About Me and The Dream Work Project

The Dream Work Project was created from my passion for helping people find work that they are meant to do!

Over the years I have seen and talked to so many people that HATE their job.

As a matter of fact even to this day it is very hard to find people who love what they do.

Why is that?

I ask myself that question every day and have for the last few years.

How it all started

It really started several years ago when I found myself at a place where I simply just wasn’t happy at work…AGAIN!

Truthfully I have always found it difficult to find work that I truly loved even though I have had my fair share of jobs (everything from bartending to investment banking).

But here I was again working at a job that paid well, had good benefits, and had a clear path for advancement but something was missing.

I wasn’t really sure WHAT was missing but I began to wonder why I was feeling that way and what exactly I was missing.

As I looked around at my coworkers some of them seemed happy but the more I talked to them the more I realized that most of them weren’t really overly happy at work…they were really just “content”.

This was truly puzzling to me.

Didn’t anyone around me really love their job?

The more people I talked to the more I realized that MOST people are really dissatisfied at work.

As I began to look inward and wonder what it was that was missing from the work I was doing I found myself on a road of self discovery that would last for years to come.

The Frustrating Road To Finding Meaningful Work

After talking to so many people who really disliked their job I became obsessed about learning the reason or reasons why.

I began reading anything and everything I could get my hands on about the subject.

I was very disappointed when the books I read gave mostly vague advice, seemed outdated and didn’t really help at all.

I also would talk to anyone that would listen and began asking questions about why they liked or disliked their job.

The answers were all over the place and there didn’t seem to be a common denominator anywhere.

Was it pure luck that people found a job or work that they loved?

I then started to reach out to some professionals to hopefully find the answers.

After numerous conversations I knew I was getting nowhere fast!

I remember talking to career counselors about finding work that people are passionate about and how they were guiding people towards theses careers.

Some of them basically told me it was “wishful thinking” to really find a job you loved.

They said the best they try to do is to find people a good career path.

Thats all we can hope for? A good career path?

Call me crazy but it seems like there was something missing with this approach.

Sounds like settling to me so I kept on searching.

I was now bound and determined to find a job I truly loved no matter what.

The problem was I didn’t really know what that was.

Success…Finally! (sort of)

After spending a few years exploring different jobs (investment banking, hedge fund trader, mutual fund analyst) and continuing my research into job satisfaction I decide to make yet another career change.

I have been an athlete all my life and fitness is something that has always been a passion of mine.

At the time I was already a competitive bodybuilder and was helping a few friends of mine with their diet and workouts.

Some of the offered to pay me but I did it for free since I enjoyed it (hint! hint!)

I decided that this might be a chance for me to combine my passion for fitness with my desire to help people so I got certified as a Personal Trainer.

After getting certified I took off out of the gate on fire to help as many people as I could and it worked…for a short time.

At the time I didn’t really understand the concept of running a business.

I thought that my new certification and desire to help people was enough to become successful but I quickly learned that this wasn’t this case at all.

Luckily for me I figured this out rather quickly and began to see some great results.

Once I honed my business skills I began to generate new clients at rapid pace and received numerous awards for my efforts.

I was making great money and finally doing work I loved to do!

I was doing something I was passionate about AND I was helping people at the same time!

Its Time To Grow

After realizing that I had created a very good business for myself my next step was obvious.

I have never really liked working for other people so starting my own business was next on the list.

In quick order I became partners at one heath club, bought out struggling a personal training studio, purchased another personal training company and combined them to create a new fitness company in our area.

I recruited several trainers to join the team and we began building a great business.

Year over year we grew the business and expanded to a bigger location.

Business was rocking and we were looking for additional locations and the possibility of franchising when good ol’ 2008 rolled around!

Although the fitness industry holds up pretty well during a downturn in the market the HIGH END services like personal training can really take a beating.

Our business never really went under but we did have a significant drop in revenue for the next 12 months.

So as the economy continued to tank our landlord was hell bent on NOT working out any kind of deal with us.

As sad as it was we had to ultimately close up shop at that location and find a way to move on.

It was tough but it ended up not being the worst thing in the world.

Once we knew the end was near I ended up striking a deal with a gym owner in our area that wanted us to bring our personal training program into his gym.

We would bring our entire business (clients and all) to his gym AND take over running and growing his personal training business.

It ended up being a WIN-WIN for everyone!

When Passion Stalls

Once we got to the new location we quickly grew the business and with our new partnership we began looking for additional locations.

I noticed though that my enthusiasm was started to wane.

I figured it was just due to the stress of losing our studio and changing locations.

After a few more months went by I was still feeling the same way so I knew it was more than that.

I realized that my passion for the business had stalled.

I still loved the fitness industry but the day to day of running a gym and fitness studio just wasn’t firing me up anymore.

I still wanted to help people and still wanted to stay in the fitness industry but needed to figure out a different way to  do it.

I turned the day to day responsibilities over to someone else and began to market myself as a consultant.

I would help other fitness related businesses with anything and everything that would help them run a more successful business.

I quickly built my consulting business helping these businesses but after about a year and half I realized that I still just wasn’t totally happy doing what I was doing.

I finally realized that I was burned out on the fitness industry.

The Search for Whats Next

Once I began dreading monday mornings again I starting thinking about my next move.

The consulting gigs were good and they paid well but something was missing.

I was really good at helping these business but it still wasn’t cutting it for me.

I needed to do something else but I really was stumped this time.

So much like I had in the past I began to search for the next thing that I wanted to do.

I need something that I was fired up about again.

After a few long months of soul searching again it finally hit me!

The Dream Work Project is born!

For the past few years I have been trying to figure out just what it was that I wanted to do that would give me total fulfillment at work.

I knew I wanted to LOVE my job and I knew there had to be a way to find it.

I knew what is was good at, what my skills were, and that I wanted to help people in some way.

I tossed around tons of ideas and did countless hours of research.

During this time I was still “obsessed” with this whole “doing work you love” thing.

I was actually helping more and more friends (and friends of friends) figure out how to find more meaningful work.

Almost everyone said the same thing once we started to work together.

They would say things like “man I wish I would have known this stuff years ago” or “wow I never knew how to figure this stuff out but this makes perfect sense”.

Several of them began to say “you should be a coach” or “man you should teaching this stuff to people” or “you know people would pay you to help them do this”.

After hearing it 3 or 4 times in one week I began to put some serious thought into it.

Then I realized what I had done over the years.

I had actually created a system or “framework” if you will for helping people find the work that truly fired them up!

After thinking about it a bit more It became obvious.

I had always enjoyed it but I soon began to realize that my true passion is to help people find and do work they love to do!

This was my “next” thing that would get me out of bed before my alarm went off on Monday mornings.

Once it was clear I immediately went to work and started creating “The Dream Work Project”  to help people find or create (and become successful) doing the work they love to do!

Are you ready to find the work you love?

If so I hope you will join me.

 

-Drew