The get ready, get going guide to navigating career change and doing work you loveNew York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff has drawn millions of online fans who love his refreshing mix of humor, honesty, and wisdom about the world of work. Now he offers his most important book yet, a guide to making big career changes—by choice or necessity—and escaping the horrible feeling of being trapped in the wrong job.Acuff finds it amazing that people spend more than eighteen years studying and preparing for college, but little or no time honing their careers between graduation and retirement. He offers an empowering tool he calls the Career Savings Account, which will change the way readers think about their skills, relationships, character, and work ethic. He also shows that if you’re on the wrong track, you already have what you need to change it—even if your family and mortgage mean you can’t simply pick up and move for a new opportunity.Throughout the book, Acuff features inspiring and funny true stories—not merely his own, but those of friends who restarted their careers after a layoff, an extended maternity leave, or simply the realization that they were suffering fifty weeks a year just to pay the bills and enjoy two weeks of vacation. Everyone can benefit from Do Over, from new graduates to fiftysomethings and beyond.
Jon Acuff is the New York Times Bestselling author of eight books, including Soundtracks, Your New Playlist, and the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.
When he’s not writing or recording his popular podcast, All It Takes Is a Goal, Acuff can be found on a stage, as one of INC's Top 100 Leadership Speakers. He's spoken to hundreds of thousands of people at conferences, colleges and companies around the world including FedEx, Nissan, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Chick-fil-A, Nokia and Comedy Central.
For over 20 years he's also helped some of the biggest brands tell their story, including The Home Depot, Bose, Staples, and the Dave Ramsey Team.
Jon lives outside of Nashville, TN with his wife Jenny and two teenage daughters.
I really really enjoyed this! I've been following Jon Acuff since the Stuff Christian's Like started a while while back, and I've been wanting to read one of his books but haven't had the opportunity to read one of his books yet. When I saw this audiobook was on overdrive AND was narrated by the author, I knew I had to listen. I'm not in the midst of a do-over, nor am I planning to be anytime soon, but this book still had a lot of really good knowledge that I will remember! I love Acuff's style of writing - it's hilarious and easy to retain, and he goes over the major points of each book at the end of the chapter to reinforce the point. I'll remember all the chapters about character the most - that translates into normal life as well! CHARACTER MATTERS! Overall a really really solid read. Would suggest if you are struggling at your current job, looking for a new job, or looking to improve your work situation all around. There's a lot of good content. A LOT.
-Disclaimer: I won this book for free through goodreads giveaways in exchange for an honest review.-
Could have been 40 pages rather 256. Would have been better as an advice blog post. Rather wordy and boring. He rambles on and takes forever to get to the point. I didn't get anything out of this book like I wanted. That is why I gave it 1 star because it didn't serve it's purpose as a self-help book.
I always loved the fact that Jon's writing is more than mere inspiration. Instead, it's practical truths, steps and stories that adjust my perspective on professional life and teach me how to live it out.
Look guys, I've been having a lot of trouble falling asleep lately, and listening to self-help audio books helps (sometimes).
But I have good news: This book does NOT contain secret Jesus! It's a career self-help book that is literally just about improving your career! Honestly I thought the book itself was so-so (not mind blowing or anything), but the fact that the author didn't talk about Jesus until the acknowledgements bumped it up a star in my mind.
The good: Acuff suggests building a "career savings account" full of relationships, skills, and hustle. He goes through each section with pretty detailed chapters.
The not great: He doesn't actually discuss what a career do over might actually be or look like, so a lot of the advice just feels like general career advice. Still, it's solid advice.
Worth a read if you feel like your career has stagnated! And no secret Jesus!
I was torn about whether to give this four or five stars. I love Jon Acuff, probably because he reminds me of myself. That being said, there is a lot of good stuff in this book as well as some "meh" stuff. Definitely worth the read for people starting out their careers.
