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Born For This

Name: Born For This
Rating: 3.64 (2370 reviews)

How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do

ByChris Guillebeau

3.6 (2,370 ratings)

Business Nonfiction Self Help Psychology Health Productivity Audiobook Management Entrepreneurship Personal Development

17 minutes read | Text | 7 key ideas

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In a world where passion meets paycheck, Chris Guillebeau unveils the blueprint for crafting a career that doesn't just fill your wallet but fuels your soul. With his renowned expertise, Guillebeau shatters the myth of luck and reveals a methodical approach to discovering work that resonates with your core. Through vibrant tales of real-life triumphs and hands-on exercises, you'll traverse the landscape of endless possibilities, uncovering roles that harmonize joy, financial stability, and immersive engagement. Whether you're navigating corporate corridors or pioneering your own path, this guide empowers you to transform dreams into tangible reality. It's more than a job hunt; it's an invitation to design a life where work feels like a calling.

Content Type

Book

Binding

Hardcover

Year

2016

Publisher

Crown Currency

Language

English

ISBN13

9781101903988

File Download

PDF | EPUB

Born For This Plot Summary

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to wake up every morning excited about your work? To feel that perfect intersection where your skills, passions, and financial needs align so perfectly that work feels less like an obligation and more like a calling? This is not just a dream - it's entirely possible to find this sweet spot in your career journey. The path to meaningful work isn't usually a straight line. Most people don't discover their ideal career on the first try, or even the fifth. The journey involves exploration, occasional setbacks, and moments of brilliant clarity. Throughout the following chapters, you'll discover practical strategies for navigating this path - from understanding your unique strengths to creating multiple income streams, from betting on yourself to recognizing opportunities that might be hiding in plain sight. The goal isn't just to find any job that pays the bills; it's to discover work that energizes you, rewards you financially, and leverages your natural talents in a way that feels almost effortless.

Chapter 1: Discover Your Joy-Money-Flow Sweet Spot

Finding fulfilling work requires finding the perfect intersection of three critical elements: joy, money, and flow. Joy represents what you love doing - the activities that energize rather than drain you. Money is what supports your lifestyle and provides security. Flow refers to the state where you're so immersed in your work that time seems to disappear - you're working with your natural talents in a way that feels almost effortless. Sam Hunter's story perfectly illustrates this intersection. After spending 25 years in IT, Sam decided at age 40 to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an artist. She returned to school, earning a BA in sculpture and an MFA in fiber arts. Though she initially hoped to land a tenure-track teaching position, she found herself without any interview offers despite applying widely. Meanwhile, she had been quilting and knitting since her son was five years old. One day, while lamenting to a friend about the poor design of many quilting patterns, her friend challenged her: "Why don't you do it yourself?" Taking this advice to heart, Sam created her first pattern and shared it with friends who responded enthusiastically. Rather than following the conventional wisdom of waiting to be discovered by a distributor, Sam took direct action. "Everyone says that you have to toil in the trenches until a distributor notices you," she explained, "but that's bullshit. I found my first distributor by calling them up and saying, 'Hey, I have something that you'll like.' That's how I've found every other one, too. It takes moxie." As Sam created more patterns, she discovered a crucial insight: most patterns for beginning quilters were basic and boring, yet beginners wanted projects that looked impressive while being achievable. This observation led to her breakthrough - designing patterns that appeared complex but were actually simple to execute. The strategy worked brilliantly. In just three years, she sold over 15,000 patterns, with sales doubling annually. She had found her sweet spot: "I've been the person I'm writing patterns for, so I know exactly what they need." Finding your own joy-money-flow intersection starts with honest self-assessment. What activities energize you? What skills come naturally? What contribution would people value enough to pay for? Understanding your working style preferences is equally important - whether you thrive in collaborative environments or prefer independent work, whether you need flexible hours or consistent structure. The key is recognizing that different stages of life might shift your priorities among these three elements. Remember that finding meaningful work isn't about perfection - it's about progress toward the right intersection. Sam's journey didn't follow a linear path, but through experimentation and following her interests, she ultimately created work that perfectly blended her passion, talents, and market opportunity.

