Career Rehabbing

Over the past several years, riding the train between downtown Chicago and the far western suburbs, I have noticed one amazing thing: The neighborhoods around the tracks have been slowly changing.

Back at the turn of the millennium, all along the train route west from downtown there were rundown, industrial buildings in major disrepair. They were not yet falling down or structurally unsafe; they were just old factory buildings and warehouses that had not been used in probably 50 years. Given how those buildings were built back in the day, they were probably in excellent structural shape and had 200 years of good use still left! And talk about location ... wow, just a mile or so from the heart of the bustling south Loop area.

All these buildings were brick or concrete, but all were an eyesore and abandoned, not being used for anything. There were weeds growing up around them, no windows or broken windows, these buildings were a mess. Riding the train every day, I watched as a funny thing happened over the past seven years. It happened slowly, but it hit me today when I was looking at the buildings again, now in their final state. I took a moment to check the neighborhood and was very, very impressed.

FROM INDUSTRY TO HOME

There are at least four major buildings right along the railroad tracks (and many more as you get further north and south of the tracks in the neighborhood) that over the years have been converted into multi-family living space. The buildings have gone from basically places you would not want to walk past (much less go inside) to wonderful and inviting condominiums 10 stories high, with balconies and gas grills, big glass windows, workout rooms and so on.

As I watched construction over the years, I wondered if anyone would ever buy the condos in those buildings, knowing how it used to look. But it didn't matter. It only mattered how it looked TODAY. To my amazement, every unit is now occupied -- in all of these buildings! And the neighborhood itself looks better.

The units are gorgeous. We have looked at a few, and they would be a fantastic place to live. In short, this entire neighborhood went from a very negative place to a very positive place in a few years -- all because of investors who saw these buildings and said, "We can do something with this." They SAW the POSSIBILITIES of what COULD BE and then acted on it. It all started with an idea.

FROM HOME TO CAREER

Isn't that the EXACT way to turn your career around? The same principles apply. Your PAST has NOTHING to do with your future. The rundown buildings had NOTHING to do with the NEW Condominiums. No one cared about the rundown buildings. The buyers saw the NEW Condominium buildings and loved them, snapping up every one of them.

While your past is with you as far as experience and construction of your character go, you can totally reinvent yourself on the INSIDE starting today, right now. Your past can be used as a SPRINGBOARD to a fabulous future, IF you can visualize it like the developers of those buildings did back in the year 2000. They saw a shell, a character they liked, and built out the units and presented them to the new prospects -- and it worked. It is all about VISUALIZATION of WHO you can be in the future.

You can do the same. Spruce up your ideas, change your attitude, move from negative to positive in order to attract the new buyers. There are people ready to "buy" you today. Someone desperately needs your service; they need exactly what you can do for them. They need you for how you can help them achieve their goals. Rehab your ideas, crank up your creativity, and set your career in positive motion.

It's never about age or location of a building. It's always about character, possibility, what's inside and vision of what COULD be in the future. Make the changes on the INSIDE of you, and watch your success take off for the better! It all starts with an idea.