Back in the Saddle Again

by Barbara on July 15, 2010

“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere” is quite a dare. I never tried New York as an adult. I can’t quite give up on the Bay Area, though.

Queen Anne, Seattle, seemed more a bubble than San Francisco ever did.

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Contract? Freelance? Consultant? Read Between the Lines

by Barbara on May 27, 2010

Like many people of my generation (“X”), I’ve held a lot of jobs and worked a lot of gigs. The way that various terms are used to describe non-employee work get distorted, in my opinion – usually to the disadvantage of the worker.

How I see it: the words aren’t important; watch out for the terms of engagement.
- Will you be handed independent tasks to complete, or will you be expected to participate in team processes?
- Are you measured in terms of results or activities?
- Do you answer to someone who acts like your boss, or is your contact more like a customer/peer?

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Another Lens on Careers to Avoid

April 26, 2010

Many of us suffer from the dilemma of knowing what we don’t want before we know what we do want. That’s not always a bad guide though. I wish I’d considered this criterion for jobs when I started out: “Never take a job that requires you to do something you’d never do if you weren’t [...]

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Embracing the Random

April 25, 2010

I’m joining a cool project, helping a photo-essayist to produce a treatment for HBO. No pay, but I could use the new experience. Who knows where such a thing could lead? Note to self: even before achieving the 4-hour work week, the 40-hour-work week needs to include at least 4 or 5 hours, if not [...]

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“While I’m Here …”

March 30, 2010

Twenty years ago, I heard a motivational speaker say that she thought a purposeful way to live was to pick a problem to work on in that would not be solved in your lifetime. The social entrepreneurship movement has changed this mindset. Fighting the good fight, David and Goliath-style, against problems like “world hunger” once [...]

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Embracing the Label “Social Entrepreneur”

February 27, 2010

After bouncing back and forth between nonprofits and for-profits, I am weary of the false divisions between the sectors. A friend of mine, a long-time nonprofit consultant and former director, remarks that traditional NPOs are on their way out, that “social entrepreneurship” is taking over the sector. I get the sense that social entrepreneurship is [...]

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The Other Side of the Fence

February 15, 2010

One of the best things about being the Vice President of the United States has got to be getting to do stuff like getting your picture snapped with Olympic athletes. One of the most exciting things about being an Olympic athlete has got to be having your picture taken with important people like the Vice [...]

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Happiness is …

January 10, 2010

being in a situation where the only thing standing between you and the rewards and experiences you desire are shortcomings you recognize and are eager to confront.

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Pulling a Geographic

December 28, 2009

I blog from the air. It’s a slow journey to the location-free, time-free lifestyle I imagined when I was a kid. The technology that enables it is falling into place, though. In the late 1970s, submitting work from an airplane to clients in two states was not possible.

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Serious Play

December 20, 2009

Made the acquaintance of a young senior, a 65-year-old woman. I mentioned this morning that I was on my way to an exercise class. She said that her husband stopped exercising completely when he left the military – and a few years back, died in his early sixties of a heart attack. “So many of [...]

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