My guest today has 25 years of experience as a career choice scientist. And he has guided more than 3500 highly educated clients to reach their full potential. He is the founder of Pathfinders and coauthor of a best-selling career guide for young professionals called Now What? The Young Person's Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career.
His work has been featured in the Washington Post, Northern Virginia Magazine, Huffington Post USA Today, New Republic, Forbes and Business Standard. And he appears on the Harvard University Alumni Career Center's, official referral list. Not only has he studied this, but he has traveled this path of finding,"What's the perfect career for me."
His name is Anthony Spadafore, and I hope that you enjoy meeting him as much as I did.
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Contact Anthony Spadafore
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anthonyspadafore007pathfinders
Pathfinders Career Design - http://pathfinderscareerdesign.com/
Mentioned in this Episode
Now What? The Young Person’s Guide to Finding the Perfect Career - https://www.amazon.com/Now-What-Persons-Choosing-Perfect/dp/0743266307/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_d_1
Thinking Fast and Slow – Danial Kahneman - https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=kahneman&qid=1606866985&s=books&sr=1-2
Excellent Sheep - William Deresiewicz - https://www.amazon.com/Excellent-Sheep-Miseducation-American-Meaningful/dp/1476702721/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=excellent+sheep&qid=1606867025&s=books&sr=1-1
Bobbi’s Takeaways
1. If you find yourself on a path that doesn't feed you, it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.
2. I loved it when he said that our talents whisper to us. Unfortunately, we often, we often discount those because they come easy to us. How many times does that happen to you? You do something really well and people give you a compliment on it. And then you're like, eh, no big deal. It's just what I do, but it is a big deal.
3. I thought it was a great question. Are we gritting at the right stuff? Grit is essential and we need to tap into what we care about and what we're good at.
4. He talked about warning signals that maybe this really isn't me. And among those, he said it we're no longer motivated to put in the work or we're having a hard time at it. We're working hard at it, but it's not clicking for us. Another aspect could be that we're bored. And then finally, and I think this is an important one. We're just not quite trusting ourself with it.
5. We are smart enough to learn even those things that we really aren't that good at, and that allows us to get by, but it may not really bring out who we really are.
6. This is one of my favorites. There's a big difference between a cat in a tree and a squirrel. A squirrel is so at home, they almost can't fall. It's almost impossible for them not to succeed, whereas a cat can climb, but do they really live in the tree.
7. To find the perfect fit to make your heart really sing? You need to think about what your talent is, plus what you really care about. And he, and I thought that order was important, right? Talent first. And then look at the meaning, what you really care about.
8. And I thought this was great. It would be great if people could have a test drive of their career before they commit to it. But of course, it's hard to do that.
9. And this is, this is an important one. Mentors appear when we are really being it. And by being it, he talked about that intersection of natural talent meaning. And when we show commitment, that's when mentors show up. And finally, if you feel like you may be stuck or not on the right career path, he suggested three things.
a. Focus on the, what, not the how
b. Explore it and test drive it, if you can.
c. Give yourself some grace. Allow yourself the space to explore and maybe to be wrong, even if we're exploring something and we find out, you know what, this isn't the best fit for me, that is still a good discovery. And that's an important discovery.
Those are my favorite takeaways of the conversation with Anthony. I really hope that you enjoyed it.
Don't forget. You can check out my eclectic, but essential leadership book list http://www.unyielded.net/leadershipbooklist. I'm always asked for my favorite books and I finally compiled the list and I call it eclectic because some of the more famous ones might not be on the list. So some of these are hidden gems, but I find that they're essential on my bookshelf.
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