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The Pathfinder : How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success (Paperback)
by Nicholas Lore
| Category:
Career development, Career guide, Self help |
| Market price: ¥ 178.00
MSL price:
¥ 168.00
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In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An in-depth, insightful and practical career change guide to benefit from. Highly recommended. |
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Author: Nicholas Lore
Publisher: Fireside Books
Pub. in: January, 1998
ISBN: 0684823993
Pages: 400
Measurements: 8.9 x 7.0 x 1.1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00064
Other information:
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- MSL Picks -
The Pathfinder is the perfect guide for anybody who feels that he/she should be doing something different career-wise, but that "something different" is too vague to be pinned down definitively. Lore provides an exhaustive list of queries, questions, and quests for the reader to investigate both internally and externally. Answering the numerous inquiries provides the reader with invaluable insight with respect to his/her strengths, talents, likes, and dislikes both on and off the job, allowing for a rational, well thought out decision to take a new career path that integrates some of the most interesting and fulfilling aspects of an individual's life. Beware, however - this book is not your average inspirational "you can do it" manual for success. It takes a lot of brainstorming, contemplation, and self-analysis to get through each chapter, but the rewards are invaluable. A special bonus is that the reader learns a lot about themselves, not only as an employee, but as a human being, which can inspire one to get the most out of many other aspects of life as well. The one drawback is the occasional inclusion of overly wordy, redundant examples and anecdotes, but these are easily glossed over, allowing the reader to focus on the "meat" of the text.
As a career and personal coach I use the exercises in this book with clients. They're extremely productive. They're exhaustive. I challenge any author to produce more thorough and effective exercises than this. In fact I recently I went to a large bookstore to see if anyone had done so. I looked through the career books until I was cross-eyed, and I found pieces-just pieces in this book and that, of the exercises Lore had laid out in exhaustive detail.
"The American Way of Career Selection" section toward the beginning ought to clue you in, reader. The wake up call - our schools and colleges' methods of helping students toward fitting careers is totally inadequate. They don't have the time or resources, and I've visited several of them. This fact needs to be published more often.
We are blessed to have someone who not only calls it to our attention in the book's beginning, but makes you laugh as you see yourself in the book - a human being who is seeking direction with a mixture of fear and dread; and hope and inspiration. The Artist's Way was extremely confrontational; this book was welcoming and compassionately honest. The author understands human nature.
"The Questions List" exercise alone is worth the price of the book. About 130 questions in 21 categories about your work preferences, which if you have or had answered in college, may have been instrumental in setting you on the right career path the first time!! No small feat judging by today's career satisfaction statistics. (From quoting Kirby and Dana, USA)
Target readers:
Managers, entrepreneurs, MBAs, professionals, and anyone needing to address career development challenges.
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Nicholas Lore is the founder of Rockport Institute, an international career-counseling network that has coached thousands whether through a midcareer change or through first-time career decisions. He has worked with business executives, artists and musicians, students, government officials, technical people, support staff, and professionals in all fields. Nicholas Lore has been commended for excellence by two U.S. presidents.
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From the Publisher:
DO YOU JUMP OUT OF BED EVERY MORNING AND RUSH TO A JOB YOU LOVE?
Or is the work you once enjoyed now just a way to pay the bills? Perhaps you're even doubting your career choice altogether. Let The Pathfinder guide you to a more engaging, fulfilling work life. Based on breakthrough techniques developed by Rockport Institute, an innovative and award-winning career-counseling network that has changed the lives of over 10,000 people, The Pathfinder offers invaluable advice and more than 100 self-tests and diagnostic tools that will help you choose an entirely new career — or view a current job from a new, more positive perspective. You'll learn:
x How to design your new career direction step by step so that it fits your talents, personality, needs, goals, values, and is, at the same time, practical and attainable
x How to deal successfully with the "yeah but" voices in your head that keep you going back to the same old ill-fitting job, day after day
x How to land the perfect job in your new field, plus tips on writing a really exceptional résumé, personal marketing, and networking (even for those who hate to network)
Whether you're a seasoned professional in search of a career change or a beginner just entering the working world, you want to make the right choices from the beginning. No matter where you are in your journey, if you want work to be more of a dance than a drag, The Pathfinder will expertly coach you through the process of designing a career you will love.
