The Job Hunting And Career Success Formula

The New Job Hunting and Career
Secret Success Formula™
Intelligent + Innovative + Results Driven
Are you interested in discovering?

Created by Job Hunting and Career Problem Solving Expert, Best Selling Author and Thought Leader,
Jonathan Blain.

Secrets That Can Change Your Career and Life Forever
This amazing FORMULA is based on the truth. It can set you free, empower you, and enable you to
achieve a breakthrough, and the success and happiness that you desire.

A no-nonsense look at what’s really wrong with Job Hunting and
Careers today, how it happened, and how YOU can turn job hunting
and career failure into success, despite the tough economic
conditions, and your own personal circumstances which might
have been holding you back. Plus – why certain people get jobs
more easily more than you do, and how you can move rapidly from
being unsuccessful at job hunting, to being highly successful!

Finally….a new slant on how you approach your whole life and career.

Copyright Jonathan Blain 2012 www.JobHuntingAndCareerExpert.com Page 1 of 85

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Contents
A Personal Message from Jonathan Blain .......................................................................................... 4
About Me – Jonathan Blain.............................................................................................................. 16
My Journey from Job Hunting and Career Pain, to World’s Number 1 Job Hunting and Career
Problem Solving Expert.................................................................................................................... 30
Six Basic Secrets You Need To Know To Be More Successful ............................................................ 47
What is really wrong with job hunting and careers?......................................................................... 50
You Can’t Find the Cure Until You Properly Diagnose the Problem ................................................... 55
The Best Way Makes Sense ............................................................................................................. 57
Jonathan Blain’s New Approach....................................................................................................... 61
The Job Hunting and Career Secret Success Formula ....................................................................... 65
A new slant on careers and life and how you should approach yours ............................................... 72
Get More Help - Jonathan Blain’s Support Services .......................................................................... 82

84
Contact Jonathan Blain .................................................................................................................... 85


A Personal Message from Jonathan Blain

Hi There,

My name is Jonathan Blain, I am a job hunting and career problem solving expert, bestselling author
(11 Books / Over $3.8m Sales), and thought leader, founder of the Job Hunting and Career
Emergency Service, and author of the book: “Job Hunting and Career Pain Relief – How to Solve Your
Job Hunting and Career Problems.”

I am guessing that if you are reading this, you are facing one of three situations:

1. You are facing job hunting and career problems now.
2. You are worried that you might face job hunting and career problems in the future.
3. You are interested in how you can maximise your career success and happiness.

The chances are that you are most likely in situation one or two.

If you are facing job hunting or career problems now, you have my sympathy and understanding; we
are facing the toughest economic conditions since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and this time
the recovery looks like it could take longer, in fact there is probably a 50/50 chance that things could
get even worse before it gets better. The economic conditions most probably caused your
problems; you shouldn’t feel bad, anyone can be affected, the very best people, the very worst
people, young or old, senior or junior in almost every type of role, in almost every type of
organisation.

Whether you have problems now, are seeking to prevent them happening in the future, or simply
want to maximise your success and happiness, the things you need to be thinking about and doing
for each are all related, and are addressed in my overall solution.


Solving Job
Hunting
and Career
Problems

Preventing Maximising
Job Hunting Career
and Career Success and
Problems Happiness

Preventing and Solving Job Hunting and Career Problems and Maximising Success Are Connected

We are in the toughest global job market since the great depression of the 1930’s, where
unemployment in the USA peaked at 25%. In Spain unemployment is already at 25%, there are
simply millions of people around the world who are unemployed, and an entire generation of young
people seem to be suffering the most.

There Are People With No Job Hunting and Career Problems

There Are People Who Are Able to Solve Their Job Hunting and
Career problems Easily

There Are An Increasing Number of People Of All Ages and
Backgrounds Who Are Finding It Difficult To Solve Their
Problems

In the current climate, solving or preventing job hunting and career problems is not easy for many
people, although it appears easy for what seem like a lucky few, who appear to have no problems at
all finding new work. Sadly people who have never before experienced any problems getting work,
are finding themselves struggling to get results now, is this you? Many of things people are doing to
get jobs aren’t working, many people are doing everything that they can possibly think of to get
results, and are still failing.

