Creating You & Co.: Learn To Think Like The CEO Of Your Own Career | William Bridges

Creating You & Co.: Learn To Think Like The CEO Of Your Own Career | William Bridges | Great book!

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	Creating You & Co.: Learn To Think Like The CEO Of Your Own Career William Bridges Da Capo Press, 1998 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"Unlike the dozens of job-hunting books ("Creating You & Co".) helps readers identify their 'D.A.T.A.'--desires, abilities, temperament, and assets--and how to parlay that information into a workable career plan".--"Orange County Register".

If you don't know where you're going....

I read this book when it was first published several years ago and recently re-read it, curious to see how well its core concepts have held up. In fact, they seem even more relevant now than they did before as more people, each day, become -- in effect -- free agents.

Here's a hypothetical question: How many of those who (let's say) retired five years ago now wish they had read this book when they first went to work full-time? (Yes, yes, I realize that this book was first published in 1997. As I said, a hypothetical question.) As Bridges carefully examines several key issues concerning career manning and management in this book, I was again reminded: If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

It may now be too late for retirees but assuredly this book could be of substantial benefit to their children and, especially, to their grandchildren.

I share Bridges' fascination with transitions during which new paradigms reveal themselves. Some may involve countries (e.g. those in the Third World), others involve organizations (e.g. Roman Catholic Church, IBM, Nissan), and still others involve human lives. I know of no one else who better understands than does Bridges the probable causes, consequences, and implications of transitions nor anyone else who offers better advice on how to manage them most effectively.

In this volume, he focuses on a subject of immediate, indeed urgent importance to anyone now encountering difficulties with managing their lives. More specifically, those who are dissatisfied with their work because it fails to satisfy and/or support them. This book is NOT about finding another job. "When you look for a [in italics] job, you are looking for something that is fading from the socioeconomic picture because it is past its evolutionary prime." Bridges goes on to explain, "This book is a do-it-yourself career development program....[Rather than seek a job,] a better course of action is to find work that that actually needs doing and present yourself to whoever needs it as the best way to get it done." Bridges offers a practical path toward locating such work and then securing the best terms and conditions by which to do it.

He introduces an acronym when developing a key concept in this book: D.A.T.A. (Desires, Abilities, Temperament, and Assets). Thereby, he effectively stresses the importance of

* Doing what you REALLY want to do

* Developing the skills needed to ensure success as well as satisfaction while doing it

* Doing what you REALLY want to do

* Developing the skills needed to ensure success as well as satisfaction while doing it

* Having an appropriate temperament for the given vocation

* Recognizing and leveraging the assets you need (some of which you may already possess)

In Part One, Bridges explains (a) how and why the workplace is now changing, (b) why traditional jobs no longer fit this world and why companies are abandoning them, and finally (c) what the alternatives to jobs are. In Part Two, he explains how to "mine" D.A.T.A. Then in Part Three, he shifts his and the reader's attention to locating appropriate opportunities, creating her or his "product," running her or his "microbusiness," formulating a plan, and then implementing it.

Think of this book as a "map" which you will need to complete successfully your journey to the destination you seek, whatever and wherever it may be. The value of this "map" is increased substantially by the questions, checklists, inventories, exercises, and related activities which Bridges provides at the end of each chapter. Obviously, a map is not a transportation vehicle. It guides and informs sound decisions but does not make them. It indicates the nature and extent of whatever fuel may be needed but does not provide it. It remains for the "traveler" ("pilgrim"?) to commit sufficient intelligence and energy to the journey. Extending the metaphor further, I also presume to suggest that Bridges expects his reader to be the DRIVER of this difficult but necessary process, not merely a passenger who passively reads his book and nods with approval without taking the requisite initiatives.

