The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success

DO YOU JUMP OUT OF BED EVERY MORNING AND RUSH TO A JOB YOU LOVE?

Or is the work you once enjoyed now just a way to pay the bills? Perhaps you're even doubting your career choice altogether. Let The Pathfinder guide you to a more engaging, fulfilling work life. Based on breakthrough techniques developed by Rockport Institute, an innovative and award-winning career-counseling network that has changed the lives of over 10,000 people, The Pathfinder offers invaluable advice and more than 100 self-tests and diagnostic tools that will help you choose an entirely new career -- or view a current job from a new, more positive perspective. You'll learn:

* How to design your new career direction step by step so that it fits your talents, personality, needs, goals, values, and is, at the same time, practical and attainable
* How to deal successfully with the "yeah but" voices in your head that keep you going back to the same old ill-fitting job, day after day
* How to land the perfect job in your new field, plus tips on writing a really exceptional résumé, personal marketing, and networking (even for those who hate to network)

Whether you're a seasoned professional in search of a career change or a beginner just entering the working world, you want to make the right choices from the beginning. No matter where you are in your journey, if you want work to be more of a dance than a drag, The Pathfinder will expertly coach you through the process of designing a career you will love.

As a career columnist and coach I've spent the last decade researching to find innovative career development tools. Most of what has been around for the last 25 years is job finding focused. If you need help with choosing your career direction, traditional tools will fail you miserably. All my mid-career clients who've been through the high school and college systems say, "There really isn't much "life direction" counseling going on!" The more recent career books on the shelf have made attempts to fill this gap, but most of them make only small improvements to traditional tools that never really worked. Nick Lore has upped the ante . . . raising the bar of the career counseling profession to a whole new level.

The Pathfinder is brilliant. Nick Lore's insights into human nature had me bursting into laughter, laughing at myself, and completely rethinking what a "career" is. Much like how transformational movies stick with you; Lore tugs on your heart and soul; you'll never see your career in the same way. Despite your fears, he inspires you and gives you powerful tools to do something with your life. Nick Lore is a witty storyteller and social scientist who has invented a way to get you moving in the right direction. Intuitively, you get that the depth of Lore's tools and inquiries can only come from someone who has committed himself to a life's work. Rockport Institute's approach to measuring innate talent and aptitudes is pure genius. Lore exudes a genuine-ness rarely seen, and you can tell the he has lived and breathed this stuff. On top of all that, The Pathfinder is wonderfully written and even has cool illustrations.

I've been using this program in my private practice, my clients all say they wished they had this before they went off to college and majored in the wrong field. They are getting results, and changing their lives . . . simply amazing. Once you've "done" this book you'll wonder why it hasn't yet become a key component of our educational system. In this regard, I highly recommend The Pathfinder to successful, but unhappy professionals, hard to please dreamers, and anyone who knows something is missing in their work but can't put their finger on it.

To better guide future high school grads from the frustrations of spending lots of time and money on a degree that doesn't fit, I also recommend this book to the US Secretary of Education, high school counselors, college career centers, and parents. Dear fellow career professionals, you are going to love this book. As a writer I quote from this book constantly, recommended it to my mother at 59, and use it exclusively with my career change clients. If you're between the ages of 16 and 102, The Pathfinder just may well become your pocket guide for living an extraordinary life, or just keep hoping the answer will come someday . . .


I'M A TOUGH CRITIC... REALLY TOUGH CRITIC   July 26, 2000
Rene' Munday (Seal Beach, CA United States)
243 out of 261 found this review helpful

I've read a lot of personal development books & used a lot of personal development tools. More than most people-- make that MUCH more than most people. I guess I figure that the way to continually become a smarter person is to find a REALLY smart person & listen to what they have to say. I don't typically rave about books, I've never posted a review on Amazon.com before but with this one I just HAD to.

Nicholas Lore is brilliant. His book spoke right to me. It could not have been a better training session if he had been sitting with me in my living room. His advice is right on, so painful at times it hurts...so true to life at times that you'll laugh out loud. An excellent resource to help you take a good hard look at your life, your goals and your ability to have a career that leads to a lifetime of satisfaction & success. He helps you discover all of the right questions to be asking yourself... and he does it in a FUN way. I read it cover-to-cover in one weekend. And I did most of the exercises twice.

This book is not over anyone's head. Nor is it written below anyone's comprehension level. It's straight forward, from the hip, talk about how to want it, plan it and get it. I'd recommend it for anyone who is committed to investing the time & effort to help yourself grow.

At $14 this book is a steal (oops, I hope Nicholas isn't reading this). Invest in yourself!


