I know updating my website should not be a priority, but I figure, well, I just feel the need to do it. As much as I love helping people change careers, I realized some time ago, I didn’t really want to be a generic career counselor, and just say help people “get a job.”
Much of the “get a job” advice is very generic. They usually start you off with this personality test where you figure out where you would like to hang out and then you automatically network with those people.
The problem is when you have a business and are trying to find clients, you actually want to put yourself in front of people who do not completely understand what you do, that is people who want what you have. In order for any business transaction to really make sense, it has to be a union of opposites, that is one person wants something, and another person has it. You can’t just put yourself in front of people who already have that thing, not that you should avoid those people, but actually people who are your opposite in a certain way will be your natural clients.
This is a concept that makes sense, yet in some ways is counter intuitive. How are you supposed to get on with and enjoy people who are nothing like you and don’t have anything in common with? How are you supposed to get into deep conversations with those people and find out what they want and need?
The key is that people who are opposites are also the same in some way. That is why you need to take a self inventory of yourself, all your beliefs, interests lifestyle etc, and then come up with a way to see what is the opposite of that? It isn’t always really simple to ask the right questions on that, and so many people get stuck in the same social circles with people who have the same way of thinking. For instance, if you are poor, and all your friends are poor, how would you know what it is too be rich? Where would you get rich ways of thinking? Certainly not from your current friend circles.