In essence, this is a book about life management. Oh sure, it will help many to find more rewarding work, rewarding in terms of both satisfaction and income. But if I understand Bridges' key ideas, then I am correct when asserting that his ideas offer guidance to personal fulfillment. Those who share my high regard for Creating You & Co. are urged to check out David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, Phillip C. McGraw's Self Matters, and Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine's Fire Your Boss.Having an appropriate temperament for the given vocation

* Recognizing and leveraging the assets you need (some of which you may already possess)

In Part One, Bridges explains (a) how and why the workplace is now changing, (b) why traditional jobs no longer fit this world and why companies are abandoning them, and finally (c) what the alternatives to jobs are. In Part Two, he explains how to "mine" D.A.T.A. Then in Part Three, he shifts his and the reader's attention to locating appropriate opportunities, creating her or his "product," running her or his "microbusiness," formulating a plan, and then implementing it.

Think of this book as a "map" which you will need to complete successfully your journey to the destination you seek, whatever and wherever it may be. The value of this "map" is increased substantially by the questions, checklists, inventories, exercises, and related activities which Bridges provides at the end of each chapter. Obviously, a map is not a transportation vehicle. It guides and informs sound decisions but does not make them. It indicates the nature and extent of whatever fuel may be needed but does not provide it. It remains for the "traveler" ("pilgrim"?) to commit sufficient intelligence and energy to the journey. Extending the metaphor further, I also presume to suggest that Bridges expects his reader to be the DRIVER of this difficult but necessary process, not merely a passenger who passively reads his book and nods with approval without taking the requisite initiatives.

In essence, this is a book about personal development and life management. Oh sure, it will help many to find more rewarding work, rewarding in terms of both satisfaction and income. But if I understand Bridges' key ideas, then I am correct when asserting that his ideas offer guidance to personal fulfillment. Those who share my high regard for Creating You & Co. are urged to check out David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, Phillip C. McGraw's Self Matters, and Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine's Fire Your Boss.

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Great book!

This is an incredible inspiration and manual for taking charge of your own career. I'm afraid to let the word get out because the fewer people applying the principles, the less competition I will have. This is a must read!

If you don't create your own job, who will?

William Bridges branches out from his work on transitions to state another fact that is so obvious, that we often overlook it. In Creating You & Co, he notes that we are each individually in charge of identifying the product our client - whether our boss, employees, or customers - need, and then providing it. If you want to feel secure about your ability to earn a living, read this and then act on it.

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A fascinating read

The traditional organization of work, since the age of the Industrial Revolution, in which work is parceled out into permanent jobs is coming to an end, says the author. More and more, people today work on temporary projects in teams, either as part-time workers or as contractors from outside organizations. There are six fundamental forces today that are changing the way people work, says the author.

1. Knowledge work: This work is hard to divide into distinct, repetitive tasks, and usually ad-hoc project teams are more effective.
2. Technology: Information technology is making it easier for people to do their work anywhere, anytime.
3. The rapid pace of change: Traditional jobs aren't flexible enough to keep up with the rapid pace of change in today's business climate.
4. Management initiatives: New management initiatives from reengineering to TQM have created greater flexibility in companies and eroded the rigid, job-based structure.
5. Unbundled organizations: To enhance organizational flexibility, management has been breaking up the traditional, integrated organization into its component activities.
6. The baby boomers: The individualism of the baby boom generation, currently dominating the work force, has led them to seek work outside of traditional job roles.

In this changing business climate, you must find work, not a job. To find work, it is necessary to seek unmet needs and create solutions for them. Companies aren't looking for a resume anymore. Instead they are looking for a new set of criteria, that Bridges has grouped under the acronym DATA: Desires, Abilities, Temperament and Assets. In this new workplace you must position yourself as someone whose "DATA" enables you to solve problems and get things done.

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A Useful Take on Turning Your Capabilities into a Business

This is a distinctive take on the bottom-up approach to career change. Bill Bridges suggests that you should find and then mine your DATA, an acronym that refers to your desires, abilities, temperament, and assets. It is a thought-provoking take by a leading academic in organizational and individual transitions. The final part of the book is a useful look at turning your DATA into a business--finding an opportunity (where Bridges is good on where top look for "unmet needs"), creating a product, and running a micro-business.

Vaughan Evans, business and career strategist
Author, BACKING U! A Business-Oriented Approach to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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