Business
& Career: Know Your Ruling Star!
"Know your Ruling Star. One
man is better received by one nation than another,
or is one welcome by one city than another. He
finds more luck in one office or position than
in another, and all though his qualifications
are equal or even identical. Let each man know
his luck as well as his talents. Follow your guiding
star and help it without mistaking any other for
it. Know how to transplant yourself. There are
nations with whom one must cross their borders
to make one's value felt."
- Balthasar Gracian, (Spain, 1600's)
Have you ever felt, "Here I
am, best job I ever had, good money, an excellent
career move - but, what in the world am I doing
here where I feel so alone and out-of-place with
my surroundings? How did this happen to me?"
I've been there, because someone
offered me a job and I accepted, knowing ahead-of-time,
intuitively I wouldn't feel at home in the town
and surroundings.
Or - maybe you love your location
but, sadly, are unable to find any openings in
your field. I've been there also. Looking back
on my years in Austin, Texas, I can't believe
the number of short-term, soul-emptying jobs I
tried very hard and unsuccessfully do to. My job-duration
ranged from only two hours (which was long enough
when you hate what you are doing!) to several
months (each day seeming like an eternity) before
my opportunities in broadcasting finally came.
It's a rare person these days who
is able to say, "I love this community, love
my home, love the work I do, get along great with
my business colleagues and supervisors. How do
you beat perfection?"
There is a wonderful quote I repeated
to myself many, many times during my ups and downs
in Texas.
"Hence the first principle
in changing one's character is to seek another
environment, to let new forces play upon our unused
chords, and draw from us a better music."
- Will Durant
That's what I wanted! I wanted another
location - another place - where new forces could
play upon my unused chords and draw from me a
better music.
"There are nations with whom
one must cross their borders to make one's value
felt." - Gracian
Yes! Yes! Yes! That's what I wanted.
To cross borders and feel my native talents valued
again.
"Know your Ruling Star,"
the Spanish priest Gracian wrote in The Art of
Worldly Wisdom. "One man is better received
by one nation than another, or is one welcome
by one city than another. He finds more luck in
one office or position than in another, and all
though his qualifications are equal or even identical."
We are better received in certain
locations or areas than in others, welcomed when
we show up, and we most certainly do find more
luck in one place than another.
"But where, where, where is
THAT PLACE?" I wondered.
In Texas, for every 100% plus I
gave in my career, the returns (feeling valued,
appreciated, and being monetarily rewarded), always
fell short.
I hosted a noon talk show for awhile
at an Austin TV station. Our ratings were great.
The guests I booked were top names in the literary,
entertainment, self-improvement, and political
arenas.
After our ratings came in one spring,
I couldn't believe how well the show was doing.
Several days later, however, the
General Manager wanted to see me.
After all the years of my show's
success, he said, "James, I can't complain
about your ratings. That's good for ad revenue,
but I finally got a chance to see your show yesterday.
As you know I only have a tenth grade education,
never finished high school, started in sales,
worked my way up to where I am today." He
beamed proudly, "I didn't understand it."
I knew when he said, "I didn't
understand it," my show was doomed.
The GM was the standard by which
all business decisions at our stations were made.
I wanted to call him, "Idiot,"
but restrained myself.
My favorite line in Texas TV came
from a female news director who told me, "You
have a master's degree. We don't need people that
smart to do the news." I never worked at
that station.
"Let each man know his luck
as well as his talents. Follow your guiding star
and help it without mistaking any other for it.
Know how to transplant yourself," Gracian
reminds us.
Know how to transplant yourself!
Finally, I did transplant myself,
once again. It was time to move from the newsroom
and go into teaching; use, finally, that masters
degree referred to earlier that wasn't needed
to report the news.
"There is a simple answer to
the question 'What is the purpose of our individual
lives?" A.J. Ayer wrote. "They have
whatever purpose we succeed in putting into them."
Yet, if you believe you are being
guided by and toward a higher destiny, as I do,
use what others know (their gifts and resources)
to inform and enlighten yourself.
I've also successfully used relocation
astrology as an essential tool to follow my guiding
star. Through my sessions with Cait Benten, I'm
finding, as we'd all like to do, a balance of
the "right place" and the "right
work" combined.
"This time, like all other
times, is a very good one, if we but know what
to do with it." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
http://www.astro-earth-relocation.com
About The Author
Now, after a career as an award-winning
media communicator and as a university professor,
James has shared meaning-filled conversations
with film stars, recording artists, US Presidents
and first ladies, state governors, world-famous
authors, scientists, and people from most every
walk of life |
