Finding the Sweet Spot

"It's an act of high hubris to ask a vitriolic critic of print publishing, and of professional advice-giving, and of mindless entrepreneurship like me to read a book of advice for entrepreneurs--unless it's a good and useful book, like this one. No advice can change the world, if you leave it on the shelf. But if you read this you can see the crucial threads Dave Pollard has woven together. And then maybe you can change the world. Go do that."

—Bill Tozier, Vague Innovation, LLC, and co-founder of NotAnEmployee.org

"Now what am I going to do?" is a question many people ask—and leave unanswered—at critical potential turning points in their careers.

Perhaps you’re a new graduate, but instead of lining up for a boring entry-level job at a big corporation, you wish you could start your own sustainable and responsible business. Or maybe you’ve been stuck in a job you hate for a few years, but you still dream of doing the thing you love and that you’re actually good at. Or maybe you’re a boomer and you’re ready for a second career, a personal venture that will represent a total change from what you’ve spent most of your work life doing.

Whatever your situation, this is the book to help you get started. Finding the Sweet Spot explains how sustainable, responsible, and joyful natural enterprises differ from most jobs, and it provides the framework for building your own natural enterprise. You’ll learn how to find partners who will help make your venture successful, how to do world-class market research, how to innovate, how to build resilience into your enterprise, and how to avoid the land mines that sink so many small businesses. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to find the "sweet spot" where your gifts, your passions, and your purpose intersect.

And make no mistake: our world needs your talent. The current economic system and the educational system that feeds into it have let us down and are destroying our planet. We need a blossoming of natural enterprises—connected, collaborating, and supporting ventures—to form a dynamic new natural economy.

Is such a thing possible? Inventor, entrepreneur, and humanist Buckminster Fuller said: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." Finding the Sweet Spot presents a new model. Use it to find the work you were meant to do, thereby helping to create the world we’re meant to live—and make a living—in.

About the Author

Dave Pollard

Dave Pollard spent twenty-seven years with Ernst & Young LLP as practice leader and advisor to entrepreneurs and then as chief knowledge officer and member of the firm's Strategy and Innovation Group. He recently became vice president of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (the counterpart of the US AICPA), with responsibility for research and professional guidance on sustainability, entrepreneurship, and governance. His popular environmental and business blog can be found at howtosavetheworld.ca. He lives with his family in Toronto, Canada.

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