Now the work begins...

So I looked at all the bar graphs and spider charts and curving lines and symbols and meters and let them percolate for a while in my head and then suddenly I knew what I needed to do.

I've always been an intuitive decision-maker -- I just "know" when a decision is the right one for me. It's like I can feel the current of my life flowing around me, even though I can't see it.

My career-of-choice candidate is "Visual Analytics". You probably don't know what this is. I didn't either when I started this, so let me explain.

The Butterfly Circus

This movie came to my attention from another blog. It's 20 minutes long and very well made. It appealed to my creative side as all as my theme of finding one's true purpose. Now, I don't see myself as...disadvantaged...as the protagonist in this film, but I think, at one time or another, we all have felt that out of place. The best managers understand who people ARE, not who they'd like them to be. And success usually ensues.

Since I'm linking to their film, I feel compelled to suggest that you also consider donating to the Doorpost Film Project.

I should also point out that I've figured out what I want to do in five years. Now the real work begins. More on that later.

New Resources/Last Assessment

So I found a bunch of new "what do you want to be when you grow up" resources on the web yesterday (via LinkedIn, for those of you evaluating the effectiveness of social media channels).

The most promising of these, whose depths I have yet to plumb, is InternsOver40 -- a blog about people making intentional and sharp career changes later in life.It's laid out a little capriciously, IMO, and somewhat hard to read, but the content makes it worthwhile. I look forward to following it.

As I began to explore the material on this blog, I found links to other sites with a similar theme which, in turn, linked me to things like skills assessment tests and the like. It's like...I don't know...a "web" or something.

"Control of the adjacencies"

I spent the next two days in a kind of Apple-induced thrall, thinking excitedly of what my new Mac laptop would do and when I could get it. I was thinking of all the new, non-PC things I could do when the spell began to fade and I realized I needed a counter-perspective.

So, I called one of my friends who once was a Mac devotee, but who moved his life over to the PC world. (Interesting note is that he blogged about this when he did it and got flaming, vituperative hate mail from Mac people he didn't even know. Everything has a dark side.)

Mr. Wood, Your Laptop is Ready...

So, after much debate, I got online the other day with the Apple Store Concierge and made a "Personal Shopping" appointment for last Thursday. I was still wrestling with this "PC vs. Mac" thing -- logic said PC, emotion said Mac. Which was the right decision?

I walked in at 11:00 am and was met promptly by Kristin, whose business card carries the title "Expert". I was very honest with her:

• Not gonna buy anything today.
• Struggling with why I should pay 2-3x for a MacBook Pro
• Wanting to understand the emotional geas that Apple had magically placed upon me.

Which version are you?

I had lunch with a friend of mine today who has become sort of an informal career counselor in his dotage. (OK, he's not that much older than I am.) I wanted to ask his advice about this My Next Hat project as he's thought about this sort of stuff way more than I have. Plus, it was good to catch up with him.

He has been a manager of Engineers for a long time now and, during our lunch, made the point that different Engineers are needed for different levels of product maturity.

Mac vs. PC

Mye portable difference engine be afflicted with aires and maladies of a moste nefarious sorte so that I fear to touch its keyboard with my sainted flesh. I do observe that its internal aire circulation device does stray now and again from the path of righteousness and that a stern tap is required to restore its gaze in the direction of the Almighty and cause the aire to flow freely once more. And it is similarly afflicted with the twin Curses of Sloweness and Insufficient RAM so that even the simplest piece of godly software does challenge it to its limit, causing internal grinding sounds that surely indicate the unholy presence of the Adversary's daemons. Yea, verily I do need a new one.

So, the question is, what to buy next? Mac or PC? The PC I'd like is probably going to run me about $1000. A similarly-equipped Mac would cost twice that much at least. No brainer, right?

Portfolio project

God, has it been a week since I last blogged? That's unforgivable. My sincere apologies to the 2-3 of you who are still reading this blog.

The reason for my delay is yet another project. This time, it relates to my portfolio.

You see, I think Product Managers ought to have a portfolio the same way that artists do. Nobody hires a painter or sculpter or even a home-improvement contractor without seeing something of their previous work. Why not expect the same of Product Managers?

Relator, not Realtor...

By far the most amazing thing I've learned from all these tests is that I have the RELATOR talent. What does that mean? Essentially, it means I tend to cultivate deep friendships easily AND I need those friendships to sustain me.

That flies in the face of everything I ever believed about myself as an introvert. About five years ago, I had a blog and I had several comments from readers that their favorite entry was titled "The Tyranny of the Extroverts". It was pretty funny. I'll see if I can dig it up and "re-print" for tomorrow.

Strengths Finder 2.0

I've already done several things on this journey of self-discovery, but the thing I think I've found the most valuable has been an exercise called Strengths Finder 2.0. This analysis model is based on more than 50 years of human observation by Gallup scientists and the premise is this:

• If you're in a job that plays to your strengths, you're far, far more likely to be good at it and to enjoy it.
• So, the first thing you need to do is identify those strengths.