The consequences of experiencing job hunting and career problems and not being able to solve
them; can be personal catastrophe, causing unbearable pain and suffering. You can only really know
what it is like if you have actually experienced it, and I speak from bitter personal experience. The
longer the problems continue, the greater the pain and suffering experienced.


• Can affect your health and wellbeing
Stress • Can cause depression even death

• Pressure that never goes away
Pressure • Intense

• Increasing Debt / Lose Security
Hardship • Quality of Life and Lifestyle Deteriorating

Frustration • When nothing you do works, frustration builds and
builds, self image and confidence is damaged

These are just a tiny selection of consequences of job hunting and career problems

You don’t realise quite how related job hunting and career success is, to your quality of life and
lifestyle, until it starts to go wrong.

Hope can quickly turn to despair, frustration, worry, stress, depression and debt can all increase,
health can suffer too, and for an increasing number of people, mental and physical health can
deteriorate leading to death. If you think I am exaggerating, you only need to look to the figures in
Japan where suicide traced to losing jobs surged 65.3%, during the 1990’s recession.

Suffice to say the job market is tough right now and getting tougher and getting results can he hard,
so what should you do, if you are doing everything you can possibly think of, and still not getting
results? Are you interested in knowing, not just about what else you can do, but what are the very
best things you could do, to achieve the best results?

I wanted to know what the best things you should do to solve your job hunting and career problems
are, and I am happy to share what I discovered with you. I had a burning desire to want to know the
answers; it became an obsession, an insatiable curiosity and ultimately became literally part of my
life purpose. You might have heard the expression about “leaving no stone unturned” in a search for
something; I wanted to leave no stone unturned, I found gurus who offered answers, I read every
book I could find on the subject, I dived into the internet to search for answers, I bought audio and
video programmes, I attended events, and then I sifted through everything that I found, and by and
large, I have to say that I was hugely disappointed.

I discovered the same old stuff, repackaged by different people, but amongst the same old stuff lay
some jewels, that stood out, that shone bright, that offered hope. It is like pieces of a jigsaw that are
missing, the picture is incomplete till you find the piece and insert it in the right place, to enable you
to get what you really want.


Your future success might depend upon finding and placing pieces of a jigsaw

One of the things I realised is that when you are looking for answers, your mind has to be ready to
receive them, or else you will never see them, never act on them, and never move forward from
where you are. I believe there is a tipping point, when you are ready and prepared to open your
mind to new possibilities, to see things in a different way, to think differently, which in turn will
enable you to change, and do different things or the same things differently and better.

Your tipping point might be achieved through anger and frustration, or you some event that
happens to you, or it could be that you reach a stage of enlightenment, where you are ready to open
your mind and embrace change. Often there is a point where you feel enough is enough, something
has got to change, and the thing that needs to change the most is probably you! There are still many
people who haven’t realised how tough the job market has got, who haven’t realised that solving
their job hunting and career problems might not be as easy as they hope it will be. It might be that
you need to fail and struggle first, and come back when you feel ready for something new and
different.

Have you reached a tipping where you are ready for change?

The fact that you are reading this is a good indicator that your mind is open and you are ready for
change. What do you think, are you ready for change, or are you still happy where you are, doing
what you are doing – only you can say?


Just because times are tough doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities. There are hundreds of
thousands of jobs, there just happens to be lots of people going for them. There are plenty of other
ways to earn a living too e.g. being self-employed, or a business owner, or an investor. Billionaire
Richard Branson has predicted that the next generation of billionaires with arise from the carnage of
today’s economic meltdown. There were many who made fortunes during the great depression of
the 1930’s including J Paul Getty with oil, Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mr Hewlett and
Mr Packard, and the slightly mad Howard Hughes, who ended up being worth $2.5billion.

At any point in human history, there are people whose personal stock is rising and people whose
personal stock is falling. If you think your personal stock is falling, you need to shift and make a
change, so it can rise again.