While on the one hand this book reads like many of your standard business, self-help, follow-your-passions books, it brings something slightly more to the table. I read books like this and enjoy them, but my career trajectory is in its baby phases and I'm quite is satisfied with it. Accordingly, books about Reinventing Monday or Finding The Work You Love never quite apply to me. This book targets that audience but also offers practical, useful advice I found good for right now, not for some vague future. I'd give this one 3.5-4 stars as a business book, add .5 for humor, and then another 5 because I found it so relatable. In particular, when he was describing how much he hates e-mails and details, I was shouting, "YES! THAT IS ME." I also feel like he offers good advice about managing mentors, cheerleaders, and casual relationships. This book offers very sound advice about what networking really looks like. I guess if I have one complaint, it is continued use of phrases like "empowering tools in your Career Savings Account." I feel like there should be a ™ sign after that. Career Savings Account™. It wasn't this book specifically, I just dislike books that take deep concepts and feel the need to give them Catchy Titles™. You lose me when you start talking about social toolboxes. Anyway, hesitantly bumping this up to five stars for personal applicability, in general a solid read. It is definitely worthy of the Seth Godin/Dave Ramsey crowd it aims to run with.
Jon Acuff clearly thinks he's funny. Luckily I agreed with him or this book would have been rough going. Basically the idea is that you have 4 things that you can use to build a career: people you know, stuff you can do (skills), your character, and grit/hustle to make the other 3 useful. Not really any great revelations, but the way he leads you through thinking about what you have working for and against you was good.
Honestly, this felt like a waste of time to me. Most of the material seemed painfully obvious to me, and I didn't get much use out of the material that was covered. Then again, I tend to find that about most business writing, and I tend to avoid it at this point, if I can. If you simply don't have any idea about how to manage your professional life, maybe you can find some ideas here. I didn't find it patently awful, simply not particularly useful.
I heard Jon Acuff on the Becoming Something podcast and I was interested in reading one of his books. It was quite timely, since I am starting in a new position in my company in 2 weeks. I enjoyed the casual writing style of this book as it felt like a friend was encouraging me to build up a Career Savings Account. I liked how much he emphasized the power of attitude when it comes to any type of job. I also enjoyed the sections on hustle & the importance of relationships! Overall 4.3/5
كتاب رائع و جاء هدية من صديق عزيز في يوم كنت احس فيه بأحباط شديد، اجمل هدية :)!
الكتاب لم يأتي بأشياء جديده كليا، و هذا شي ليس سيئ اطلاقا! هو فقط اخذ افكار معروفه، رتبها، و قدمها للقارئ بشكل منسق و لطيف مدعوم بتجارب و قصص. في الحقيقه حنا ما نحتاج افكار جديده دائما، حنا فقط نحتاج شخص يذكرنا فيها بشكل لطيف و مرتب.
ركز الكتاب على فكرة البدأ من جديد في حياتك الوظيفيه\العمليه بشكل خاص و حياتك بشكل عام. الكاتب جاء ببرنامج بسيط جدا ينظم افكارك لرحلة البدأ في حياتك العمليه و اسماه "حساب الادخار الوظيفي" Career Saving account.
ببساطة اذا اردت ان تنظم افكارك و تبدأ بتحسين وظيفتك، اتبع النصائح اللتي قسمها الى اربع اقسام رئيسيه Relationships Skills Character Hustle
مثلا في قسم المهارات، يلقي الضوء على المهارات اللتي نملكها و قد لا نعلم ان نملكها، و كيف انها قيمة و تساعد كثيرا في تقوية فرصك بالحصول على وظيفة ممتازة او عمل خاص ناجح. و في قسم الشخصيه، تكلم عن كيف يجب ان تكون نظرتك للأمور و انك انت الوحيد القادر على تغيير ما حوله.
ادري ان الكلام السابق قد يبدو انه يحمل الكثير من الكليشيهات و تقريبا هي كذلك، لكن الكاتب اتقن توصيل افكاره بشكل لطيف و سهل للقارئ.
قد يعيب الكاتب تطويل بعض النقاط التي قد لا تحتاج هذا التمديد، خصوصا في اخر ثلاث فصول .
I could have used the wisdom and insight in Jon Acuff's engaging book at several points in my work life. I've had a number of "do over" experiences. I listened to the audio version of this book and enjoyed the entire book cover to cover.
Everyone needs a career savings account--whether they are content with their current position or looking to make a change in their job. The information in this book is easy to digest and valuable for every listener. I highly recommend this book.
