I have been talking with folks about the Ten Step Program for Principled Career development for some years now.   And I realize there’s something missing:  the oomph behind the emerging industries that brings forth opportunity to match the demand for work that makes the world a better place.

This translates into the Eleventh Step:  citizenship.

What am I talking about?

It’s all well and good to wake up to your values and your special concerns about your community and the planet, to drive your career forward as an entrepreneur or a principled professional...   The process of continuous self-discovery that will be yours is plenty to rise to.  But the jobs and business opportunities will only be available, if the policy climate is welcoming to clean energy, sustainable transportation, local food, environmental health, conscious entrepreneurship and so on.  

As long as businesses win tax benefits by outsourcing good jobs, the employment picture in the U.S. will be challenging.

As long as the nation lacks a coherent energy policy the EPA is under attack for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, clean energy industries will be at a disadvantage compared to subsidized coal and oil.

As long as collective bargaining agreements that were won by tough negotiations, are swept away by hasty legislation, working people across the spectrum will feel the chilling effect, whether or not they are part of a union themselves.

If you want good work that benefits your community and the planet, you need to do more than look for a good job with the assumption that it’s out there.  You need to work to create a policy climate that builds demand for those good jobs.

In today’s divided country, there is one set of values that appeals to left and right - self-reliance, accountability, creativity, and purpose.  Taking a stand for the future we want, grounded in those values, can be revitalizing for the individual too.  As Paul Loeb writes in The Soul of the Citizen, “Again and again, I’ve heard active citizens say that what moti­vates them the most is the desire to respect what they see in the mirror. The exercise isn’t about vanity, but about values, about taking stock of ourselves and comparing the convictions we say we hold with the lives we actually lead. It’s about seeing ourselves from the viewpoint of our communities, the earth, maybe even God. If eyes are windows to the soul, and faces reflections of character, looking in the mirror lets us step back from the flux of our lives and hold ourselves accountable.”

This is tough talk - and in a tough economy, it’s more important than ever. 

I have been working too hard, thinking too much, and blogging too little.  On the Sustainable Hudson Valley site (my dayjob) I just reported a breakthrough and one triggering incident:  a friendly local business is installing its first green roof in our city.  The revolution is not something to be trying to foster from a distance - it's something to be in the middle of!  OK, I'm awake.

Another reason for blogging here, now, arises from 2 conversations:  one about the need, another about the way to address that need.

I last blogged at 5% unemployment; we're now trying to hold out below 10.  But with large employers tanking the worst, the hope lies in the small and creative enterprises. Entrepreneurship lives more vitally than ever.  Glenn Croston, PhD, author of 75 Green Businesses You Can Start  Now to Make Money and a Difference, just visited our region and did two well-received programs.  Glenn keynoted the huge Hudson Valley Entrepreneurial Expo at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel put together by friend Rob Lunski, CEO of Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows. In the community that GET serves, including people of color and low income communities, entrepreneurship is empowerment.  Green business support groups are a likely next step. 

Glenn also did a workshop for the Ulster County Business Resource Center, sponsored by the Work Force Investment Board together with the county's wonderful continuing ed program at the Community College.  This revolution isn't just high-tech and specialized entrepreneurs, it's for everyone!

So I'm committing myself to be more of an entrepreneur, and more of a spontaneous communicator, about how green businesses and career paths are opening up for more and more people. 

If the book can help.......

Midsummer news is focusing a fair amount on the grimness of the economy... highest unemployment in four years, over 5%.  A bad time to be thinking about values?

On the contrary.  This is the kind of period that reminds us why values are not a luxury...  your edge comes from your energy, and your energy comes from the openness of your stance in life.  Keeping your sights on the impact that your work can have, is more important than ever for your self-esteem - and marketability.

I shouldn't keep dragging out this image, but it's so lovely:  the character created by Dustin Hoffman in the film Tootsie, where an under-employed actor reinvents himself as an actress to snag the role that propels him to stardom. Before he gets there, he is teaching an acting class in New York, holding forth to a group of earnest wannabe actors.  He says, "Look, you are in the toughest industry in the world, and the most difficult city to get hired in that industry.  There's 95% unemployment in the theatre industry in New York. But hear me, none of that matters.  Find a way to work."

You may not catapult into that one dream situation... may have to  juggle gigs, get creative.  Make a list of lucrative enough part-time jobs, from catering to graphic design to real estate, and build in the one that fits best with your skills.  Do what you love one day a week even if you are doing what's necessary the rest.  But above all, don't assume that a vulnerable situation means you should immediately lower your sights. Sometimes there is a perfect niche right where your passion directs you.  Sometimes it's a singular opportunity - but you only need one!

Hey Everybody!

New Society Publishers just sent a smoke signal that somebody out there likes Making a Living While Making a Difference  Forward Magazine's Best Book Awards have included it in the 2008 Bronze category, with some impressive co-winners.  It's an honor and a vindication after a fair amount of work to get it right. 

Folks, the book is getting noticed here and there, if not yet far and wide.

A nice green review can be found here:

http://www.greenlivingonline.com/Reviews/our-favourite-books-of-2007/

More exotic and cool, though, is a request that just came from Asia!  It comes from Matt Nicodemus, my ex-coauthor and lifelong friend (we decided to stay friends rather than write the book together... it was his idea, and I hope to have done it justice)...

Matt is heading up the Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility in Job Decisions - Asia-Pacific Center in Taipei, Taiwan.  And he reports that a group at Soochow University is interested in using material from the book for (required) ethics courses!

Go Soochow!  Go Matt!