Mitchell - The 10 laws of career reinvention: essential survival skills for any economy

PRAISE FOR

THE 10 LAWS OF CAREER REINVENTION

Use Mitchells 10 makes-sense laws as your guide to opportunity.

ThePalm Beach Post

Mitchells advice is spot-on.

The Dallas Morning New

Pamela Mitchell, CEO of The Reinvention Institute, expertly pairs personal stories of career 180s with practical advice for how you, too, can veer off courseand still be OK. She doesnt promise itll be easy, but of all the useful tools she offers, her honesty is the best.

Harvard Business Review

Although there are at least 1,300 career coaches nationwideand countless books on career changeMitchell is among a handful who are pioneering a new spin on the concept: lifestyle reinvention.

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After reading Pamela Mitchells book, I am left with an overwhelming feeling that anyone can reinvent their careers and their lives by following this simple step-by-step instruction manual. Easy to read, easy to follow, easy to succeed.

Norm Brodsky, senior contributing editor for Inc. Magazine and author of The Knack

Move over, What Color Is Your Parachute?this book is the new go-to guide for career changers!

Lauren Doliva, managing partner of the Chief Advisor Network of Heidrick & Struggles

In The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention, Pamela Mitchell shares the secret strategies that successful Reinventors use to land on their feet, even in turbulent times. If you want a practical plan for a richer career and lifein any kind of job marketread this book.

Barbara Stanny, bestselling author of Secrets of Six-Figure Women and Overcoming Underearning

Its never too late to rewrite your script and Pamela Mitchell is the perfect person to show you how. If The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention doesnt make you stop worrying about the future and start taking action to create your dream, nothing will.

Lois P. Frankel, PhD,
author of Stop Sabotaging Your Career
and Nice Girls Dont Get the Corner Office

PRENTICE HALL PRESS

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While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright 2010 by The Reinvention Institute

Text design by Sabrina Bowers

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

PRENTICE HALL PRESS is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

PRINTING HISTORY

Dutton hardcover edition / January 2010

Prentice Hall Press trade paperback edition / January 2011

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Dutton hardcover edition as follows:

Mitchell, Pamela, 1964

The 10 laws of career reinvention : essential survival skills for any economy / by Pamela Mitchell.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-1-101-17117-2

1. Career changes. 2. Vocational guidance. I. Title. II. Title: Ten laws of career reinvention.

HF5384.M58 2010

650.14dc22 2009036177

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If you require legal advice or other expert assistance, you should seek the services of a competent professional.

Most Prentice Hall Press books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write: Special Markets, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY GRANDPARENTS,

ROBERT AND JANE LOU REED:

THANK YOU.

Every new beginning comes from

some other beginnings end.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

W ith the exception of the ten profile stories, most of the names and some personal details in this book have been changed to protect the identities of the people involved. The inspirational quotes used throughout are not meant to suggest an endorsement of this book by those artists and authors.

Special thanks to Alton Brown for graciously agreeing to be interviewed for this book.

Jeffery Rudell story: 2009 Jeffery Rudell

10% of the authors net royalties from sales of this book will be donated to charity.

T here are no more safe industries. The ability to reinvent your career at any moment is the newand onlyform of job security. Even when you desire change, the familiar always exerts a powerful magnetic pull. But when the world is changing and you are seeking refuge, career reinvention is your safestand often your onlychoice.

In The Prisoner, a 1960s British TV series, a spy wakes up one morning and finds himself in an outwardly pleasant, picture-perfect seaside village where each day is like the last and nothing unexpected ever happens. A person could happily live there forever. The villagers are all contentexcept for Patrick McGoohan, who plays the spy. He senses menace beneath the placid, homey exterior. There is no free will, no opportunity for change or possibility for growth, and no way to leave. Whenever he tries to escapesay, by swimming out to seaa big white balloon bobs up and nudges him back to shore. This isnt paradise. Its a prison. Yet the balloon could have hauled those villagers into the water and pushed them out to sea, and most of them would have swum back to the comfortable jail of their seemingly perfect lives.