Mike Gregory - The Career Chronicles: An Insiders Guide to What Jobs Are Really Like - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Over 750 Professionals

THE CAREER CHRONICLES

Michael Gregory

New World Library
Novato, California

Copyright 2008 by River Valley Ventures, LLC

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gregory, Michael (Michael G.)
The career chronicles : an insiders guide to what jobs are really like : the good, the bad, and the ugly from over 750 professionals / Michael Gregory.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-57731-573-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Vocational guidance. 2. Professions. 3. Occupations. I. Gregory, Michael. II. Title.
HF5382.G733 2008

First printing, May 2008
ISBN: 978-1-57731-573-5

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

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After several decades within the American work force, I was haunted by the fact that I hadnt selected the career path I truly wanted to follow.

By the time I was sixteen I had narrowed my choices to two: professional golfer and writer. I had made a hole-in-one at fifteen, so I just assumed that I had the natural talent to become the next Jack Nicklaus (this was long before Tiger Woods). What could be better travel the world while making great money doing something I loved? Unfortunately, I was wrong about my level of talent. I never really elevated my golf game beyond my abilities as a fifteen-year-old, and I soon conceded that I was clearly not good enough to live off golf winnings.

So I shifted to my second choice writing. It was also something I loved to do. The problem was that I didnt really know any writers, except through their writings. I had no one to talk to about writing, and no way to conceive what a career in writing was truly all about. I could have used a book like The Career Chronicles, with its hundreds of real-world observations of working life, but since I was unclear how to proceed, I abandoned writing as a career choice as well.

By the time I entered college, I was like millions of other college freshmen I did not know in what direction I should proceed with my life. But I had at least eliminated some professions. Anything in the medical world was definitely not a viable option, as I was never excited by science. And like any narrow-minded son, I of course eliminated any professions my father had chosen, so there went a career in aviation or insurance. When it came time to select a major, I decided on economics. Unfortunately, by the time I graduated from college, I regrettably realized that a career as an economist promised to be rather dull. At least for me, graphs, charts, and statistical analyses were not enough to make me want to jump out of bed in the morning.

Like many other college students who had not yet found a satisfying career path, I decided to attend graduate school. Since one of my favorite books and movies as a child was To Kill a Mockingbird, I selected law school for my graduate studies. I would be like Gregory Pecks portrayal of Addicus Finch dressed in a seersucker suit, a gold watch in my vest pocket, and with plenty of time for long, leisurely lunches and civic involvement. People would come to me with their problems, and I would dispense jewels of wisdom, for which they would be eternally grateful and would compensate me handsomely. My life would be orderly, socially meaningful, and intellectually fulfilling. Unfortunately, my Norman Rockwell image of the law back then was as far from reality as the plots and characters on the hit television show Boston Legal are today.

What I discovered was that the intellectual stimulation and fulfillment I had expected to find by practicing law were rapidly replaced by a stressful existence in which I had almost no control over my daily life. Instead of sitting at my desk dispensing jewels of legal wisdom or calmly researching the law in a quiet library, I was constantly being pulled in ten directions simultaneously.

I quickly learned that practicing law had two constants of which we as students were not fully apprised in law school. First, when people need the services of an attorney whether for the sale or purchase of a business, the negotiation of a contract, a divorce, or a criminal matter the issues they face are very critical to their personal or business lives. Clients arrive at a lawyers doorstep only because they cannot finalize the matter to their own satisfaction by themselves, and they are being pressured by life, if theyre not already in a crisis. Second, the procedural rules governing the legal profession, especially in the area of trial practice, are highly structured and time-sensitive. For an attorney, the net result is a work environment where all of your clients are anxious and competing for your limited time, and yet you are constantly having to rush from one matter to another so as to comply with all the procedural rules.

The more successful your practice, the more clients you acquire and the more intense the race to satisfy the pressing, competing demands of your clients and the law.

After two decades of court deadlines, demanding clients, late nights, working most weekends, missing too many important events in my childrens lives, and rarely having an uninterrupted vacation, I decided to stop and instead pursue the dream I had been carrying with me since I was sixteen. I wanted to write for a living. I had always felt that writing could afford me the type of daily life that I now desperately longed for the opportunity to be creative, to concentrate on one project at a time without endless interruptions, to experience the fulfillment of completing my own work, and to help others collectively, rather than one at a time, by producing works that engage and empower people.

Now that I have done this, I have found that I love my new career. Dont get me wrong. Writing isnt easy. The publishing world is a very tough business, and I have worked harder writing books than I have ever worked on anything else in my life. But for me there is something magical about it. I am constantly expanding my own knowledge and at the same time hopefully informing people and helping them reassess their lives and views. I enjoy my new work environment, too. I like that I can now literally work from anywhere, at my own pace, and listen to music while I am doing so.