[infpblog]

Someone emailed my blog asking for practical career advice and I thought the answer was worth sharing. This is what I told him:

First off, don't think about trying to find one career and committing to it for the rest of your life. One perfect career is a myth and what may be right for you when you get out of college probably won't be the right one when you turn 35.

Think of a job as a collection of skills. Some jobs need more specialized skills than others. Having a job lets you obtain experience, otherwise known as proven skill. Proven skill can be sold to others by getting a different job or starting your own business.

The object of work is to obtain as many proven skills as possible. This way you have enough skills that you mix and match your way from career to career until you find the one that suits you the best.

I've been an administrative assistant where I learned the skill of writing reports clearly. This has always help me from writing bid proposals for freelance clients to writing status reports for my dayjob. I learned to web design and code. I don't see websites going away anytime soon so I'll always have a fall back to make money. I learning to be better at sales and marketing. I plan to write a book. More than likely, my chances of finding a publisher is pretty slim. However, if I get better at sales and marketing, I can sell the book through non-traditional methods.

Figure out what skills you like to learn that can be applicable to as many jobs as possible, figure out which job requires those skills and start there. That way you'll never be afraid of losing a job and you'll never feel like you're stuck at a job because you have skills that translate everywhere.

If you want a job that pays money then you first have to understand money. People have a comfort zone for money. It's like the perfect temperature. You get too hot you turn the thermostat down. You make too much money and you end up blowing it on something stupid to get back down to your comfort zone. This is why more than half of lottery winners lose everything within 5 years. Wealth has never been about how much you make. It's about how much you keep. So here's my advice about money.

Read the T Harv Ecker's Millionaire Mind and attend the 3-day seminar that you can sign up for with you purchase a copy. His company holds a couple dozen around the US each year. This will help you figure out your comfort zone for money and how to raise it so you don't blow your money when you make it.



Second, read Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. This book will tell you how money works and will teach you that wealth has nothing to do with income.

[Raakakaakao]

nice ad.How much they pay you?

[infpblog]

nice ad.How much they pay you?

As far as I know, they don't pay you until after you make your first million dollars.

It's funny how INFPs do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. They get the same result like career paralysis and money issues and they wonder why just going with it and figuring out as you go along doesn't seem to be making them happier.

I have a blog post called: You are what you believe

www.infpblog.com/being-infp/you-are-what-you-believe

Basically, I say that every Reward we want is part of a Game. All Rewards have more than one Game so you're not limited to playing one Game. INFPs for the most part are playing the "I Want a Fulfilling Career" Game and the "I Don't Want To Worry About Money" Game. They think they're the same Game with the same set of Rules. So they try to play both with the same set of Rules and lose both.

The Rules are pretty easy. Rules aren't created. They're found by people who have gotten the Rewards you want. Sometimes people write books about it. Stephen King's On Writing is one of my favorite Rule books of all time to get the Reward of being a better writer.

You follow the Rules, you get the Reward. However, INFPs want to find their own way and discover their own Rules for any particular Reward. That's perfectly fine but it also time consuming because figuring out Rules that work is just a lot of trial and error. INFPs spend an inordinate amount of time talking about not getting the Rewards (I'm lonely, my friends treat me badly, I can't decide what I want to for college) instead of basking in discovering what doesn't work until you find what does work. This only leads me to conclude that INFPs care about Rewards (friendships, healthy relationships, fulfilling careers, etc).

So basically, any INFP who isn't happy with the life their living has only figured out the Rules to get them that far and no further. Their choices are keep doing trial and error, stop whining about not getting Rewards and be proud that they're doing it their way even though they may never achieve their Rewards. Or they can do something else.

[mav04]

wow. I read that book too! It helped me stay motivated for a long time. It changed me a lot. But, I'm starting to get a little discouraged again. But, that was a real good by (millionaire mind)!

[Shorttail]

So if you already have found your comfort zone in regard to money, you don't need any of this?

[infpblog]

So if you already have found your comfort zone in regard to money, you don't need any of this?

Your comfort zone has a dollar amount.

Your comfort zone changes. At 23, I was doing temporary work. I was living paycheck to paycheck. Didn't have medical insurance. No retirement saved. I loved it. I was having one of the best times of my life. I was having fun. I didn't really need to make more money. I was comfortable with the amount of money I was making.

But that was at 23. If I was 65 heading into retirement and I was still doing temporary work, living paycheck to paycheck with no retirement. I don't think I would be comfortable anymore.

Basically, you should make enough money so you don't have to worry about money. As life changes, your money issues change.

There's a book called Generation X by Douglas Coupland that has a quote that I think is a one of the greatest life lessons: You are not your parent's income bracket.

Lots of kids living at home think that they'll graduate college and start making the same amount of money their parents are making and will be able to live the same lifestyle their parents provided for them. It comes as a huge shock when they can't find a job, have to worry about paying rent and end up living a lifestyle significantly below what was provided for them by their parents.

Your current comfort zone is your just current comfort zone and making the assumption that it won't change when life is all about growth and change seems very short-sighted.

[Shorttail]

In that case I'll think about it in five to ten years from now.

[Banjo]

Interesting for me this, as you write about what parents provide and so on. Life is complex, it usually never goes the way that you planned anyway, something will happen, sooner or later, and it might be you need money for that happening. When you are 23, I can see you are not thinking that way. Me and a friend discussed this though the other evening, and we were both surprised when a guy who have worked in the same place for 15 years with an income more than average had to fix something in his house, he had to take a loan for it. A loan?! Shouldn't he have a buffert for things like that if he has had a job for 15 years?

I am also stunned by how my sister and her family eat candy, junk food and provide potato chips to her kid every day, buy LEGO-packs every 2nd day to her spoiled kids and go to bingo and play away 20usd every 2nd day. She has two incomes (well, her and her husband's), yet she ask ME for money, my brother and my mother in the end of every month. She has a job, I have not. Why the hell should I borrow her money? Make a freakin' budget and plan your life after your income, not your income after your outcome!!

Cash flow quadrant seems more interesting as it states that income has nothing to do with health, 1st book does not seem to do that, so I can't see why both should be read?

Right now I live at my mother's house, my income is subsided by the state (300usd/month) and I am in the middle of my 20s and ready to move away, so this is quite on my agenda......I had to take a student loan which I have to pay back when I have my exam, but it is decided upon after income so I think I will survive that small loan. I did not want to take a loan, as I am not free taking a loan, but I felt the need for it, just so I can have some money starting off with.