As with any crisis, there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty, an abundance of hindsight, but
a great lack of foresight. I believe the future is likely to be brightest, with those with the greatest
foresight; the ability to see things how they really are, to see where things are going in the future
and to make decisions based on common sense and logic, that stand the best chance of working.

You need to have foresight to think about the future

I am not suggesting any of us need to find a crystal ball that can see into the future, but given the
current economic climate, is it really unreasonable to predict that it might take quite a long time to
get better, and that there is at least a 50/50 chance that things could get worse before they get
better? Is it unreasonable to predict that there is likely to be competition for jobs for the foreseeable
future?


When you need greener grass, you need to move, to shift and change, or else you will stay where
you are, and if where you are is unacceptable – you’ve got a problem

If the world around you isn’t likely to change in your favour any time soon, what options do you have
for achieving a better result than you are right now in your job hunting or career management? The
way I see things is that you are two key and very clear choices, with a possible third choice a
combination of the first two:

“Continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result is insanity” Albert Einstein

1. You carry on doing what you are currently doing, and hope for a different result, which is
Einstein’s definition of insanity or
2. You do something different, either something new or something better.

I believe the great majority are carrying on doing what they are already doing, and hoping, perhaps
even praying for a different result. This is a valid strategy, it is perhaps not quite as mad as Einstein
suggests, sometimes the situation does change, and sometimes persistence does pay, and “the proof
is in the pudding”, many people get results doing the same things.


What however could be the result for you; if you decided to change, to do new things that you are
not currently doing, or to do the same things better? What if you didn’t follow everyone else, what
if you decided to lead, to stand out, to dare to be different and better, to take job hunting and
career management to a higher level? Do you think you might get noticed, and get better results?

Could you benefit from being different and doing different things to everyone else?

Probably the world’s top marketer, Jay Abraham talks about the “Curse of Conformity”:

“Look at any industry today and you’ll see why this is so crucial. Just about
every company in a given market niche does things the same way. They all
look the same and say virtually the same thing. Yet just about all of them are
hoping for better results. So they’ve quickly sized up their competitors …
figured out what they’re doing … then knocked them off.

That’s why their products … their marketing strategies … their ads and other
sales messages … are all nearly identical.

That’s why so many consumers have come to believe one company – and its
product – is as good as another’s.

And who’s to blame them?

In a copycat world, no one company or product stands out as really being the
supreme choice!

And when you join your competitors in this folly, you simply disappear from
your market’s radar screen. You blend in with the background. You become
invisible.”


In a highly competitive job market, I believe you need to stand out

Only you can decide what you think is right for you.

It is difficult to stand out if your proposition is the same, and you are doing the same as everyone
else. I believe differentiation is everything; you need to stand for something, be known for
something, and know who you are, what you are, what makes you different and how that difference
benefits the employer or others, and be able to communicate it effectively.

(Copyright Unilever)

You are better to be like Marmite that people love or hate, rather than being bland and
unmemorable

I can tell you what I have discovered, and what I think, but central to my proposition is that you have
to decide for yourself what is right for you, everyone is different and if I am totally honest, I have to
advise that there are many paths to success. I have problems with guru’s who say their path is the
only one, or even the best one.


“The majority of people will accept the need to stand out in today’s
competitive job market, but won’t make any significant changes in what they
are doing, that is great news for you, if you choose to change and stand out”.

I can help you, if you genuinely want to help yourself, but I can be of no service to you if you don’t.
We all hold preconceptions and beliefs about all sorts of things, about ourselves, about the job
market and the world around us. These beliefs and preconceptions can be either enabling or
limiting or something in between.

From the Film – The Matrix – Click Image To Link To Video

“You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want
to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole
goes”.

Sometimes in life you need to make your move and have the courage of your convictions

A scientist creates hypotheses and sets out to test them to see if they are true or not, innovators
have ideas and try and bring their ideas to reality to see if they work, entrepreneurs see


opportunities in business and take risks in trying to bring businesses to reality. Sportsmen and
women set out to be the best and win, to take things to new levels.

By nature, I am an ideas guy, an innovator, pioneer, entrepreneur and adventurer who sets out to
make things happen, a person who dares to dream, to create strategies and plans and bring them to
reality.

