Jonathan Fields started his career as a big firm attorney. Since then he has worked as a personal trainer, built a successful Yoga business, written a popular blog about online marketing, and this week, published his first book Career Renegade. You can find more of Jonathan's writings at his blog Awake at the Wheel. Jonathan graciously spent some time talking to us about his amazing career path.
1. Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind your new book? Why write about career renegades? (Tell us your Lawyer-to-Yoga story.)
About a dozen years ago, I was working as a six-figure NYC lawyer, when the stress from the job literally sent me into emergency surgery for a perforated intestine. When your body literally rejects your career, now that’s a huge wake-up call.
When I returned to the office, I began making a list of potential career paths based around things I’d loved to do throughout my life. Problem was, conventional wisdom said most of those things wouldn’t let me earn enough to support my family in New York.
But, rather than giving up, I decided to leave the law and dive into the healthy living business. I started out as a $12 an hour personal trainer, but within about 18-months, I’d launched my own facility and was making great money again. Not long after, I sold that company, took a year off to write, then decided to once again turn my growing interest in yoga into my next big adventure. So, a few weeks after 9/11, in the heart of NYC, I launched a yoga studio and, over 7 years, grew it into one of the most successful centers in the country.
A few years ago, with the studio largely running itself, I focused back on my deepening passion for writing, blogging and online marketing and business. And, since, everywhere I went people wanted to know how I made the jump from law to fitness to yoga and online business, I figured it was time to put everything I discovered into print.
The real heart of Career Renegade, though, is a detailed process that lets you turn nearly any passion into a living and shows you how to create a powerhouse personal brand or "Brand of One" online.
2. What are some of the common objections people have to switching careers? How would you answer those objections?
Honestly, the big one is that people just get really comfortable where they are. Inertia tends to rule most people’s lives and they fear change. Though, at the rate this economy is serving up change, more and more people will have to take action.
Fear of the unknown is another. Can we succeed at something new or different? We tend to start asking, "what if I fail?" Problem is, that question will always give an answer that shuts down action. You’ve got to also ask, "what if I succeed?" and "What if I do nothing?" Then, answer each in detail and you’ll better armed to overcome the fear side.
Another is a lack of time to learn what’s needed or to find or build the next big adventure. Bunk! Okay, for the person who’s working three jobs to put food on the table and pay the rent, that may be valid. But, for everyone else, it’s not a time thing, it’s a priority thing. The average American spends 2-4 hours a day in front of a TV (which is now evolving to non-productive computer time, too). Meanwhile, massive amounts of information and relationships await, untapped, online, all-around you. Try swapping TV time for renegade every day for a month and you’ll be blown away by the progress you make toward your next career adventure.
3. What if I'm not sure what I'm passionate about? How do I discover my true calling?
I don’t believe most people have one true calling. Maybe a precious few do, but most could be happy and fulfilled doing a wide variety of things.
It’s more about discovering the activities, people, processes and settings that have made you come alive throughout your life, that deliver you into what famed psychology professor, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi calls your "flow" state. Once you know these things, then finding careers that sync well with those qualities or creating your own path becomes much easier.
In the book, I actually walk you through a short, simple process, but one critical step is to de-couple the question of passion from income, at least in the beginning. Try this, ask yourself, "if I won the lottery, but a condition was that I had to keep working full-time and I couldn’t use the money to fund a business, what would I do?"
When you ask that question, ideas often start to tumble forth, because you remove the income filter. Then, your job is to go renegade, get creative and figure out ways to earn what you need doing those things. The good news, these days, that’s become easier than ever. It’s no longer about "if", but "how".
4. Do you think the Internet has made it much easier for people to change careers or work for themselves? If so, why?
Hugely easier. We are about to see a wave of kitchen table, online entrepreneurship sweep this country like never before. Not gimmicky, get-rich quick schemes, but real people leveraging the internet to both open us a worldwide market for what they love to do and brand themselves as the go-to person. Interestingly, when I was writing the book, I started to move a lot of my business and personal branding online, so the book ended up sharing a ton of strategies to do just that.