This is the very best career decision making book   October 25, 1999
113 out of 119 found this review helpful

I'm a career counselor in private practice, working with mid-career changers and young people making these decisions for the first time. This is one of only two books I recommend to my clients. "The Pathfinder" is the only book capable of completely guiding an intelligent person through the process of choosing a career direction. The author is probably the best career coach on the planet. He is a sort of humorous, down-to-earth Zen master, who understands you completely, and knows how to get you to look into all the areas of your life that are important to consider in making a great career choice. These days, many of the best career coaches/counselors/guides base their way of working with their clients on his methods. The book is both profound and practical. It will work for you if you are seeking a life of meaning and purpose and also if you simply want your career to fit you "like a custom-made suit".


THIS BOOK DESERVES TEN STARS   August 1, 2000
111 out of 115 found this review helpful

I am a career coach with eight years of experience working with people wanting a new career - a better fit with their talents, more meaningful, a better work environment. I have to admit that, at times, I have felt that there was something important I didn't learn in my master's program in counseling. I have used books such as Parachute, Zen and the art of... and many others. They are o.k. but not great. I read a review here where a career counselor highly recommended The Pathfinder. I got it and it has changed my life completely. This is by far the best book for you if you are deciding on a career or thinking of changing, if you want a very fulfilling life and are willing to go for it. This book is about having not just a great job. It is much more than that, a book about having a great life. The author is a genius. Besides that, he has the wisdom of a real Zen master, but unlike most wise men, he has no pretensions about it. He is just a regular person, and very cool at the same time. Most importantly, The Pathfinder is the only book I have ever found that can actually take you through to the point where you have actually decided what you will do with your life. Get it. You won't regret it. I now use it with all of my clients. Not only is this THE book for people making their own choices, it is also the best book for people who want to be more skillful at helping their clients do so - coaches, therapists and so forth.


Lengthy, yet oversimplified   October 25, 2001
One Man's View (Lawrenceville, GA USA)
111 out of 134 found this review helpful

Career counseling books always dangle the "perfect" career in front of readers knowing full well that at least 99 percent of Americans do not have and probably will never have a perfect job. According to this author the benefits of a perfect job seem to be unlimited: a longer, better, and more vital life; an elevated self-esteem and sense of humor; a life that counts; etc. Of course most of us by that standard are leading substantially diminished lives. But all is not lost because it is only your lack of courage or cynicism that prevents you from reaching the rarified air of the perfect career. The author's key question is, "Are You Up For It?" Can you give yourself up totally in your perfect job quest to coaching either via this book or a professional, which dovetails nicely with the author's career counseling business.

The path that the perfect job seeker must follow is daunting to say the least. Three primary lists of "wants, requirements and commitments, and questions" are to be maintained in a large notebook and filled via a rather vaguely specified manner with any number of self-assessments in such areas as your innate capabilities, personality, traits, decision-making technique, etc as well as assessments about the external world.

The biggest problem with the entire approach is that the author attributes far more expertise to people in assessing themselves and in knowing and controlling their environments than they have or even could have. Personalities, traits, and other personal characteristic often do not fall clearly on one side of the fence. In using the Myers-Briggs Indicator one may be both intuitive and sensory oriented or use both perception and judgment. Or it is quite conceivable that one is comfortable using both spatial and non-spatial or concrete and abstract tendencies. The distinctions between tribal vs. maestro and introversion vs. extroversion seem better drawn, but mapping personality assessments into jobs is far more complex than the author indicates.

A huge shortcoming of the book is the clear implication by the author that employees or potential employees can assess and control workplaces sufficiently to find perpetual job happiness. Workplaces in the U.S. have never worked that way. Your true happiness is not of much concern to employers. Few, if any, workplaces have formal structures in place with legal-like rights that permit employees to modify both the broader work environment as well the specific nature of their jobs. As it is now, most, if not all, of the adaptation must be made by the employee which runs counter to the main argument that the employee should not be doing what he or she is not wired for. Most jobs upon entry probably cannot be a perfect fit unless one is just lucky. The key is the flexibility to change the job and the environment to suit the person and still be an asset to the company.

The book has areas that could be applied more broadly than just in finding the perfect job. The author's model that depicts human behavior as going through cognitive filters and being subsequently modified via feedback from the comparison of actual versus intended consequences of the original behavior is interesting. The idea of executing a cycle of accomplishment of creation, action, and completion by creating goals and implementing projects has a very practical ring to it. The author also has an interesting chapter on the life-games that people play including the notion of one or more "master" games.

In lieu of suggesting that the lack of job happiness is due to poor personal assessment capabilities or strategies the author could have described the situation in European countries where high school age kids are permitted to sample apprentice programs and select one if so inclined. In addition some European countries have regional employment centers that perform some of the functions of assessing skills, paying for new or additional training, and placing workers. There is the recognition that requiring the unemployed to fend for their own has its limitations.

The author acknowledges "Given sufficient intelligence, the average human can do just about anything with reasonable competence." But what he did not say is that given adequate institutional support from an educational system, employment centers, and from a formal system of employee empowerment, most people would probably be able to find or create pleasing work. Dangling the "perfect job" concept in front of people without realistic tools or power to get there is not particularly helpful.