Chapter V

Before we can come up with innovative ways to get across the chasm created by the workquake to more secure ground, we must first end jobthink, the number one obstacle to reinventing ourselves.

Its persistence is the the primary reason people are ineffective in finding work.

“Nothing happens without an ending,” William Bridges tells us, and what needs to end is looking at our professional life as a series of jobs.

The jobthinker who continues on the well-worn path of traditional job-search will keep spinning his wheels in the mud of employment practices, and even if he does find another job he will remain vulnerable.

But it will not be enough just to stop thinking in terms of a job. We must be vigilant about not chasing anything that makes us dependent on something outside ourselves for our security.

Suppose a jobthinker heeds the call to become an entrepreneur. Suppose he becomes a consultant and lands a big account and begins looking to that one relationship for security.

He’s right back where he started. There has been no real transition because there has not been an ending in the way he thinks about work. He has simply circled back.

He has a new address, but it’s the same house of cards.