I-Merge

Life offers no guarantees that you’ll find a career that perfectly matches your passion and skills.

And if you do find a job that matches your passion and skills, there aren’t any guarantees that it’ll be financially prosperous.

You could spend your whole life looking for that perfect fit–and you could die trying.

That’s why I propose what I call “I-Merge.” I-Merge is kind of like the line from the Stephen Stills’ tune: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

Make the best of what you have and if something better comes along, you can always move on. In the meantime, you can find great joy and prosperity by merging your passions and interests with your job.

Let’s suppose you want to be a keynote speaker, but you’re working a factory job. You could ask management to allow you to teach a training class to your peers. You have now merged your job and your passion.

You’d like to be a chef, but you’re a corporate executive. Host an employee-appreciation day, with the top management cooking for the employees–and you’re the celebrity chef. You have now merged your job and your passion.

You’re very excited about serving the community, but you work for a hotel. You could volunteer for a nonprofit by serving on the fund-raising committee for the gala hosted at your hotel. You have now merged your job and your passion.

If you’re going to work day in and day out, you deserve to bring a little bit of yourself into the mix. The act of engaging in your joy and passion will lead to more opportunities, possibly leading to that dream job.

For example:

“I was very impressed with your training session last week! You are a great speaker with an interesting perspective. Would you be willing to speak at the trade conference next year?”

“The food you prepared for the employee-appreciation day was scrumptious! Could I hire you to cater a party I’m hosting?

“I know you’re happy with the hotel, but we could really use a full-time event planner for our nonprofit, and you did a great job with our event. Are you interested?”

You never know. Give it a try. I-Merge your life and career!

Poker Face

Working in sales for the last five years, I’ve learned a thing or two about negotiations. What I’ve found interesting is that many people think there’s only one approach to negotiating.

I find this disheartening since this approach, what I call “poker negotiations,” has a level of distrust associated with it. Why do I call it “poker negotiations”? Because both parties hold their cards and keep them secret from each other.

The belief is that if you share your cards, the other party will win and you will lose. This is an old model for negotiations. What exactly is “winning” and “losing” in business, anyway? To me, if either party loses out, then the transaction is a failure. Both parties lose.

I’ve been trying a new method in business. Instead of hiding my cards, I am showing my cards.

Wouldn’t life be a lot easier if we just put our cards on the table? What if I told my client, “I see you have a queen, I could use a queen.” Or what if my customer says, “Do you mind if I borrow your jack?”

It might seem silly, but my business has boomed since taking this approach. With the cards on the table, nobody has to lose and business moves fast.

This approach works in relationships as well. Give it a try sometime–you might like it!