Best Job Ever!

Chapter 21Money, Finances, and Your Career Change

The trick is to stop thinking of it as “your” money.

—IRS Auditor

Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.

—Robert Orden

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.

—Will Rogers

Money, bread, bucks, benjamins, bones … it is time to talk about one of the most important aspects of any career. It is the first topic to come up whenever a client shares they want to make a change: the issue of money.

“Money was one of the biggest concerns I had when I decided to change jobs,” Kyle told me. Kyle was a serious guy who rarely laughed. He was articulate when we spoke together about career change and was one of the few individuals who knew exactly what he wanted to do. A distinguished man at the age of 42, Kyle did not fit the mold of a college wrestling coach; his brown Chinos and Izod shirt would fit better at the local country club. His stature was more that of a golfer than a wrestler, but wrestling was what Kyle was passionate about. He had left his corporate accounting job to take the position of assistant wrestling coach at one of the top Division II wrestling programs in the United States.

When Kyle left his executive position at the energy company, he approached the head wrestling coach at the local university with the idea of becoming an assistant coach. The coach's immediate reply ...