Career or Job?

Happy Monday!

Enjoying the beautiful Las Vegas after going to sleep on the west coast schedule and waking up on the east coast schedule. My brain is shot so I figured I’d offer you some of the idle cycles of my brain and the random stuff I tend to notice.

One of my ADD puzzles has always been checking out what others are doing on a flight. Let’s face it, being locked in 24” of waist and 18” of leg room leaves you with a rather limited set of things you could be doing.

To me, and you’re welcome to disagree, a career is something you live and breathe. It doesn’t take a lunch break or a weekend off, even if you aren’t doing anything directly related to your job or role, you are aware of it on some level.

Flights tend to fall into three groups: 1) Spend the entire time praying that the wings don’t fall off, 2) How do I make this thing go faster, sleep? and 3) Let me get something done.

So we’re flying to Las Vegas. I’m a row behind my staff. One is looking out the window. Other is reading Harry Potter. One is transcribing his whiteboard with the new project goals from the iPhone picture snapped earlier that morning.

Which one of us has a career and who is collecting a paycheck?

I know guys who have written entire books on flights. I often see business people working on spreadsheets, templates, etc. This “free time” is the time to sharpen your skills.

So mirror match time: How you spend your idle cycles is a reflection of what you enjoy in life. Perhaps you should find a way to get paid for doing that.

For me, I am very thankful to be paid for what I’d do for free anyhow.