A happy ending

What happened to that young female journalist who wrote a guest post on my Forbes blog?

Last week, I published Lauren’s story: “How to Be a Journalist in 2011.” The post was terrifically popular, but, as it turned out, what happened next was the best part of the story.

Today, I received an email from Lauren, which she gave me permission to publish here, about what happened after her story went live.

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The invisible woman

Today on Forbes, I tell you how to get an invisible job. Tricky business, it is. It's "How to Get a Job That Doesn't Exist."

TIP #1: Have no idea what you want to do.

These days, everyone has an answer for you when it comes to looking for a job. Your resume should look like this. In interviews you should say this, but you shouldn’t say this. It’s OK if you email this person, but you must never email this person. Wear this. Do this. Don’t do that. You did that? You’re doing it wrong. If you pay me $250 an hour, I will help you do it right. I’m a life coach. I give career advice. I’m a professional blogger. Do it my way or fail. If that doesn’t work? You’re not doing it right.

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My radical change

I moved to Chicago. I'm writing about it on Forbes: "How to Start Over Again (and Not Screw Up)." Join me while I change, won't you?

There are a lot of excuses that you can think of why you shouldn’t do anything. Why radical change isn’t right for you. Why radical change may be an interesting idea, but it’s not realistic, not for you, anyway. Because you have a mortgage, and a family, and a job in an office. Of course, Matt Scott had a lot of excuses, too. Like not having working legs. If you can discern between challenges and excuses, it’s easier to make radical changes than you think.

Because, really? Radical change is all in your mind.

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Supermarket

Everything is from somewhere else.

I get email

"You reinvent yourself by letting go of who you wish you could be and figuring out who you really are."

Ms. Breslin, knowing who you are does absolutely nothing for changing a woman's lot in life, compared to the willingness to change in difficult ways. Women's blogs are *full* of the celebration of who women really are, all the while lamenting the gap between "who they are" and "how they wish the world would be." This is bad strategy: it fundamentally ignores change. To risk the tautology, you cannot change and remain the same, and the blogs you excoriate do precisely that by ignoring the fundamental questions of "what does success look like, and who do I need to be, i.e., what habits must I therefore cultivate (excellence being, after all, a habit), in order to achieve that success?"

-- One of those scary males.

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