[This post is part of a series on principles to create ideas people want to help you with and creating a helpful, supportive community around you. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.]

I’m developing a course on how to get a job doing what you enjoy. Like the leadership class I’m piloting, it’s exercise-based. It walks you through how to find something you like, create a project based on it, which generally turns into a passion, and then share the project with a community in a way they support you and often want you as part of their team.

So far four people have gotten jobs doing the exercises and one person got their project funded. Everyone loves doing it, finding ways to act on their passions beyond the old advice to send out resumes to everyone you can and to network aimlessly without passion. Come to think of it, I don’t think anyone has used a resume for this process.

Email me if you want to know more. It will take me a few months to finish the audio before I can pilot it, but I’ll pilot it eventually.

Along the process, I’ve developed four principles I’ve found govern the process. Understand them and you’ll understand how to generate ideas and create a supportive community around you that sees you as a problem-solver.

• More important than personality is skills you can learn
• Better than a great idea is an okay idea plus listening to your market plus flexibility
• The idea of a lifetime comes once a month
• Involving people attracts and engages them. Pitching leads them to judge

Like all principles, you have to practice them to internalize them so you can use them, but they may help guide you.

I’ll follow up with a post on each principle.

• ← Why convincing rarely works and usually backfires
• Non-judgmental Ethics Sunday: Can I Hide My Beliefs During Jury Selection? →