Probably the tightest book Jon has written so far. It's a must-read or anybody looking to improve their career, whether they want a do-over or not. Sometimes we have do-overs that aren't our choice, and that is addressed. Essentially to grow your career you need to invest in four key areas: relationships, skills, character, and hustle. Jon walks you through all of these.
I want to give this as a college graduation gift - it's excellent! Anyone struggling with their career or even those who just want some inspiration to be better should read this. It's short, it's full of practical, doable advice and it's funny.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I found the author's tone to be too flippant. At one point, I had the audio book on in the kitchen, my husband overheard a few minutes and said "Wow, that guy sounds like a huge jerk." Well... yeah, he sorta does.
Upbeat and funny and best of all, packed with really cool advice! Acuff says lots of stuff you didn’t know that you needed to hear.
As indicated in its title, this one was written to specifically address those encountering career ‘transitions’ such as bumps and ceilings, but I think there’s good advice here for even those who love their job, but just find the spectre of Monday mornings dreadful. In a nutshell: grit, hustle, positivity, and keeping gossip to a minimum makes the workplace environment an enduringly pleasant experience.
He’s very honest and unafraid to use examples of his own failures and shortcomings to illustrate what not to do. I’ll definitely be seeking out Acuff’s other books for both advice and entertainment.
way too simple and basic. this is another one of those self help books with simple advice, being paraded as phenomenal. write down your goals, ask questions to people who know more than you, be nice and generous to people, socialize and network. I have read too many self help books. perfect for beginners.
Made it halfway through this one and then gave up. I liked what he had to say, but they way he said it bugged me. Too digressive and trying to be funny.
This is one of this handsome author’s career advisory books. The other 3 are: “Start”, “Quitter”, and “Finish”. You got the picture? 😆 The book is very easy to read and sometimes is also very funny. As I am now semi-retired, I first thought this would not be useful to me at all. But I was surprised that I really enjoyed reading it and almost (just almost!) wanted to think about a do over myself!🤣 There are so many good career management advices that I had to note down, as they are going to be so helpful for me to use in training or coaching. The book is structured based on a chart that forms the 4 investments on Career Saving Account (CSA) during 4 different situations (career ceiling, career bump, career jump and career opportunity). Hitting a career ceiling and getting stuck, requires sharp skills to free yourself; Losing a job unexpectedly requires strong relationships to survive; Making a job jump requires solid character to navigate the chaos that jumps always generate; Having a surprise opportunity you didn’t see comming requires smart and dedicated hustle to take advantage of it. The 4 investments are: Relationships = who you know; Skills = what you do; Character = who you are; Hustle = how you work. And the formula that links all 4 investments is: CSA = (Relationships + Skills + Character) x Hustle In the absence of one investment, the other 3 never reach their full potential. The writing is logical and the points made are very solid. Apart from... I would like to think that resource consolidation and knowing the direction of the “wind” blowing (macro world economy, local market development and own life vision) should also be mentioned. Also, there are some confusions between skill, attitude & character, and generosity & compassion... Otherwise, there are hardly any other point that I could lay an argument on. Overall, it really is a very good self-help book about managing a career Do Over! Do you find your job boring? Are you looking for a better job? Do you want to build a better career? Or you are thinking about a complete new start to a different lifestyle? This book will give you some good advices if you got time to read! If not, just read my note below...😁 You are very welcome! My notes: General: - We were told to work jobs not build careers. - We are afraid of unknown; we grow stuck in the known. If we fight fear and become brave, fear will concede the loss but mutter under its breath as we pass, “it’s going to be really hard; maybe you should be complacent.” If we fight our inertia and hustle, complacency will concede the loss but mutter under its breath as we pass, “It’s going to be really scary; maybe you should be afraid.” - Learn the hardest lesson of chasing a dream. When you go for it, you don’t escape fear, you land in it. Fear is not a dragon to be slain once; it’s an ocean to be swum daily. Defeat the fear we all feel, by writing them down, responding to them with truth and punching them in the face. - Choose your attitude and adjust your expectations. Choose your attitude every day until eventually it chooses you right back. Don’t listen to feelings, but make choices. - Making sure you enjoy work isn’t your company’s job, is your job. Rescuing Monday isn’t your company’s job, is your job. Having a meaningful career isn’t your company’s job, is your job. What happens each day at work doesn’t get to determine your attitude, you do. Attitude is a decision and is a decision you have to make every day, sometimes every hour if that particular day is especially whack. Investment on Relationship: - We tend to focus on the things that feel more in our control like skills and hustle rather than relationship. To believe that being intentional about a relationship is selfish and manipulative, is to believe that being lazy about a relationship is humble and nobly motivated. - Differentiate and deal with the 3 kinds of relationship: Foe, Friend and Advocate. - Foes are either clueless or calculated. Sometimes they are just madly jealous that you are changing and they are not. Just tell them honestly what you are trying to do and how you would love their help. If they stay as foes, give them distance. - What about bad bosses? Forget gossiping and come planning... 