Career Change can challenge achievers more than non-achievers

Today's Seattle Times carried an article, Financial scams can fool even the money-wise. Click here to read the article. Why am I not surprised? Because I've learned that career achievers often experience the greatest difficulty in making career change. I've said it's because the rules are different. Readers will remember me saying (over and over again), "Career success is like NFL football. Career change is like playground basketball." But there are similarities to the financial vulnerability described in this article. Achievers are used to making their own decisions. They're confident: "I've been successful in the past and I can succeed again." They also tend to be overly optimistic, believing in straightforward solutions. And that's why they're vulnerable to pitches from overenthusiastic coaches and outright scams, like the resume-blasting services. (OK, they do send resumes around, but they usually do more harm than good.) And those vulnerable to scams tend to have more challenges in their lives, such as illness. What the article doesn't say is that intuition can be silent during a crisis or a transition. That's because intuition feeds on knowledge. And in a transition, we're in a betwixt and between state of knowing nothing. I discuss this topic extensively in my Special Report on Intuition. I've been there too. I've hired some of the worst coaches and consultants on the planet, at least for me. With my own clients, I try to be as realistic as possible. But of course, being solid achievers, most of us opt for optimism, to our own peril.