How to Make a Living

Working Naturally
Several readers have asked me for a five-minute summary of the iterative, lifelong process of learning what we’re meant to do for a living, and making that living through Natural Enterprise. I thought this was a reasonable request, so I’ve illustrated it above. Here’s the five-minute walk-through:
  1. Now What? You’re newly-graduated, outsourced, chronically underemployed or seeking to start your ‘second career’. Start with yourself. Most of us have just fallen into the careers we’ve followed, or taken the easiest or most obvious path. We don’t know what else we could be doing. We don’t know what other people do for a living, what their work is really like. We don’t know what capacities (many of them untapped) we have, or that we could develop that would open up worlds of meaningful work. So step one is a two-way exploration, of our own current and prospective competencies, and of the whole wide world of work.
  2. Why are You Here? The next step is identifying your Gift (what you are uniquely skilled at), your Passion (what you love doing), and your Purpose (where that Gift and Passion intersect with real, unmet human needs). These change as you grow and learn, but without knowing what they are, at least here and now, there will be no focus to your search for meaningful work.
  3. How Does Someone Make a Living? Most of us have bought into all the myths about making a living: fitting into and competing in the soul-destroying ‘job market’, or struggling with risky ‘self-employment’ — beaten up by unreasonable customers and impatient investors, indebted forever and forced to grow ruthlessly or die. But there are models of joyful, responsible, sustainable, egalitarian enterprise where you are beholden to no one, where you work with people you love as an integral part of a healthy community. All you need to do is find them, study them, and follow their example.
  4. Who Do I Make a Living With? The greatest challenge for Natural Enterprises is finding partners whose Gifts and Passions complement your own, and who share your Purpose. Many hands make light work, and the entrepreneur’s greatest mistake is often trying to do everything alone. For some, it makes sense to start with this decision, to decide first who you want to make a living with, and then, collectively, cycle back and discover what’s possible, what you really want to do, and how best to do it. The process is continuous, and it doesn’t really matter where you start. And the best thing about Natural Enterprise is you can always change your mind, and it will evolve with you.

The four steps above are inward-focused, about self-direction. Next you turn your attention outward, to filling a need:

  1. What Does the World Need? Real market research is about answering this question, and also about understanding why that need isn’t already being met by some other enterprising group. This is the most difficult step in the process, but answering it will guide you confidently through the rest of the steps.
  2. What Could Possibly Meet That Need? We live in a world of great imaginative poverty, but with practice you can become very good at the critical skill of imagining possibilities. There are all kinds of tools that can help you, and nature, which has hundreds of millions of years’ experience evolving imaginative approaches to seemingly impossible challenges, is full of ideas, free for the taking.
  3. What’s the Business Model? Finding the way to convert a brilliant idea into an affordable offering that meets the need, simply and effectively, is the hard work of innovation. But we are inherently very competent innovators, and with practice, patience and help from others, you can excel at it. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
  4. Who Do We Work With? This is different from step 4, in that it brings in customers, colleagues, the people in other Natural Enterprises whose offerings mesh with your own, and the whole community you are a part of. It entails extending your business partnership to include the rest of the world, and learning important skills in collaboration and networking, and new (or long forgotten) ways of working like Open Source and Peer Production.

This process is not easy, but it can be great fun, it’s always rewarding, and it’s never impossible. It’s a continuous, creative process of learning, discovery, paying attention, practice and innovation. Those of us who do one job our whole lives follow this process, in a simplified way, intuitively, and there is no rocket science here. Creating a Natural Enterprise is, well, natural. Watch what creatures in the wild do to make a living, to care for and provide for themselves and their communities, and it’s identical to this process. We’ve just (most of us) forgotten it.

We are problem-solvers by nature, and all this is hard-wired in us. Justwaiting to come out.

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7 Responses to How to Make a Living

  1. Kevin says:

    Hi Dave,Was reading this post and found your insights interesting. In point #3 you talk about the myth of our current job or entrepreneurial environments, but I really have to ask where are the models of “joyful, responsible, sustainable, egalitarian enterprise” as you say. Can you give some sources where you find these models or opportunities?Thanks.Kevin

  2. Crispin says:

    Why would anyone believe that they have a unique Gift at all? Then why think there’s any likelihood that this would be congruent with a “Passion”? Gifts are not evenly spread, and most of us don’t really have any of significance. Passions in our times are largely created by corporations to sell goods, and thus aren’t going to have much to do with what we’re actually good at.(The self-help book market is flooded with ‘find yourself in your work’ books. No-one succeeds in this, hence the continuing market).It strikes me as a fantasy to believe that ordinary folks can achieve anything more out of work than a more-or-less honest exchange of dignity and freedom for money. That’s why the single crucial public policy objective relating to work must relate to reducing the number of work hours needed for sustenance.