I see that most career coaches come from an HR / Recruitment / Personnel Background, with a
smaller number coming from sales and marketing, and they are all broadly doing the similar things. I
am not knocking these backgrounds at all, or what they do, I have had experience in all these areas
and think the experience is incredibly valuable and do some of what they do too, but I have had a
great deal of experience in other things too.

Would you like a metaphoric red pill?

I think now is a time for new ideas, new thinking and a new approach, and if you are open minded
and ready for change, I can be your guide and a source of inspiration and motivation.

I can bring a new perspective to job hunting and career problem solving, using the huge variety of
my experiences to provide a 360 view from all of the most relevant angles: I have been an employer
responsible for hiring hundreds of people in the public, private and not for profit sectors, for very
large organisations and SMEs too, I have been CEO of a Quoted Plc, I have been an entrepreneur
and made and lost £25m+, I have been an international bestselling author and thought leader, an
expert in leadership, sales and marketing, technology, innovation and creativity. I have also been a
recruiter, head hunter and Managing Director of a recruitment company which was a subsidiary of
a FTSE 100 company, but perhaps most importantly I have felt the pain and suffering of being a job
seeker in the current challenging job market, and achieved some extraordinary job hunting success
e.g. not just getting myself a job with a subsidiary of a FTSE 100 company, but actually going into
business with them as an equity partner.

I have achieved great success and also experienced painful failure in the real world. Nothing in my
mind, prepares you better than personally experiencing what the people you are advising are
experiencing. You feel it and understand it, because you have been there, got the T shirt and
perhaps the scars to show for it.


Professor Ken Robinson said: “If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with
anything original.” I have been wrong so many times it has hurt, but each time I have learnt and
become stronger as a result, and I have come up with plenty of original things, I am not frightened to
lead and push back the boundaries, I am prepared to share everything that I have learnt with you, if
you would like me to.

Have you questions you need answering? Should you have questions?

If you decide to come on this journey with me, I promise to tell you the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth, even if it is sometimes not always what you want to hear. I promise to tell you
what I have discovered you need to do to achieve a breakthrough, success and happiness. I promise
to take you not just to the cutting edge, but ahead of the curve, to the very boundaries of possibility.
I promise to try to lead and inspire you to create a vision for your own future that inspires and
motivates you, that fills you with excitement, and the energy, drive and determination to achieve
not just the career, but also the life of your dreams too.

I hope that you will create a strategy of how to implement your vision from the insights that I will
give you, and translate that strategy into plans that you can and will implement. I hope that you will
choose the path of greatest success, which will take you to greatness, as opposed to the path of
least resistance, which is most likely to take you to mediocrity. The path of greatest success involves
bravery, facing your blind spots, hard work, overcoming setbacks, paying the price of success, doing
whatever it takes to achieve success with integrity and honour.


If you are up for the challenge, if you want to be a winner and take it to the next level, let’s get
started.

I am giving you my Job Hunting and Career Success Formula for free, with a good heart and good
intent, because I genuinely want to help you, and as many other people as I can throughout the
world, to solve or prevent your job hunting or career problems and maximise your career success
and happiness.

Kind regards,

Jonathan Blain

Job Hunting and Career Problem Solving Expert
Best Selling Author and Thought Leader

 A thinker with curiosity who explores and searches for answers.
 An ideas guy, innovator, creator and pioneer, who continually asks; why, why not and what
if?
 A strategist who is able to create strategies of how to achieve things.
 An adventurer, who turns strategies into; plans and sees them through into action, results
and achievements.
 Always positive and usually enthusiastic able to persuade, motivate and inspire others.


About Me – Jonathan Blain

Hi there, I am going to tell you a little bit about my background, in as much of a nutshell as I can
manage, so you know a little bit about me the person, and where I have come from and where I am
going. I am then going to tell you about my own Job Hunting and Career Pain, how I got to become a
Job Hunting and Career Problem Solving Expert, and what drives me to want to help as many people
around the world to solve their job hunting and career problems and maximise their success and
happiness as I can, so here goes, it is an illustrative overview, but far from complete overview:

I was bought up in a middle class family in the UK. From an early age I had big bold ideas and wasn’t
frightened to try and bring them to reality. In my childhood, I was into Skateboarding, sailing and
boating.

