Dream Jobs - Could they be Real???

My buddy, Paul Starks wrote me a nice note a few days ago. Paul left International Paper to join the Caterpillar group. Man, is that a great company, and Paul is a great guy. I am sure he belongs there. Paul asked me "What are you doing next?" And as most of you may have guessed, the answer is "I don't have a clue."

However......I have been thinking; and I'd like for you to think with me. Have you ever contemplated your dream job? The best job in the world for you that really "feeds ur needs?" To be honest, I have never thought about the "dream job" too much, because I was more focused on what i believed to be a more practical matter called "making a living". On the other hand, what if dream jobs do exist? And what if we fail to explore the possibilities? I say, shame on me, shame on you, and shame on all of us if we don't try and find them. Let me give you an example.

To the right of this you'll see a picture of Megan's Bay in St. Thomas. Gorgeous beach. Beautiful weather. Wonderful people. I was there this year, and pulled into the local bar to have a drink and enjoy the scenery. The bartender was a guy named John. John, was clearly from the Midwest U.S. and so I asked him, turned out he was from Nebraska. John graduated from the University of Nebraska and immediately left on vacation to St. Thomas. He had two bags with him, when he left from Lincoln. John got busy, asking around and landed a job tending bar here on Megan's beach. He's been here for almost a decade. John, has now accumulated a couple of cars, a boat, but still lives in an apartment here on the island.

And everything is not so good according to John. You see when I visited John, his girlfriend had just left and gone back to the "states". John felt sad about this. Somehow, I didn't get it. I asked John, "Can you give me your requirements?" He said, "requirements for what?". I said, for a new girlfriend, " I can start lining up new candidates for you right away, the beach is full of good candidates". Swear to God, I saw at least 100 good candidates!

Works out that John, was still recovering from some kind of "heartbreak", but I think you get my point. "How bad would it be to be a bar tender at one of the world's most beautiful beaches?" How hard would it be to find a replacement "girl friend" in St. Thomas. If I were John, I might change girl friends more often than I change shirts. Only joking, Nancy, Ouch! By the way, I am sending this blog to John, in case he wants to leave his position - I would happily suffer with its inconveniences - at least for a while.

Maybe for some of you bar tending on Megan's Bay in St. Thomas might not be your dream job - but whatever your dream job is you have to do what John did - you have to go after it; stick your neck out a little and try. As my old buddy, Kevin Hinz once told me, if we don't at least try, our chances are 100% for failure. Kevin, is right - we can't afford to take that chance - we might get lucky.

The way I see it; I've got some time to define and find my "dream job", I'll have to get pretty hungry before I settle for less. I say, "Let's go!"

All the best,