True Fit?

I want to scare you as you embark upon the next stage of your life.

Up until now you have followed a well-trodden path with some direction and a few choices to make along the way; and now as you prepare to graduate, some of you will go on to higher education while the rest will without a doubt be seeking a job. My advice for you – be you, the world will adjust. I want to give you permission to start thinking differently and to find the right fit for you, instead of trying to fit in; to find a job that lets you be you and do the things that you are good at most of the day, and requires a little effort on the things you are not good at.

After I graduated from Queen’s University I spent my entire career in the financial services industry, culminating in becoming President of CIBC Wood Gundy at the age of 37. After having been a trailblazer in building and starting businesses, one day I found myself at the end of a barrel with the words “we can’t live up to your expectations or aspirations.” I had been fired, and the long and the short of it was that I DIDN’T FIT.

I didn’t even really know what fit was, not until it happened to me again at the Bank of Montreal when after two years as a vice chairman I was gone again. I was forced to take stock and figure out what people should pay me for, and that began a wonderful journey to find my True Fit, while helping others find theirs, by using four simple steps.

My new book True Fit is available on-line and in all bookstores. 

Amazon.ca
Chapters.indigo.ca

How to Hire the Perfect Employer: Book Launch

I am delighted to announce that my book How to Hire the Perfect Employer: Finding the Job and Career That Fit You Through a Powerful Personal Infomercial has just been published. This book has been a long time in the making but finally having a copy in my hands makes it worth the blood, sweat, and tears it took to finish it.

I’m proud of this book and I believe it’s going to change people’s lives.

If you asked me why I wrote the book, I’d have to say it was for two main reasons.

First, because the process I describe in it—how to find your best fit in a job and career—has had such a major impact on my own life. For so long, I felt out of kilter in my work. Not only did I not fit my work, I didn’t think it was even possible to fit. (Ever felt the same way?)

I had some successful and exciting days in corporate life, but I also spent time on the outside looking in. I went through the painful process of taking responsibility for my life and figuring out why I didn’t fit and how and where I could fit. I emerged from a dark period to create a business that makes me so happy each and every day. If only I had discovered this earlier!

And my second reason? Because I’ve seen this process make such a genuine difference in the lives of the many people I have coached. It doesn’t matter whether they’re inside or outside the finance industry, already in a job or looking for one, new to the workforce or toiling at the most rarefied of senior levels—it works. My process is helping people take responsibility for themselves and their careers and for how the world sees them.

My book holds out hope to people caught in the very sad reality of work life today, the reality that only the tiniest percentage of people are actually doing what they truly love to do. My overall message for everyone reading my book (and this blog) is: You can find your fit and love what you do.

I hope you’ll order a copy of the book, and please stick around on the blog to glean as much as you can. I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, and comments, and I’d really hope that I can help you move toward a career that really fits.