Me going aerial out the top of a half pipe

I used to be able to do handstands on my skateboard and do aerial jumps out of the top of big half
pipes. I was always a pioneer, I was one of the early adopters of skateboarding in our town, and
created a skateboard club with friends, which got to 1,700 members, I love having a cause and trying
to make things better, we raised a load of money to buy a big ramp, we had the TV programme,
Nationwide come to our skating area, and we even managed to get the professional Hobie
Skateboard Team to visit us, who came all the way from the USA, to our little town in the UK.

I set up a number of businesses whilst at school, helped my Dad in his business, and had a part time
job as a sales assistant in BHS (British Home Stores) as it was then, which was a large department
store.


I was rarely shy – I nearly always had some ideas and something to say!

It is nice to feel like you are alive and really living sometimes – that’s me on the bow at the start of
a race from the UK to France and Ireland and back, which I did with my best friend in my mid 20’s

I loved sailing and boating, spending a huge amount of time at the sailing club, racing and trying to
win as much as I could. I was inspired by adventure, and at age 13, I set out on an adventure, and
walked 120 miles across Wales with my best friend. My mum still can’t believe she let me do it, but I
was always persuasive, and like so many other things in my life, managed to pull it off. I went to an
outdoor pursuits centre called Ogwen Cottage which I loved, and was invited back on an advanced
course. At 16, I spent six weeks in Israel, saw a small bomb go off somewhere, and worked on a
Kibbutz, starting work in the fields at 4am. Whilst at school, I dreamt of yacht racing around the
world, and particularly the single handed or two handed trans-Atlantic yacht race from Plymouth in
UK to Newport Rhode Island in the USA, which I was later to take part in.


Me as a Royal Naval Officer – “An Officer and a Gentleman”

When I left school, I joined the Royal Navy as an Executive / Seaman Officer on a 3 ½ year
commission which was my alternative to University. It really made my Dad proud. I joined Britannia
Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, which is where the Queen met Prince Philip, and just after Prince
Andrew had left in 1981. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the college; my room was opposite Prince
Lavaka, who is now the King of Tonga. I once gave him a lift in my Renault 4 car, with its 850cc
engine and bench front seat! Underpinning all aspects of training at BRNC remains “the aim to
deliver courageous leaders with the spirit to fight and win”; this ethos has stayed with me for life,
and has been applied in helping people to find the spirit to fight and win for jobs and their future. In
early 1982, whilst under training, I crossed the Atlantic in HMS Fearless, encountering a hurricane at
sea with steady 120 mph winds and mountainous seas with 80 foot waves, which wrote off both the
helicopters, after which I went on an exercise with the Puerto Rican National Guard, and then on to
Port of Spain Trinidad, where sadly a British yacht with a husband and wife was attacked, and the
husband murdered. Years later I was to meet the lady involved, who was one of the first customers
in my wife’s Montessori Nursery School in Henley on Thames (UK); it’s a small world isn’t it.

My appointment to HMS Coventry above was cancelled on 19/04/82, and she was sunk by Argentine
Air Force A-4 Skyhawks on 25 May 1982 during the Falklands War with the loss of 19 lives.


Here’s the proof, a letter from the Ministry of Defence:

I was twice appointed to HMS Coventry in 1982, but she sailed the day before I was due to join her
for the Falklands War. She was the second ship to be sunk with the loss of nineteen lives, with thirty
people injured. I wonder if someone above was looking out for me, what was strange was that I had
one of those sixth sense moments, where I knew the ship had been attacked before it came on the
news. There have been a few things like that which have happened to me. I was driving back to
Britannia Royal Naval College late one Sunday night from a weekend at home with a friend. I was in
the flimsy car with the 850cc engine, with a friend of mine from the college. I was closing really
slowly on a big low-loader lorry, my foot was flat to the floor and I just couldn’t quite decide if we
had the power to overtake. We were doing nearly 70 miles per hour on the inside lane of the
motorway, I pulled out to the middle lane to have a go at overtaking, and in the split second I did so,
this massive bit of metal pipe fitting that was almost as big as our car, fell of the back of the lorry.


