I Shouldn't Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know Read Free Page B

greater when you follow a course that you’re totally passionate about. Because passion energizes you, creates clarity about your choices, and makes you fearless. And it provides plenty of pleasure. Of course, it also has to be something that pays the bills—unless you’ve got a nice trust fund.
    I was passionate about writing and editing from the time I was little. At about seven I started writing plays and stories, and also producing little newspapers and minimagazines. By the time I was in high school, I was fantasizing about moving to New York one day and becoming a magazine writer or editor or author.
    But just because you might not have figured it all out before you’re twenty-one doesn’t mean you’re at a huge disadvantage. It often takes people a while to discover their true passion, and that’s fine. You don’t want to get stuck toiling for years at something that barely stirs your libido. It will be tough to ever feel satisfied or grab the success that could be yours elsewhere. Plus, the longer you stay on a career path you’re not excited about, the harder it will be to shift gears into an entirely new area. Why not start thinking now about where you really should be? If a bad economy makes it difficult to act on your idea, you will at least be poised to move when things improve.
    Fortunately, there are a few tricks for figuring it out. Even if you’re pretty sure of the answer already, these are good to have up your sleeve. That’s because over time, you may feel an urge or need to try something brand new but may not be sure of the possibilities. Or you may have a general sense of what you want but haven’t nailed down the specifics. These strategies should help.
    Be a glutton for unusual, even weird experiences. From interviewing women for one of my previous career books, I made a fascinating discovery—though it didn’t occur to me until the book was actually published. Most of the women, I realized, had found a career they loved not by contemplating what would turn them on but by bumping into it someplace out in the world.
    If you haven’t found your calling yet, the best thing to do is get your butt off your chair, fill your life with a wide array of unusual experiences, and allow yourself to bump into what will exhilarate you.
    This advice may seem a bit contrary to what you’ve heard elsewhere. When you’re about to finish school (or are further along in your career but feeling restless), well-meaning family members and friends will often suggest that you “think about what you want” or grab a legal pad and list the pros and cons of a variety of fields. Or someone may direct you to a book such as What Color Is Your Parachute? , which suggests that you fill out pages of a workbook to determine your calling. That may do the trick for some people, but as I said, it’s not how many of the successful women I know figured it out. And the “bump-into-it” way is a hell of a lot more fun.
    One of my former fashion editors described this serendipitous approach beautifully. I asked her one day how she had decided to become a fashion editor. My assumption was that she’d probably always loved clothes as a girl and had gone to some kind of fashion school. Her answer took me totally by surprise. She said that she’d actually been an art major in college and had graduated with no clue as to what she wanted to do. She and her boyfriend had decided to head to Africa, just for the adventure of it. They were traveling around Egypt by bus, and at one of the stops they came across a fashion shoot for a European magazine. As my fashion editor stared at the stylist who was dressing the models, she had a eureka moment. That, she realized, was what she wanted to do. “Sometimes,” she said, “you have to be on the bus to Cairo to know what you want.” I love that story.
    You don’t have to take her advice literally by heading to Cairo, but you should hop on the bus metaphorically. Have lunch with