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Once, I was in the same situation you are facing today. It was time to decide what to do with my life. I committed myself to doing whatever was necessary to make a truly excellent career choice because I passionately wanted to wake up in the morning looking forward to going to work each day. This is the book I searched for then but did not find.
I remember an extraordinary, imaginary book that first framed my boyhood vision of what I hope The Pathfinder will be for you. Each month, Donald Duck's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie would find themselves in the middle of a full-tilt comic book adventure. When things got completely hopeless, when the forces of chaos seemed sure to win, they always pulled off a miracle. Out of their knapsack came their infallible guide and problem solver, The Junior Woodchuck Handbook. It had an absolutely perfect, creative solution for every situation they stumbled into, no matter how obscure or difficult. It was the complete guide to life.
Since then I have passionately sought those rare volumes of chuckery that surface in the real world. Every once in a while one appears, the seminal guidebook to some aspect of life. Inspired by these wonderful books, The Pathfinder is intended to be one small chapter of The Junior Woodchuck Handbook: how to decide what to do with your life. Whether you are in midcareer change or are making career decisions for the first time, it is designed to get you successfully through the process of planning your future.
How can an intelligent person, committed to choosing a new career path, decide exactly which direction to pursue? That is a question I began asking many years ago. At the time I was restless and bored with my job. I ran a conservation and solar energy company on the coast of Maine. I had written and been responsible for the passage of legislation that saved thousands of beautiful historic houses from destruction and had recently been commended for excellence by the White House. My office looked out on a beautiful harbor where lobster boats and foghorns greeted the new day. Yet I had trouble getting through the workday. Even with an extensive background in psychology and Eastern philosophy, I had difficulty understanding why my workday left so much to be desired. How could it be that working on interesting projects in an idyllic setting and making a positive difference in the world and getting recognition could get boring? It was an absolute mystery to me.
I then searched all over New England to find a career coach to help me solve my problem. I called nearly every counselor in the region. I told them I was seeking to choose a new career where I would be able to wake up in the morning and look forward to work. I said I wanted to find a vocation that was challenging, creative, and that I would passionately enjoy, where I could use my talents to their fullest, doing something that mattered to me. None of them seemed to know what it took to have a really phenomenal career. In fact, I could tell from their voices that many of them didn't seem to love what they did either.
Finally, I took my problem to a wise old man who was a fellow member of my boat club. As it turned out, I was lucky enough to pick the ideal supporter, R. Buckminster Fuller. Many people have heard of Bucky because he invented the geodesic dome. The building at EPCOT Center that looks like a huge silvery ball is one of his many revolutionary designs. Bucky was much more than an architect. If you can imagine Obiwan Kanobe and Yoda combined in a real person who was at the same time a master futurist, scientist, engineer, architect inventor, mathematician, philosopher, and mystic, you get a little hint as to who he was. I struggled with my dilemma for what seemed like eons. Ultimately, with his encouragement, I decided to dedicate my life to tackling the very problem I had so much trouble solving myself. I founded an organization dedicated to developing more effective ways to help people make career and education choices.
Since 1980, that organization, Rockport Institute, has been a pioneer in developing programs that successfully guide clients through the process of career decision making. These programs consist of clear-cut steps that help clients choose a specific career that will be highly satisfying, give them the opportunity to reach their goals, use their talents at the highest possible level, and be practical and achievable. From the beginning we have been committed to developing the best tools to help people make the best decisions. Rockport Institute has helped many thousands of clients from all walks of life: young and old; rich and poor; professionals in career change; artists, students, and people reentering the workforce. We have had the opportunity to serve as personal career consultants to several national and global leaders, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, senior policy makers of three presidential administrations, and people in nearly every field of endeavor. Our clients have one thing in common: a strong desire for a very fulfilling career.