The sparks were so bright it was almost like daylight. Had I not pulled out, it was difficult to see how
we might have survived. I don’t know if guardian angels exist, but as you will learn later I have
escaped a number of potentially life threatening situations.

Being the only non-graduate of the six people on the experimental 3 ½ year commission, I undertook
accelerated training, becoming the youngest compliment officer (doing a real job) in the fleet, and
gained my bridge watch-keeping certificate, which enabled me to take charge on the bridge of the
ship at sea, and be in charge of the ship as officer of the day in harbour. One of my fellow 3 ½ year
commission colleagues went on to be Managing Director of Land Rover and Group CEO of JCB, the
digger company. The lovely thing about being an Officer in the Royal Navy was the sheer variety of
work, from hosting cocktail parties for diplomats and foreign dignitaries, to getting involved in
search and rescue operations, responding to an explosion and fire on the Piper Alpha Oil Rig before
the big explosion which later destroyed it.

Me on Left as a British Sea Fisheries Officer - Aboard a Fishing Boat in the North Sea – our ship
HMS Guernsey is in the background

I was a British Sea Fisheries Officer boarding fishing boats in the North Sea and occasionally arresting
them. I was the captain’s, secretary, responsible for: all the foreign currency and cash, for all the
ammunition and explosives and for gunnery. I lead a group of men, and had responsibility for
education, resettlement, discipline and public relations. I was trained in damage control and fire
fighting, and ended my time in the Royal Navy on the Royal Navy Stand at the London Boat Show,
which was centre stage with the Royal Naval Display Team and Sponsorship from Lambs Navy Rum,
whose pretty calendar girls adorned our stand. It was tough life, but someone had to do it.

I am now a job hunting and career problem solving expert, thought leader, and international
bestselling author, with 11 successful books published and over $3.8m sales. I am the founder of a


new generation of career related services including: the Job Hunting and Career Emergency
Service™, High Flyer Academy™, Game Change Academy™, CV For Executives™, Careers Start
Academy™, Business Start Up and Success Academy™, Career Life Cycle Academy™ and the inventor
of: Career Life Cycle Management™, Sales and Marketing For Job Seekers™, Lifetime Career
Investment™, Employer Relationship Management™ and more.

My work has previously been endorsed by nine CEO’s of UK top 1,000 companies, including the
heads of: Apple, Sony and Carphone Warehouse, The Director General of the Institute of Directors
and the First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy.

Throughout my life, I have not been frightened to take risks and push back the boundaries, I am
innovative, creative and entrepreneurial, able to motivate and inspire others to achieve
extraordinary things. I was friendly with world famous yachtswoman Dame Ellen Macarthur before
she became famous, and helped her in the early days, amongst other things, getting her honorary
membership to the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. When she became the fastest person to sail
around the world, and returned to Falmouth with the world’s media to greet her, I was the BBC’s
guest, interviewed standing on her yacht talking about the power of the spirit of adventure, which
was great fun.

Me on BBC TV Talking About Ellen Macarthur and the spirit of adventure

When I left the Royal Navy I spent three or four months travelling around South East Asia on my
own, clocking up numerous adventures, and meeting all sorts of interesting people. In the
Philippines I stumbled across a group of bandits, armed with guns, grenades with bandoliers of
ammunition, wearing bandanas, and looking like they were straight out of an action movie. I have


had so many adventures and experiences; I can often imagine them as a script for a film. In
Thailand, I jumped out of a moving vehicle with an American Doctor to avoid an ambush, hiding at
night-time in a plantation whilst a group of menacing looking guys were searching for us, thankfully
unsuccessfully. Twenty years later, through the internet, I tracked him down; he is now a Professor
of medical and molecular genetics. During another adventure with him, he had a motorbike crash
involving someone else, we had to bribe people to stop him being arrested, and I turned into the
doctor cleaning up his wounds. There was always some excitement, one adventure involved riding
an elephant to remote tribal villages, up and down perilously steep slopes, across rivers, staying with
local tribes in bamboo huts, showing under waterfalls. At times like this you feel you are really living
life to the full.

