As my blog audience grows I have had the great pleasure of connecting with some of the amazing career development professionals in the field. Martin Yate, a household name in this industry and I had a great conversation recently about his new book.  Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of 11 job search and career management books. His newest publication - Knock ‘em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World is a must-read for those looking for clarity about career choice and the bigger picture.

According to Martin, there are three paths to building a successful life:

1. Core Career: Building a career working for companies that pay salary and offer vacations, benefits, and some degree of professional growth.

Core Career Reality: There is no real job security, but it is still the most secure route to middle-class success.

2. Dream Career: It can be anything you want, from writing the Great American Novel to becoming a cellist in the Vienna Philharmonic.

Dream Career Reality: A dream career should be something that gives you joy, puts the juice back in your life. By definition hard to achieve, it should not replace a steady means of making a living; besides, that core career has all kinds of valuable lessons that will help you realize your dreams. If you hope to live that dream, you have to turn it into realizable goals and a plan of action: actual steps you can begin to take to get you from here to there.

Everything starts with a dream, and stays that way over many years as you work steadily toward it. It ceases being a dream the moment you start to make money from it: At that moment you become a creative entrepreneur and your dream career transforms into an entrepreneurial career. It happens, and if you are the creative type, which all entrepreneurs and businesspeople are, you’ll soon latch onto another dream, knowing you crave the juice it brings to your life. 

3. Entrepreneurial Career: When you work for yourself, there’s no employer between you and the money. The closer you get to the source of money, to bringing it steadily in your own front door, the closer you are to economic security.

What can I do differently? Profit prevails over all and loyalty is nonexistent. The best way to ensure success is to be an entrepreneur and have greater control of your destiny.

According to Martin, “If you want to increase your chances of financial independence, your core career is just that: central to your success, but it’s not the only path to achievement. Pursue your core career with dedication for the rewards that success can bring you, but your core career also functions as the training ground for your pursuit of parallel dream and entrepreneurial careers.”

So, many of these paths Martin describes can exist simultaneously and parallel to your core career.

Martin is a master at providing strategies for winning your next job but in his new book he will take you on a journey of discovery that will change the trajectory of your career life. I firmly believe in sharing exceptional resources with my network and it’s a pleasure to recommend Martin’s new book as a fabulous resource for your personal career library.