3 advices: 1. Improve your work performance to see if it improve your relationship; 2. Admit that you are an employee; 3. Dare to find a better job. - Friends are we all need help from and the only way they can is that we give them information, the truth. Our friends are not mind readers. If you want to have better friends, increase the frequency you see them on their terms, not yours. Own the inconvenience of being friends. Great people surround themselves with greater people who challenge and stretch them. - Advocates can tell us all the cheat codes we need, if we listen. Their job is to give us advice and our job is to act on it. Don’t try to impress your advocates, you’re trying to learn from them. Give them access to your life and allow them to question hard on you. People who can’t be questioned, often end up doing questionable things. Ask your advocates “what is one piece of advice you’d give to someone like me?” or “what did you wish you knew about this work when you were my age?” - Some bridges needs to be closed, but you don’t light then on fire. Simply walk away from them and end the relationship. The fewer bridges you burn in your career, the better your CSA will be. - Easy times don’t test the strength of a relationship. Investment on Skills: - Skills a hammer. They help us break through ceilings. Bumping into a ceiling isn’t failure; it is training. The ceiling is actually the Jungle that keeps most people away from the hidden treasure. The ceilings are designed to filter out the lazy and uncommitted. The ceilings are designed to test your mettle and see if you really have what it takes to finish anything and break through to the next level. - The goal of your first job is to teach you how to have a job. There are so many little invisible skills to learn when you start working. Show up, be there, add value and exceed expectations. Own your attitude. - Never engage in useless power struggles do use those photos on purpose and win the relationship instead. Express gratitude, show consideration for others, focus on what matters, play to your strengths and everyone else’s, be flexible, respect company’s gears, continue your education... - Chasing a dream always requires learning new skills. Learning a new skill can reveal a new dream. How can you know you love doing something if you don’t try it. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty before you can know what your passion is. Learning something new always leads somewhere new. If you want a new job, better job or your dream job, you need to learn new skills. - When learning a new skill, give yourself permission to be a tourist, not an instant expert. What do tourists have in common? They asked lots of questions. They don’t pretend to be something they are not. They don’t feel the pressure to know everything. They are excited about experiencing new things. And they have fun! It’s not easy to learn something new, but approaching it like a tourist makes it a lot easier. - Two ways to choose a new skill to learn. Either by necessity or curiosity. Necessity is for the “should skill”. Curiosity is just the opposite, a skill born out of desire, something you’re interested in trying, a “could skill”. - Once picked, start it. Once you’ve started, it’s a lot easier to continue. The more you can turn an important skill into a repeatable habit, the more you can trust the power of autopilot. - Investment on Character: - A better job begins with building a better you. Strong character is not the only way to win; it is just the best way. - It is your character that will push you forward. It is the one that leaves you with relationships intact. It is the one that protects your name and reputation. It is the one that make it easier to sleep at night. - Build your character like planting your trees in an orchard. The trees need to be planted, watered, tended, and deliberately grown. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now. - In the tree orchard, you need to pull out 4 weeds as fast as you can: narcissism, dishonesty and pessimism and apathy. The weeds we can’t stand in others are often the weeds we’ve been ignoring in our own orchards. - When you make a jump, you will be tempted to cut corners, to quit when the going gets tough, and lose your patience when the results you expected don’t immediately happen. - Become the type of person people want to work with. Be generous, empathetic and present. - Give generously of your time, talent and resources without keeping score. Show up in someone else’s life first. Don’t assume generosity is a weakness. In the long run, greed always costs you more than generosity. People want to know we see their needs and we actually think they warrant attention. That’s what empathy does; it makes people bigger. - To understand people and what they need, you don’t have to be an expert