For the last seventeen years, as Director of Rockport Institute, my single-minded passion has been to create methods that help intelligent, complex people like you choose the perfect career and stretch beyond the circumstances and perceived limitations that hold them back from living lives of deep fulfillment. I have written this book to, as closely as possible, duplicate the experience you would have if we were to sit together in the same room and work step by step until you reach your goal, knowing for sure what you will do with your life. In these pages you will find a pathway through the process of deciding what to do with your life that actually gets you to the goal line. For the first time you will have access to everything you need to reach your goal of picking an outrageously excellent new direction, choosing your first career, or tuning up your present path. By looking at the questions you have previously been unable to answer from new perspectives, you will finally have a chance to sort them out and get them answered completely.
You will also have an opportunity to look into areas of your life you may have never considered before. You will find some of these components absolutely critical to making the best possible career decision. The Pathfinder will help you to break everything important down into small bite-sized pieces and deal with them one by one. Far from being a generic, cookie-cutter approach, this book will enable you to customize your journey through the morass of questions and uncertainties to fit your own particular needs.
I will completely respect and appreciate you and your unique nature. At the same time, I won't pull punches or be too polite to give it to you straight. I don't mind at all if you jump up and down and curse me when you get frustrated. After all, I'm just a book. (Just make sure no one else sees you, or you may find that the men with butterfly nets are beginning to keep their eyes on you.)
The Pathfinder will escort you through an inquiry into every aspect of your life that relates to career. Designed to be a universal guide, it should work for you regardless of your age, background, education, point of view, and experience. If you are a recently deposed emperor, you won't be treated like a teenager. And if you are a teenager, don't worry, you won't be treated like a deposed emperor. Rather than just discussing theoretical ideals about career fulfillment, The Pathfinder is designed to actually take you to your goal of deciding exactly what you will do with your life.
You Can Do It!
The difficulties you may have faced, the times you have gotten stuck, and the less than perfect decisions you may have made previously do not signify in any way that there is something wrong with you or that the world of work must be a hard, dark, cold, dreary place. If you want to do something with your life that really sings and soars, all you need to do is to start your journey here. No matter what your situation, you can do it, if you go for it wholeheartedly, and keep going until you arrive at your destination.
Before you continue, please get a good notebook, one that you will use for deciding what to do with your life and for nothing else. A three-ring binder would be perfect. If you have a word processor, it will simplify working through some of the Inquiries in this book. You should print everything out as hard copy, so you will still need a notebook.
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| View all 9 comments |
An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
The Pathfinder is the perfect guide for anybody who feels that he/she should be doing something different career-wise, but that "something different" is too vague to be pinned down definitively. Lore provides an exhaustive list of queries, questions, and quests for the reader to investigate both internally and externally. Answering the numerous inquiries provides the reader with invaluable insight with respect to his/her strengths, talents, likes, and dislikes both on and off the job, allowing for a rational, well thought out decision to take a new career path that integrates some of the most interesting and fulfilling aspects of an individual's life. Beware, however - this book is not your average inspirational "you can do it" manual for success. It takes a lot of brainstorming, contemplation, and self-analysis to get through each chapter, but the rewards are invaluable. A special bonus is that the reader learns a lot about themselves, not only as an employee, but as a human being, which can inspire one to get the most out of many other aspects of life as well. The one drawback is the occasional inclusion of overly wordy, redundant examples and anecdotes, but these are easily glossed over, allowing the reader to focus on the "meat" of the text. |
Jazzmamma (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
I completed the work in this book in 1997. You can't just 'read' it, you have to follow the 'path', which means to answer questions (in writing, in a journal), REALLY consider your past, present and potential futures. Writing things down, as this book asks one to do, helped me by making me discover what my fears were, what potential drawbacks were. Also, suggestions for picking a couple of potential careers and really investigating them were brilliant for me. For example, as I sat in an LSAT review class, I became instantly aware that I really didn't want to sit in school for three more years, nor did I want to work at the office for 70 hours a week. The book offers advice to help one choose, research, and narrow down career choices.
