Creating You and Co.: Learn to Think Like the CEO of Your Own Career [Paperback]

For a long time, says the author, a job was not something you had, but something you did. In other words, you didn't go to the office with the expectation that the Job was a kind of host organism that would sustain you indefinitely, in good times and bad. You *did* a job by identifying a need that someone would pay you to meet, meeting it, and moving on to the next job.

That's essentially the approach Bridges advocates here, and while it's easier to talk about it than to actually carry it out, one gets the feeling he's probably right. Concisely and without preaching, he provides a reminder of something most of us probably have already accepted, i.e., that there is no job security any more. By nudging you to adopt a more entrepreneurial outlook, Bridges makes you feel a little better about this turn of events.

At a minimum, this ought to make you re-examine your basic assumptions about work. Broadly speaking, that means questioning the whole employer/employee paradigm (mercifully, Bridges does not use this word often), and more specifically, getting you to think harder about your own work---what you do best, what you're doing now, and why you continue doing it.

You and Co. contains many self-assessment quizzes, which I found helpful. I haven't read What Color Is Your Parachute? or anything similar since about 1985, so I worked through these exercises and felt like I actually learned something. However, if you've recently read other books in this genre, Creating You and Co. may feel like you're re-treading some of that same ground.

One of the reviewers below comments on the first chapter of the book, complaining that he found it dry. This section summarizes Bridges' earlier book JobShift, and the summary does read a bit like the extract of a monograph---which it is. If you're not interested in the socio-economic reasons why jobs are disappearing, just skip the first chapter. The rest of the book stays squarely focused on giving practical advice.

The final virtue of You and Co.: it is brief.

Some of William Bridges' best work has been in the area of helping people make the transition from "jobs" to "work". Creating You & Co. is an excellent follow-up to Bridges' book entitled, JobShift. JobShift helped many people begin to deal with the loss of their job, and the gaining of meaningful work. Creating You & and Co. helps many people be empowered to take charge of their own life and career as it relates to jobs and work.

This book does not go so far as to suggest an arrogant individualism, but it does say that people need to see themselves as a marketable commodity that they control, rather than that the boundaries of their work situation controls. Individuals need to reconceptualize job skills such as education and experiences, as work skills which include, among others, desire and abilities.

Loyalty and longevity in an organization for someone in control of their career will depend on regularly demonstrating that they are learners whose desire, abilities, temperament, and assets [D.A.T.A.] can be used in a variety of roles--and in a variety of companies or organizations if this one is no longer interested.

People who reinvent themselves as a personal career company are probably happier employees because they have a best alternative already figured out if the specific job they hold is eliminated.

This was an easy book to read, and one where a copy will be needed for each person in your organization if you really want to empower people to reach their full potential.

I read this book when it was first published several years ago and recently re-read it, curious to see how well its core concepts have held up. In fact, they seem even more relevant now than they did before as more people, each day, become -- in effect -- free agents.

Here's a hypothetical question: How many of those who (let's say) retired five years ago now wish they had read this book when they first went to work full-time? (Yes, yes, I realize that this book was first published in 1997. As I said, a hypothetical question.) As Bridges carefully examines several key issues concerning career manning and management in this book, I was again reminded: If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

It may now be too late for retirees but assuredly this book could be of substantial benefit to their children and, especially, to their grandchildren.

I share Bridges' fascination with transitions during which new paradigms reveal themselves. Some may involve countries (e.g. those in the Third World), others involve organizations (e.g. Roman Catholic Church, IBM, Nissan), and still others involve human lives. I know of no one else who better understands than does Bridges the probable causes, consequences, and implications of transitions nor anyone else who offers better advice on how to manage them most effectively.

