paid for vs. made for

Zig Ziglar, in his book Better Than Good, talks about Dr Howard Hendricks as a well-known professor of theology and leadership coach.  The goal is to have your career and your calling overlap as close to 100 percent as possible so you get paid to do what you were made to do.

How many of us can look at what we do for a living and say “This is what Iw as made by God to do in this world.”  Certainly not me at this point.  I’m not sure how I can save the world by selling enough cable TV, high-speed internet, and phone service so someone else’s spreadsheet looks okay.  While I am still searching for my life’s purpose, I know I am much happier in certain vocational situations:

I love building anew business and the excitement (and uncertainty) that goes with it.  In all the things I’ve done for a living, I was happiest when I was riding around in a cargo van wearing shorts and delivering drycleaning.  A lot of my customers asked me why someone with an MBA would want to deliver drycleaning for a living, especially since I came from the fasinating world (NOT) of investments as a stockbroker.  I told them that one, I owned this company and two, it was simply a lot more fun!

I love teaching when I have the opportunity.  I never taught for money other than a few stints as a substitute teacher in youth psychiatric-type facilities.  I’ve done Junior Achievement when I lived in Franklin and that was pretty fun.

I’ll always love going to Muscular Dystrophy Association summer camp as  a volunteer.  More than one person has told me that I should work for MDA or some other non-profit.  No, thank you!  As a volunteer I can do whatever is necessary to make our kids happy.  As an employee, there’s all these “rules”.

I like playing poker but really more for fun.  If I could play for money (tournament style) I probably would.  I’m sure that would really boost my lovely wife’s career as a minister to have a husband hanging out in casinos playing poker for money.

Anyway, I’m still plugging along at the cable company while balancing a few entrepreneurial projects (The Sunny Bee, CashSlacker)