In the back of the book there are phone numbers for further research, for an additional fee (at the time I think it was about $250) which I pursued. I completed a whole written Pathfinders survey, did a phone interview and received a tape of it, and although at the time I felt it was expensive, ultimately, it did help me find a career that was a giant leap but an excellent fit with my needs and skills.
In the end, Pathfinders is about listening to one's own answers. I can say they helped me to realize I knew what I wanted all along. It took me about a year to determine what I wanted to do, and another year to actually set about doing it, but now, six years later, I am still in my calling, and think this book was an excellent investment, if one is willing to do the work and look at one's life under a microscope. |
JMG (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-29 00:00>
Two years ago I had a great job. My boss loved me, my volunteers loved me, I was making the world a better place, I made decent money, when I told people what I did for a living their consistent response "That's so cool"... and I was miserable.
Logically, the gnawing discontent I felt made no sense. I looked at lots of different career books to try and figure out what was wrong. When I found this book, I stopped looking and started finding the answers I was looking for. Now, I look forward to my alarm going off in the morning so I can go to "work" and it's largely because of this book. (And its not because I have become a workaholic. In fact, I make it a priority to leave work at a reasonable hour.)
The Pathfinder is simply the best career book there is. Most career books focus on transferable skills, the importance of networking, and maybe ask you some questions about what interests you. The Pathfinder addresses all of these things too, but what makes it different is that it pushes you to think about what you want your life as a whole to look like and how you want your job to fit into that. The exercises help you to really think about who you are, what your goals and dreams are, and why the things that matter to you matter to you. Then the book helps you to explore careers that are an expression of those things. It also accesses your special skills and talents in a more complex and multifaceted way than most career books. It considers things like how many new ideas you have a day and whether you are a concrete or abstract thinker. The end result is that you can begin to see for the first time the things that are so easy for you that you didn't think they could possibly be talents...only to realize that they are and people will pay you to use them.
If the best thing about your job is a paycheck, if you use the commute home to decompress so you don't take your misery out on your partner, if you dread Mondays or even if you just know you could be happier than you are at work buy this book today. My goal when I book was to get paid to play instead of getting paid to work. The things I learned about myself from this book made it possible for my to achieve that goal. I now have a job I absolutely love. If you honestly and thoughtfully complete the exercises you can too. |
A Canadian reader (MSL quote), Canada
<2006-12-29 00:00>
In my opinion, The Pathfinder is simply the best career change resource out there. I have read an untold number of career-related books, and have been trying to change careers myself for over 10 years, without success. That is, until I discovered this book.
Nicholas Lore has created the most comprehensive career change decision-making tools available today. His approach breaks down the process of choosing a career that fits you like a glove into small, manageable steps, thereby reducing the likelihood that overwhelm will take over and cause you to quit. There is also the question of commitment: Lore constantly challenges you to ask yourself whether or not you are truly committed to choosing the career of your dreams. For me, this was both an eye-opening and deeply transformational concept.
The career testing offered by Lore's company, Rockport Institute, is brilliant. Again, I had done lots of testing for aptitudes, preferences and interests before, but none of those methods really hit the nail on the head as the Rockport approach did. It took me a while to see what the difference really was, but as I got deeper into the career exploration process, it all started to make sense. Now I know that what I learned from the testing results alone will make a huge difference as I navigate my way through my newly chosen career path.
I also highly recommend Rockport Institute's career choice program, which gives you access to a personal career coach to guide you through the research and decision-making process. I can't count the number of times that I wanted to quit, or hit a wall in my thinking, and my career coach was there to give me constructive feedback or reassure me that I was on the right track. Having that support and guidance made all the difference to finally making a decision on my new career path.
I believe that the Pathfinder approach to career exploration should be embedded into the curriculum of every high school, college and university, incorporated into the career development process of corporations and businesses, and utilized by career counselors worldwide. If that were the case, I think that the high levels of career dissatisfaction so prevalent amongst today's workers would be fundamentally reversed, and the productivity and employee satisfaction inside our organizations would soar.
If you're serious about creating the career of your dreams, the Pathfinder approach is for you. |
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