in every product, you just have to be empathetic. Embrace empathy and then combine it with generosity. - Believe that everybody is the same. The people you work with or work for are just like you. Want more empathy? Know more stories. The key to knowing someone’s story is believing the real one, not the one fear tells us. Read less minds, ask more questions. Don’t just try to guess what someone cares about, take a shortcut and ask them. - When you admit you were wrong or made a mistake to the people in your life, most of the time they already knew. The weakness you think you are revealing like a secret have been apparent to the people you work with for years. The thing we’re afraid to lose by apologizing to coworkers - respect - is often what you end up gaining. Being honest earns you more respect from people than if you just pretend you have no faults. Own your mistake, so you can start working on it! - Quit “putting people on pause”. By looking down at your phone in the middle of an interaction, you are telling people “Pause right there for a moment. There is something more important and more interesting than you that I choose to focus on.” - Take note on a piece of paper at any meeting you attend, so you will not attend to your phone. Make a habit to ask at least one question at any meeting you attend, so you are engaged and forced to focus on what is being presented. Investment on Hustle: - “Music is in the piano only when it is played.” By Jack Gilbert - “Hustle” is simply shorthand for “work hard”. If your career were a car, it will be the fuel. Hustle stirs up more opportunities and when you have one, you hustle hard to blow it up as large as it can possibly be. - Great lives are very rarely created in great comfort. The words “easy” and “adventure” very rarely travel together. - You are capable of far more than you think. Because anyone who hustled discovered they were. How to apply hustle? Grit, awareness and flexibility. - Grit is simply being brave when you don’t feel like being brave. Grit never feels like bravery because grit is a choice not a feeling. Fear hates hustle. Nothing enrages fear like deciding to actually work hard. Fear loves day-dreamers and can’t stand day-doers. Hustle knows you have to do the work others don’t to enjoy the results others won’t. Hustle tries. Then it fails. The it tries again, because of grit. - Grit is being stubborn in the face of fear. Grit is the first time you try something, and is the thousandth time too. Grit is believing in “can” when “can’t” is loud. Grit is expecting fear and moving forward anyway. The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear, then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. - Instead of listening to fear, throw some grit back in its face. Instead of saying “I don’t have what it takes.”, say @I have what it takes to try.” We all have what it takes to try and trying is the only way you learn how to have what it takes anyway. Grit is simply the act of trying, and in many cases, trying again. Don’t wait until you feel brave to hustle; choose to hustle until you feel brave. Face the fear of today, instead of the regret of forever. - However, there is a thin line between hustle and hassle. Busyness is not the same thing as hustle, either. Hustle isn’t simply doing more. Hustle could be “less but better” - “the disciplined pursuit of less.” Use hustle as a scalpel, to remove things from your life not just to add things. - It does not mean fast, but focus, intention and pace. While keeping your head down and hustling on the work, raising your head and making sure you are going in the right direction. Hustle with awareness. - Be flexible with our dream. Remember the work you end up loving may not even exist now. Remember the future is going to change what we do and how we do it. And your dream will change over your lifetime, too! When the door slammed shut on your face, don’t be too proud to hitch up your skirt/pants and crawl through a window. - There is no such thing as a perfect job. There’s no job where you get to do only the things you love doing. There would be tasks, projects and activities you have to do in your career that you hate. Even in your dream job, you would have to do some things you don’t love. We admit we hate them, recognize the critical value of them, and then commit to do them. But hustle also doesn’t mean postponing fun. We do need to have some fun, because it will help us stay flexible and keep us from getting stuck and burnout. Look for some fun in your hustle, but never think that every part has to be fun. Fun is something you add to your hustle, not a filter by which you select which things to do. Conclusion: - Relationships get you the first gig; skills get you the second. Character is the reason that people will still want to give you another chance if the first opportunity fails. It is also the reason that when it all comes together, you don’t come apart, drunk on ego or success. Hustle is how you work on each of the relationship, skills and character. It amplifies relationships since frequency of the key to strong ones. It multiplies skills, giving you the push to learn new ones and the drive to sharpen old ones. It grows character because patience, generosity and empathy are not easy. Impatience, greed and selfishness take far less work but hustle won’t let you take the easy way out. - An do over or a career jump don’t always mean quitting your job. It could just mean doing something positive or voluntary, or trying an innovative tweak to your business model or working style.