In this volume, he focuses on a subject of immediate, indeed urgent importance to anyone now encountering difficulties with managing their lives. More specifically, those who are dissatisfied with their work because it fails to satisfy and/or support them. This book is NOT about finding another job. "When you look for a [in italics] job, you are looking for something that is fading from the socioeconomic picture because it is past its evolutionary prime." Bridges goes on to explain, "This book is a do-it-yourself career development program....[Rather than seek a job,] a better course of action is to find work that that actually needs doing and present yourself to whoever needs it as the best way to get it done." Bridges offers a practical path toward locating such work and then securing the best terms and conditions by which to do it.

He introduces an acronym when developing a key concept in this book: D.A.T.A. (Desires, Abilities, Temperament, and Assets). Thereby, he effectively stresses the importance of

* Doing what you REALLY want to do

* Developing the skills needed to ensure success as well as satisfaction while doing it

* Doing what you REALLY want to do

* Developing the skills needed to ensure success as well as satisfaction while doing it

* Having an appropriate temperament for the given vocation

* Recognizing and leveraging the assets you need (some of which you may already possess)

In Part One, Bridges explains (a) how and why the workplace is now changing, (b) why traditional jobs no longer fit this world and why companies are abandoning them, and finally (c) what the alternatives to jobs are. In Part Two, he explains how to "mine" D.A.T.A. Then in Part Three, he shifts his and the reader's attention to locating appropriate opportunities, creating her or his "product," running her or his "microbusiness," formulating a plan, and then implementing it.

Think of this book as a "map" which you will need to complete successfully your journey to the destination you seek, whatever and wherever it may be. The value of this "map" is increased substantially by the questions, checklists, inventories, exercises, and related activities which Bridges provides at the end of each chapter. Obviously, a map is not a transportation vehicle. It guides and informs sound decisions but does not make them. It indicates the nature and extent of whatever fuel may be needed but does not provide it. It remains for the "traveler" ("pilgrim"?) to commit sufficient intelligence and energy to the journey. Extending the metaphor further, I also presume to suggest that Bridges expects his reader to be the DRIVER of this difficult but necessary process, not merely a passenger who passively reads his book and nods with approval without taking the requisite initiatives.

In essence, this is a book about life management. Oh sure, it will help many to find more rewarding work, rewarding in terms of both satisfaction and income. But if I understand Bridges' key ideas, then I am correct when asserting that his ideas offer guidance to personal fulfillment. Those who share my high regard for Creating You & Co. are urged to check out David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, Phillip C. McGraw's Self Matters, and Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine's Fire Your Boss.Having an appropriate temperament for the given vocation

* Recognizing and leveraging the assets you need (some of which you may already possess)

In Part One, Bridges explains (a) how and why the workplace is now changing, (b) why traditional jobs no longer fit this world and why companies are abandoning them, and finally (c) what the alternatives to jobs are. In Part Two, he explains how to "mine" D.A.T.A. Then in Part Three, he shifts his and the reader's attention to locating appropriate opportunities, creating her or his "product," running her or his "microbusiness," formulating a plan, and then implementing it.

Think of this book as a "map" which you will need to complete successfully your journey to the destination you seek, whatever and wherever it may be. The value of this "map" is increased substantially by the questions, checklists, inventories, exercises, and related activities which Bridges provides at the end of each chapter. Obviously, a map is not a transportation vehicle. It guides and informs sound decisions but does not make them. It indicates the nature and extent of whatever fuel may be needed but does not provide it. It remains for the "traveler" ("pilgrim"?) to commit sufficient intelligence and energy to the journey. Extending the metaphor further, I also presume to suggest that Bridges expects his reader to be the DRIVER of this difficult but necessary process, not merely a passenger who passively reads his book and nods with approval without taking the requisite initiatives.

In essence, this is a book about personal development and life management. Oh sure, it will help many to find more rewarding work, rewarding in terms of both satisfaction and income. But if I understand Bridges' key ideas, then I am correct when asserting that his ideas offer guidance to personal fulfillment. Those who share my high regard for Creating You & Co. are urged to check out David Whyte's The Heart Aroused, Phillip C. McGraw's Self Matters, and Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine's Fire Your Boss.