Chapter 2: Always Bet on Yourself, Not the House

When it comes to career choices, many people approach decisions like gamblers in a casino - making moves based on intuition or repeating past patterns without strategic thinking. Just as casinos are designed to favor the house, conventional career paths often benefit employers more than employees. The key to winning your career lottery is learning to bet on yourself instead of playing by someone else's rules. Steve Harper's story demonstrates this principle perfectly. As a freelance lighting and production coordinator in Michigan, Steve had built a successful business working events. He was so in demand that he found himself working around the clock, booking shows every weekend and corporate meetings almost every weekday. The money was good, but the lifestyle was unsustainable. After nearly falling asleep at the wheel driving home from a late-night gig, he went home, slept for two days straight, and then made a dramatic decision: he called every client and told them he was no longer available for work. With the savings he'd accumulated plus money from selling his equipment, Steve packed his belongings in his car and began driving west with no specific destination in mind. He ultimately settled in Portland, where he slowly rebuilt his production business - but this time on his own terms. He became more selective about clients and projects, ensuring he didn't overbook himself. The risky decision to completely reset his life and career ultimately led to sustainable success and greater fulfillment. Understanding risk is essential when betting on yourself. While some degree of risk is inevitable in any career move, you can become a better risk assessor by identifying potential hazards and avoiding decisions based on fear of missing out. Vanessa Van Edwards demonstrated this approach when pitching her course to Creative Live. Rather than using her connections for a direct introduction to executives, she sent her proposal to the general customer support email with the subject line "Here's how I'll make you a lot of money." Her course became one of the platform's highest-grossing offerings. When I asked Vanessa why she'd taken such a seemingly risky approach rather than using a personal referral, her answer revealed her strategic thinking: "If the cold pitch didn't work as I hoped, I would have gone to the referral network." She had created a series of backup plans, which allowed her to take a calculated risk with her initial approach. To become a smarter risk-taker, use the "if this, then that" method to create contingency plans for every important career decision. When you have backup plans, you can proceed with greater confidence, knowing you have alternatives if your first approach doesn't work. Additionally, create "career insurance" by developing multiple income streams, maintaining good relationships with colleagues, and keeping your expenses lower than your income. Remember, success isn't just about working hard - it's about working smart. Choose the right risks, create backup plans, and always be prepared to shift strategies when needed. When you bet on yourself rather than playing the house game, you gain control over your career trajectory.

Chapter 3: Master the Skills That Open Doors

Breaking out of a career that doesn't fulfill you requires thinking differently and using a diverse set of skills. Just as a prison escapee would need to craft their own key to freedom, you'll need to develop and deploy the right capabilities to unlock new opportunities. This process begins with understanding which skills truly matter for your desired path. Daniel Vlcek's story illustrates how mastering the right skills can transform your career trajectory. As a Czech immigrant working in property management in Colorado, Daniel found himself suddenly unemployed after a confrontation with his boss over a $2,000 request to buy pizza for his crew. Though he hadn't planned to quit that day, his boss accepted his impulsive resignation letter immediately. Sitting by a lake contemplating his next move, Daniel realized he had valuable skills that could be repurposed. Despite having a master's degree in marketing and training as an electrician, Daniel started small. He approached a neighbor, offering to shovel snow and clean her rental property for extra cash. Emboldened by this small success, he hand-wrote 100 postcards to local property owners offering his services. The response rate was just 1% - a single client - but it was enough to start. For his next campaign, he sent text messages to a different group of property owners, landing two more clients. Within months, Daniel had built his projected annual income to $27,000 - not a fortune, but a solid foundation for someone just starting a business. More importantly, he gained the flexibility and freedom he'd always wanted. He structured his workday around his family, getting up early to work, taking his kids to school, working more, and then bringing them to ski in the afternoons. A year later, he had a full client roster and had begun hiring others to help. "Life is 1,000 percent better," he said. "I'm glad my boss didn't want to buy pizza for the crew, because now I can do it myself." When mastering skills that open doors, focus on two critical categories: technical skills specific to your field (hard skills) and universal capabilities that apply across any career (soft skills). Hard skills demonstrate competence in your specialty, while soft skills - like writing, speaking, negotiation, and follow-through - distinguish exceptional professionals from merely competent ones. To improve your writing and speaking, remember that all communication is essentially persuasive. Focus on being engaging, clear, and actionable. For negotiation skills, learn to find win-win solutions by understanding what both parties hope to achieve. To enhance follow-through, develop reliable systems for tracking tasks and commitments. Most importantly, don't just be good at what you do - be so good they can't ignore you. People with marginal skills are easily replaceable, while those with strong technical abilities but poor social skills may be needed but not valued. The professionals who become truly indispensable combine technical expertise with exceptional people skills, problem-solving abilities, and reliability. Consider "resigning" your job every year as a mental exercise to evaluate whether staying is truly your best option. This process forces you to consider whether your current position is helping you develop the skills that will open doors to future opportunities. Remember, the goal isn't just escaping a job you dislike - it's finding the freedom to do work that leverages your unique capabilities.