For what this book is, it's good, maybe a 3.5/5 or 4/5.
But self-help and career books are not what I enjoy reading. I'm stubbornly suspicious of why there is a massive market of these books among Christians who read Patrick Lencioni, John Maxwell, etc...In this book, Jon Acuff offers readers plenty of practical tips and guidance in how they can make career transitions. Any drastic change like switching careers will be difficult and filled with anxiety, but Acuff strikes a calming and reassuring tone, keeping the mood light even when dealing with uncertain transitions. He stresses the need for relationships, skills, character, and hustle and shows how important it is to invest in relationships that can potentially help you one day as you initiate your own "do over."
But he tries too hard to be funny. I LOVED his earlier "Stuff Christians Like," but that was also because it was supposed to be comedic and it was fun pointing out the foibles in the Christian subculture. "Do Over" is a book about vocation, not a comedy, but Acuff throws in way too many attempts at being humourous that are not funny and that collectively make the book a lot longer than it needs to be. He tries too hard to be your bro. Also, perhaps I say this as someone who really hasn't entered the "real world" of career, but I think this book is primarily targeted to business people. There are stories of people who went back to school but for the most part, the people in the anecdotes Acuff uses seem to have a fairly easy time of transitioning from one job to another but if you majored in sociology or history in undergrad I would expect it to be difficult to switch careers to become a speech therapist or accountant because your university studies wouldn't have prepared you for that at all. I admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the book but I think it minimizes how much society values expertise.
Không chỉ về tình cảm, và cả thể chất cũng vậy. Bộ não chúng ta ghét sự thay đổi. Khi đứng trước sự thay đổi, có những phản xạ sinh học bùng lên trong trái tim và trí óc chúng ta giống như pháo hoa, dù tâm ta không có ý châm ngòi. Khi đối diện với sự thay đổi, phản ứng đầu tiên của chúng ta là nhanh chóng đưa ra những quy tắc dập tắt sự thay đổi ấy. Sự nghiệp thật sự rất khó khăn vì chúng luôn thay đổi, còn chúng ta thì không. Chúng ta có xu hướng sợ thay đổi, cho dù thay đổi đem lại lợi ích đến đâu chăng nữa, và cứ thế chúng ta lờ đi, chối bỏ chống lại chúng rồi gặp bế tắc.
Tài khoản tiết kiệm sự nghiệp = (mối quan hệ + kỹ năng + phẩm chất) * nhiệt huyết
Chương 1 nói về mối quan hệ rất nhiều điều hay ho, còn lại khá lan man.
This wasn’t my first Jon Acuff book and I’ve had the pleasure of being “that host” to invite him to speak to a group in my town. I was surprised when he left Dave Ramsey but so excited to see him back on the scene doing what he does well - writing.
His approach to hustle was also energizing! I’ve always considered myself a hustler - in the positive sense of the word. However, this was a reminder that I have to KEEP my hustle on to break through those perceived and real ceilings in the areas of my life where I feel like I’m struggling.
There’s plenty of work to do and this is absolutely another tool in my toolbox to which I will have to refer back in the future. I also have a small group of friends who will get this as a “read this next” reco.
There are some good points in here that applied to people who weren't looking for a career do over. In the event that I decide to do over my career I think I would rather look through a physical copy of the book as opposed to listening to the audiobook.
I love love love Jon Acuff but this book just didn’t do it for me. Jon is hilarious but he toned it down for this book and the advice just wasn’t hitting in my opinion. I may try again at a later date.
Really enjoyed this book! Great ideas for anyone wanting to grow in their career. One of the better career books I've read, if not the best. Emphasis on the importance of relationships, working hard, practicing gratitude in achieving success. Some of the ideas are intuitive but he gives really great specific examples of how to action them. Very encouraging - highly recommend.