  3. Ed Diril says:

    I think there is quite a bit of cultural brainwashing regarding competition. There is constant exposure to the “single winner, many losers” scenario. However, this appears to be a man-made situation mostly due to the goal of *forever growth*. Besides, drama sells! You can’t provoke people emotionally if everything works out and everyone is happy. Media wants addiction and ratings.When I observe nature, I see a mostly cooperative environment. I believe the same is possible in our world even if some people want to play the “competition” game. I personally believe that in a fully networked environment, cooperative people will win out because they are always thinking “win/win” and everyone wants to deal with those who genuinely want everyone to win.I am interested in starting a natural enterprise. Instead of fearing competition, I am trying to reframe it as the threshold for lowest level of “value-add” necessary to make a difference. Of course, value ultimately depends on what the need is as perceived and defined by the customer. Listening and observational skills are paramount.Once you locate a real need (people struggling, people working around current solutions to get their jobs done etc..), it seems best to get out there, start implementing your solution, talking to customers and keep tweaking your solution until it hits the spot. Most people get stuck at the research/analysis stage. Technology got to a point where it is much easier to get things going with much less capital than before. Once you get out there and stick with it, it eventually works out. Guy Kawasaki admits that noone really knows “for sure” what will work and what won’t. Your best bet is to create your prototype, get out there and tweak until it works. If you are motivated by creating value, it will eventually work out. Otherwise, you will fizzle like all the others who were motivated by self interest.Keeping one’s finances under control is a major plus too. It is hard to try anything when you have a steady need for large sums of money just to keep up your life style. That’s a big restriction and ultimately why most people are stuck in cubicles.As for finding a need, it usually comes down to a need you personally have or something you’ve seen first-hand through your current employment. These are what you understand the best and can see through the eyes of the customer. You may also run into something during times of curiosity. Many times what we think we understand ends up being an abstraction and the lower level details reveal new opportunities. Those who are curious to look under the hood will find them.Lastly, it is true that the market is relatively efficient in meeting needs, but some needs are overlooked due to organizational inefficiencies, incompetencies and bottom-line issues of existing companies. Besides, due to the saturation of the current marketing channels, people are more inclined to do business with people they already know regardless of superior features and lower price points the competition might have. Being friendly, genuine and supportive is in again!

  4. Earl says:

    Dave,Totally agree with you that this is The (ideal)Way To Make A Living. Are there any current examples of the Natural Enterprise?Earl RudolfoA Day in the Life of…http://www.ourstory.com/story.html?v=103883

  5. Vish Goda says:

    Hi Dave,I missed this blog completely, but glad i found it.This is exactly what I was referring to – in my email to you. Helping our children discover what they are good at – and then helping them figure out how best to employ it for a living.Crispin: I agree when you say – “Gifts are not evenly spread..” However, you don’t have to be gifted to excel at what you do. If you love what you do, if you are comfortable in doing it every day – then you are going to find ways to be really good at it and increase your own value and the value of the service/product you create..Further you point out that “The self-help book market is flooded with ‘find yourself in your work’ books. No-one succeeds in this, hence the continuing market” – I believe that, discovering yourself is the first step – the rest of the steps have a few common, but unpopular requirements – “perseverance, hard work and commitment” – without any of these, you just wont succeed. Again, if you really love what you do – then you will find a way to persevere and succeed.Ed: – I feel that what our schools and markets teach us is to compete against each other – but I feel that there is only one person to compete against – yourself – If you have means to honestly assess and evaluate your own progress – and continuously try to be better than yesterday – then you increase your chances of being “successful”.By the way, I define success as “Consistently adding value (moral, fiscal, social) to yourself, your family, your friends and your community”Best Regards.Vish Goda

  6. CRAIG says:

    I thought you might like this:-)Craig.Electric-Field Assisted Fuel AtomizationR. TaoDepartment of Physics, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USAFuel injection technology is employed in most combustion systems, such asinternal combustion engines or oil burners. It has been well known that atomization playsan important role in combustion efficiency and pollutant emissions

  7. Crispin says:

    Vish, Earl, Ed, Dave. Two questions:One. What reasons could be possibly be put forward to believe that there is some kind of magical preordained harmony between Passions and Gifts (hard to stop myself putting in the scare-quotes here)? We are bright apes, that’s all. We might be gifted, we might not. If we are, there’s no reason to suspect any law suggesting that we’ll like what we’re good at. Just as likely that we’ll be good at boning chickens when we harbour tragic desires to be opera singers.Two. Employment is still fundamentally an extension of slavery. You swap your freedom and dignity for money. Those that refuse the deal are starved out of society and made homeless (unless they’re part of the hereditarily wealthy oligarchy who still fundamentally run things, especially in countries with low social mobility like the US). “Self-employment” is worse still, as it subjects people to the rigours of “the market” (a social machine specifically designed in order to reward the worst human beings most). What makes anyone believe, in the face of the actual reality, that an average person’s magical Gifts and Passions pairing would be likely to rewarded within such a system? Wouldn’t it, doesn’t it, need these people to do the crappy work, and thus force them into it?

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