Me in St Helena having just sailed there from Cape Town with my daughter who is now 16

I have had plenty of other yachting adventures, including getting sponsorship and having my yacht
shipped to Cape Town in South Africa, and racing to the remote tiny island of St Helena in the South
Atlantic, taking two young 18 year old St Helenian boys who had never before been off the Island.
We came 6th out of 24, we saw the house where Napoleon was imprisoned by the British, and had
cocktails at the Governor’s residence. It was another great adventure.

I have always been a thinker, somewhat of a maverick at times, always dreaming big, sometimes
achieving the goals and sometimes not, but never through lack of effort or resolve. I am into love
and peace, harmony and friendship; I dislike hate, conflict, prejudice, unkindness and selfish
behaviour. I think we need to care about each other and our planet.


Here’s Me on BBC News 24 Talking About People Who Make The World A Better Place

I like the idea of making the world a better place, something I have always tried to do, and I am
continually inspired by my wife Jenny, who has dedicated her life to giving young children the very
best start in life. The Montessori Nursery School, which she founded, recently celebrated its 20th
anniversary.


My wife and inspiration - Jenny

Jenny was nominated for the Montessorian of the Year award, was a finalist in the Sue Ryder
Women of Achievement Award, and is this year, a finalist in the national Nursery Personality of the
Year Award. Her school is rated by the government inspector Ofsted as “Outstanding”. I have
supported her for the twenty years+, and have seen the profound impact she has had on so many
lives. She is my love, mother of our three lovely daughters, and a continual source of inspiration see
www.DenningMontessoriSchool.com . Maria Montessori’s message was not just for children, but I
believe for mankind. I have tried to make a difference to childcare on a national scale and have
previously spoken at the House of Commons on Childcare Issues, and been on BBC Breakfast with
Natasha Kaplinsky and Dermot Murnaghan, and the Deputy General Secretary of the TUC.


Me on BBC News 24 talking about childcare

When you put yourself in the line, whether in the Royal Navy or elsewhere, you feel your mortality,
and I have been on the edge on rather too many occasions for comfort. In 1990 I was fulfilling a
lifetime dream to compete in the two handed trans-Atlantic yacht race with my best friend from my
school days, when our yacht started to encounter major problems, leaking so badly that the floor
boards were floating around inside the boat, the steering failed completely and the major structural
bulkhead cracked. We were repeated knocked down by mountainous waves, in an icy cold and very
big ocean – remember the Titanic? We were on the same piece of water! After a gradual worsening
of the situation and after getting as close to land as possible, and in conjunction with the
Coastguard, we put out a Mayday call. It was a major incident involving a long range RAF Nimrod
aircraft which flew from RAF Kinloss in Scotland, which by chance was affiliated to one of the ships I
was on in the Royal Navy, and had actually previously flown a sortie with them. They found us, and a
Sea King Rescue Helicopter from RAF Brawdy in South Wales, achieved a record breaking rescue,
some 200 miles off the Irish coast, the furthest they had ever been out to sea, which involved them
refuelling on a lighthouse on the edge of Ireland with a barrel and a hand pump, so they could get
maximum range. If they had stayed any longer, they would have run out of fuel and fallen into the
sea. It was quite dramatic stuff, it was all across the national news, and we have all the on-board
drama on video to remind ourselves just what happened. The wreck was eventually salvaged by the
British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal!

The challenge didn’t end there; a forty page survey revealed significant faults in design and
construction of the yacht, the manufacturers, the third biggest builders in Europe, whose primary
selling feature was their excellence of engineering, which was clearly anything but true in this
instance, denied responsibility, and the insurers refused to pay up on the grounds of “faults in design
and construction”, and the Ministry of Defence claimed salvage for their efforts. I think it is a perfect
example of how problems can compound and get worse not better, which often happens when
people experience job hunting problems. By contrast success frequently attracts more success, look
at any successful person and you seem to find that success can compound in much the same way of
problems.


