you’ve ever wondered, ‘What should I do next?’ read this book!”
—Jon Acuff, New York Times bestselling author of Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck
 
“Figuring out our highest point of contribution at work is not ‘one more thing to do’—it is the very work of our professional life. Wherever you are on that journey, Born for This will give you a mind-set and skill-set for accelerating the whole adventure.”
—Greg McKeown, author of the New York Times bestseller Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
 
“It takes real courage to overcome the inertia of your current life to create something better. But it’s much easier to take that step toward positive change when you have a plan. Chris Guillebeau not only provides hope that passion for your work is possible, he lays out a practical path to pursuing a better career/life fit.”
—Shawn Achor, New York Times bestselling author of Before Happiness

“Someone’s going to say this, so let me be the first: Chris Guillebeau was born to write this book. He’s delivered an inspirational and absurdly useful step-by-step guide to finding—or creating—your dream job.”
—A. J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically, My Life as an Experiment, and The Know-It-All
 
"You were born to read this book—and use the powerful insights it shares to do work that wows all witnesses. And lifts the world by its impact."
—Robin Sharma, #1 bestselling author of The Leader Who Had No Title + founder of The Titan Academy

From the Publisher