was I going to do now?
I walked out of the ballroom
and into the greenroom where my
wife was playing with the kids. As
soon as she saw my face, she knew
something was wrong.
“Oh no! What happened? What
went wrong?” she asked. She
expected me to tell her that my
computer crashed in the middle of
the presentation, that I had forgotten
what to say, or that I had told a joke
in the presentation that completely
bombed. My response stunned her.
“Well, uh, I don’t have a job
anymore,” I said solemnly.
The next few weeks did not go
as expected. Remember, we were
in Michigan—we had driven to
Michigan with three small children—
and we were fifteen hours away from
our home in Colorado. We didn’t
know if we should cancel the book
tour and drive back to our house, or
if we should try to keep going. My
family was only 13 hours away, in
North Carolina, and it sounded good
to both of us to go somewhere where
we could have support. So we drove
to North Carolina. We figured that
being near family would be the best
place to begin trying to figure out
what was next. As you can probably
imagine, it was a long 13 hours. We
were hurt; we were angry; and we
had no idea what we would do next.
Although most people think
that becoming an author means
becoming instantly rich, it doesn’t
work that way. My day job is what
allowed me to pursue my dream job.
So when I lost my day job, I ended up
losing my dream job too. We didn’t
have enough money to go on a
book tour. We didn’t have the space
in our budget to travel the country
and speak for free. So instead
of promoting my book, I began
promoting my resume.
Right now, I’m the COO of
a company that runs a family
entertainment center, restaurant
and hotel. We employ a hundred
or so people—and they all seem
to be looking for their dream jobs.
The majority of our staff falls into the
category of people “in transition.”
Many know exactly what their
dream jobs are. Many others have
absolutely no idea. And it’s not just
the young adults—I also work with
men and women in their twenties,
thirties, and older who are searching
for something better—a job that is
fulfilling and exciting. From my limited
experience I can safely say that most
of the people who work with me are
looking for a dream job, and many
are having a hard time finding it.
Why are we looking for a dream
job? There are deeper reasons—
like the pursuits of fulfillment and
purpose—but one of the most
obvious reasons we want a dream
job is that our culture says we should
be able to find one. Take a moment
to search for other books related to
dream jobs or discovering God’s call
on your life. You will find numerous
titles, all of which imply that they’ve
discovered the one-size-fits-all formula
to discovering both your dream job
and the will of God. You will notice
that a lot of the covers include a
compass or a street sign to imply that
they’ve found our direction—they’ve
done the work and discovered the
path of God for our lives. Yet you and
I both know that there’s not a formula
to God’s will. We’ve read these
books, and they’ve failed to deliver
the answers we are looking for. That’s
Solutions 57