It’s not about you

15Dec2008 Filed under: Play all day, What shall I do with my life? Author: John

So does the previous post (There is no plan) mean we should go do whatever we feel like doing? Is it true that you can “do what you love and the money will follow”?

There is a second point from Daniel Pink’s “Last career guide you’ll ever need” that’s important to introduce here.

The main character Johnny Bunko has just heard he should be using his strengths (and not focussing too much on his weaknesses). When he gets his big creative break at work he decides to spend his time doing what’s most fun for him - sketching comics. His new supernatural careers guru Diana tells him off, revealing the third career secret “It’s not about you”.

Read my lips; It’s not about you. It’s about your customer, it’s about your client.

Use your strengths, yes, but remember…

You’re here to serve not self-actualise.

The most successful people improve their own lives by improving others’ lives.

So focus your creative talents, energy and time on creating something of value to others. As self-help guru Zig ziglar says “You can get everything you want in life if you will just help enough other people to get what they want”.

Here’s what I took in summary from Johnny Bunko: use your strengths to do stuff you love doing and that adds value to other people’s lives - and there will usually be some way of monetising it.

This actually makes life simpler. There are an infinite number of creative projects you might feel like doing. But if you want to make a living, ask what does the world need from you now the most?

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3 Responses to “It’s not about you”

Nicola Cairncross
December 15th, 2008 at 9:34 PM

Hi John…..love that Zig Ziglar! I once had to stop the car because I was laughing so hard at the story of how a GREAT salesman sold him a car (with all the trimmings!) - classic!

When I read that quote I immediately had an epiphony, because I realised the easiest way to help a lot, and I mean a LOT, of people get what they want, is, of course, via the internet.

And here you are!

Warm regards
Nicola
Jay Versluis
December 19th, 2008 at 6:35 PM

The post certainly rings true for me. Just now, over the last week, I’ve created a website for my dear old friend Oliver (www.oliverspanuth.com). Although I find web and graphic design a bit of a hassle, I enjoyed this project so much. Let me explain:

Oliver is a bit oa luddite - no offence to him, but anything HTML or even tweaking a Myspace Layout is too much for him. Also, he’s not exactly good at selling himself. So I helped him out greatly by not only doing all the graphic and technical bits for him, I also showed him what an amazing career he’s built over the last few years.

Now that it’s written out on the web, he’s overjoyed by his own legacy. I really got a kick out of helping him in this way, I enjoy what he got from it, I enjoyed the brainstorming sessions we had, and I’m very proud of this project.

Althoguh I started building the site focussing on what HE needed (i.e. a good website), I got so much out of it myself, and I hadn’t expected this. A Happy Customer equals a Very Happy Creator in this case.
Sue
January 1st, 2009 at 7:34 PM

I remember hearing this quote from Zig Ziglar 10yrs or more ago and it still rings true with my own experience. My goal is to work on creative ideas that come to me so that they will be practical, and fun or beautiful for other people to have in their lives too, not just dream about that.

about this blog

This is the personal blog of John Williams, author of "Screw work, let's play: How to do what you love & get paid for it" to be published by Pearson in June 2010.

Join my mission to play all day and get paid - to do whatever creative, fun stuff we feel like doing and make a good living out of it.