Chapter 4: Find Your Answer in Plain Sight

When you're trying to win the career lottery, sometimes the winning ticket is right in front of you. The path to the work you were born to do may come from the questions people consistently ask you, the favors they request, or the problems you naturally solve in your daily interactions. Wes Wages had established himself as "the video guy," shooting weddings with his wife, Tera, and creating promotional videos for concerts and events. Though successful, the work had significant drawbacks - he was paid only when holding a camera or sitting in the editing room, and weekend commitments took him away from his young children. Meanwhile, he noticed a pattern: at nearly every shoot, someone would inevitably ask, "How do I learn to do what you do?" These questions came from bloggers, musicians, and clients themselves - people who had basic equipment but lacked the knowledge to create quality videos. Recognizing this recurring need, Wes created an online video course answering the most common questions: How much money do I need to spend? What equipment is essential versus optional? What simple techniques will immediately improve my videos? By transforming these repetitive inquiries into a product, Wes developed a new income stream that didn't require his physical presence at events. He wasn't trying to train professionals; he was solving problems for novices who consistently sought his expertise. To find your own answer in plain sight, pay attention to patterns in what people ask you for help with. Does everyone come to you for workout advice, investment tips, or recommendations on books and movies? These recurring requests reveal your most marketable skills and knowledge - things that seem obvious to you but valuable to others. Your inbox, whether literal or metaphorical, contains valuable clues about what you could offer that others would gladly pay for. Shenee Howard leveraged this approach when she found herself "broke and clientless" as a brand strategist. Rather than continuing to seek advice from mentors, she flipped the script and offered free 15-minute strategy sessions to anyone with branding questions. This "100 Person Project" allowed her to learn exactly what problems potential clients were facing while demonstrating her expertise. Within four months, she had developed and sold out her first course, turning insights from these conversations into a successful business. You can create your own version of the 100 Person Project by identifying five problems you've solved for others, creating a simple name for your mini-sessions, and inviting people to sign up. Through these conversations, you'll discover which of your skills are most valued and how to package them effectively. The key is focusing on solving specific, measurable problems of daily life rather than attempting to create massive behavior change. Remember that success comes from meeting needs and providing solutions. The more you focus on helping others overcome specific challenges - rather than trying to sell your services or promote yourself - the more successful you'll be. Your answer is likely already in your inbox; you just need to recognize it and take action.

