“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Birth of an Executive Coach

Last time I finished talking about my decision to self-publish my first book even though I had traditional publishing offers on the table.  This time I’m going to talk about some of the actual content of my upcoming book – a book about goals and achievement.

I was born as an Executive Coach in May 1989, although I did not know that this was my destiny at the time.  Like most newborns, I did not have a clue what was going on and it would take me a number of years to make sense of the world around me.

In May of 89, I left my well-paid job in Retail Mega-Box management, well-paid but otherwise boring and totally unsatisfying, and went into Executive Search (headhunting) and the temporary employment business.  I had only trivial experience in either of these businesses.  I had been called by headhunters a few times, looking to move me from one Mega-Box to another.  These headhunters didn’t seem too bright and they seemed to make a great deal of money.  (Interesting combination.  I certainly wanted to make a great deal of money and at times I was a veritable idiot.  I filed this information away for further analysis.)

In the world of temporary employment, I had worked extensively at numerous temporary agencies in Southern California after I graduated from college.  Eventually I found my first career position and stopped working temporary assignments.  While working, I had gained some great information though – there was a great deal of money to be made in the temporary business and they, the owners that I had met, didn’t seem all that bright either.

What does this have to do with my first book on goals?  I’m getting there, I promise!

Death as a Counselor

In December of 1985 my father died of leukemia.  He was relatively young, 61 years old, when he died.  Vibrant and healthy for most of his life, in 18 months he was stripped of virtually everything – his physical vitality, his freedom of movement, his privacy and eventually his life – in 18 short months he lost all of these.

I visited him almost every other day for most of this time.  My blood was helping to keep him alive and we saw more of each other in this short time than we really had in years.  He talked often of the things that he was going to do if he got out of the hospital.  He was going to travel again.  He was going to go see the pyramids.  He had a long list of things that he wanted to do and experience.  He died without having done any of these – he died with most of his dreams unlived.

His death affected me deeply.  I was 26 years old when he died and I swore that I was going to do my best to retire before I was 40 years old and I was going to live my dreams – for both of us.

Goals were the Starting Place

I did manage to retire before I was 40.  This early retirement only lasted about 10 years, no one had told me how much money could be spent if you had full time to devote to the process of spending, but my next early retirement is coming up fast.  And this time, well, I have a much higher number in mind for my retirement!  Come back next time and learn more about how goals were the starting place for me then and the drivers for me now.

Till next time faithful reader…Jack

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” ~ Sir Edmund Hillary