Chapter 5: Create Multiple Income Streams

Before we go further, let's equip you with a means of financial support outside conventional employment. Whether you want to be fully self-employed or not, having income that independently arrives in your bank account provides security, options, and disproportionate satisfaction compared to a regular paycheck. Elle had started a clothing business selling accessories she created in a whimsical style. After some experimentation, she found an efficient production method that required minimal time. For about an hour daily, she handled customer emails; once weekly, she shipped orders; weekends were for marketing. The rest of her time went to another part-time job and caring for her preschool daughter. One morning, she woke to find $170 had arrived in her account overnight - passive income that supplemented her other work without dominating her life. Meanwhile, David, an industrial engineer at a large company, had launched a subscription service for fantasy sports fans. Though not enough to replace his salary, this side income allowed him to pay off debt and take a Caribbean vacation. Maya, who worked for a nonprofit she loved but that paid modestly, created an ebook with her sister to help aspiring do-gooders use technology better. Their first month brought in $500, the second $700 - extra income that helped with car payments and student loans while utilizing skills they already possessed. Creating your own side hustle doesn't require quitting your job or completely transforming your life. There are four main approaches to consider. First, you can sell something - whether handcrafted items on Etsy like Amber, who earns an additional $450 monthly selling fabric art, or even unused items from your home to gain experience with online marketplaces. Second, provide a consulting service based on specialized knowledge you already possess. Harry Campbell turned his experience driving for Uber into a consulting business helping other drivers maximize their earnings. Gary Leff transformed his skill at booking complex flight itineraries with frequent flyer miles into a service for busy travelers. Third, become a middleman through affiliate marketing, connecting interested buyers with products or services while earning commissions. The key is leveraging either technological advantage (better search engine results) or authority that makes people trust your recommendations. Fourth, join the sharing economy as a provider. Jaime earned an extra $260 weekly driving for Uber during his commute times. Rachel, a teacher, used TaskRabbit to earn money running errands during her free time, saving for travel. Maylene and Charity rented a room through Airbnb, then expanded to managing other properties as a side business. To determine which opportunity is best for you, set a minimum wage for your time and focus on ideas with the highest potential return. The "19 Days to Hustle" plan provides a structured timeline: decide what your side hustle will be, determine the deliverable, identify ideal customers, set a budget, outline key benefits, establish pricing, create a simple website with payment capability, gather feedback, launch, tell friends, and celebrate your first success. Remember that a side hustle generates more than just money - it provides security, allows you to explore passions, and often leads to unexpected opportunities. Nathan Barry created an entire product in just 24 hours, earning over $3,000 within two days. Even if your project starts small, the satisfaction of seeing extra money arrive from something you created yourself is powerful motivation to continue building multiple income streams.

Summary

Throughout these chapters, we've explored the multifaceted journey of finding work that truly fits who you are - work that combines joy, financial reward, and the natural flow of your talents. The central message remains clear: there is no single correct path to career fulfillment, but there are strategies that significantly improve your odds of finding your personal sweet spot. As Shenee Howard discovered through her 100 Person Project, "As you start doing more and more, you'll get faster and you'll start realizing what types of problems you like helping with the most." The journey to meaningful work starts today with a single action. Identify one area where you can implement these principles immediately - whether creating a side hustle, improving a vital skill, or simply paying attention to what people consistently ask you for help with. Remember that finding your career sweet spot isn't about perfection; it's about progress. Take that first step toward building work that combines what you love, what you're good at, and what provides the lifestyle you desire. The perfect intersection of joy, money, and flow is waiting for you to discover it.

Best Quote

“Think you're too busy for another project? Whether busy or not, ask yourself, "Do I have the right balance of joy, money, and flow in my life?"If you want an outcome different from the one your current path is leading to, somehow you'll have to find the time.Being too busy may be the new social currency, but the real winners find time to do what matters to them.” ― Chris Guillebeau, Born for This: How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do

Review Summary

Strengths: The book includes interesting stories of how others found their dream work and offers examples and paths to discovering one's purpose. It encourages organic exploration of career paths and provides ideas as a starting point for personal growth. It prompts readers to consider the intersection of joy, work, and flow in their careers. Weaknesses: The reviewer did not learn anything new from the book, indicating a lack of novel insights. The expectation of a life-changing epiphany was unmet. Overall Sentiment: Mixed. The reviewer appreciates the examples and ideas presented but is disappointed by the lack of new insights. Key Takeaway: "Born For This" encourages readers to explore various forms of work and passions over their lifetime, emphasizing the importance of side hustles and personal growth, though it may not offer groundbreaking revelations for all readers.

About Author

Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup and other books. During a lifetime of self-employment, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his 35th birthday. Every summer in Portland, Oregon he hosts the World Domination Summit, a gathering of creative, remarkable people. Chris also hosts Side Hustle School, a popular podcast that is downloaded more than 2 million times a month.