The lawyer we engaged was negligent, and we were eventually paid compensation by the Solicitors
Indemnity Fund. Resolution only came when I went to a specialist book shop in the City of London,
and bought a very expensive book on marine insurance law, found a suitable legal argument, which
after some arguing and pressure, resulted in the insurers eventually paying out. The manufacturers
nearly killed us and got away with it, but I believe that other people’s lives have been put at risk also.

I never wanted anyone else to go through the same experience, so I formed a “Not-for-Profit”
organisation to help others, I also wrote an article about the story and it was published in this book:

I was on the wrong end of a dramatic record breaking air / sea / mid Atlantic Rescue in 1990

“I always feel you should be judged in life, not by what happens to you, but by
how you respond”

I am quite philosophical and deep thinking, and my messages have been described by others as
deep, meaningful, career changing, and perhaps life changing too, and reflect my philosophy, my
view of the world and my life experiences. Expect to be surprised, intrigued and challenged, with
ground breaking, radical, different and thought provoking insights. Others have said, I have a warm,
caring and empathetic approach, and talk with the benefit of personal experience, not just theory.
You can make up your own mind.


I spent 10 years working for the Mobil Oil Corporation, then the world’s fourth largest company in a
whole variety of different roles; customer services, sales, investment - buying land and building /
rebuilding petrol stations, running a group of 30 petrol stations, business analyst and later a systems
/ senior implementation analyst on the implementation of SAP computer system.

Me (left) receiving the “Salesman of the Year Award” at Mobil and the luxury holiday to Jamaica
Yippee!

My life story is one of immense variety with huge highs and lows, including numerous business and
life adventures being: an entrepreneur, becoming a bestselling author with 11 books and $3.8m
sales, floating my company, achieving a record breaking IPO, making and losing £25m+, being Chief
Executive and Chairman of a publicly quoted company, Managing Director of many companies and
an owner of multiple businesses, and countless entrepreneurial ventures. I have worked in the
public, private and not for profit sectors, for small medium and large sized organisations, and also
been self-employed.

Record Breaking IPO £5.4million in Record Time – They said it couldn’t be done, but I did it!

I have been an HR Manager with responsibility for recruitment, a recruitment consultant, Managing
Director of a recruitment business which was a subsidiary of a FTSE 100 company, and been an
employer, recruiting many hundreds of people for different roles, at different levels, in different
functional areas and sectors, and run candidate assessment processes. I have also helped over 500


people as a Career Coach, Master CV / Resume Writer and Job Hunting Trainer, on a 1:1 basis, to
solve their job hunting and career problems.

I am naturally competitive, and have a talent for innovation, creative thinking, developing inspiring
visions, marketing, sales, PR, and leadership. I made arguably the world’s most comprehensive video
education resource on leadership, interviewing top leaders from business, the military and
academia, the latter of which, resulted in an invitation to attend a leadership conference in Slovenia
with the heads of Europe’s top business schools, leading politicians and seriously impressive
business leaders, like a Russian Professor who started a bank and took it to $60billion turnover.

The Leadership Master Class Series – The World’s Most Comprehensive Video Education Series

(See The Second Sea Lord of The Royal Navy being Interviewed by me on the screen)

I have always been interested in sales and marketing, as I mentioned earlier becoming an award
winning salesman, and winning a luxury holiday to Jamaica, I have owned an innovation and sales
and marketing business, and have undertaken training in psychology. I have previously spoken at
the annual conference of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management to 1,700 people.

Me Talking to 1,700 People

I have appeared many times in the media (TV, Radio and Press) internationally, including BBC
Breakfast, BBC News 24, Radio 5 Live, Reuters TV globally, Sunday Times, Saturday Telegraph, Mail
on Sunday, Financial Times, Local TV and Radio and more.

I have always been interested in living life to the full, in trying to make a difference, in leading,
pioneering and being attracted to the leading / cutting edge, pushing towards a creating a better
future. It has led to many unusual situations, including a totally unexpected meeting with the Deputy
Prime Minister of Antigua, after which I ended up having a drink at St James’s Club with one of
Antigua’s most successful business leaders and actor Timothy Dalton, who played the part of James


Bond. On another occasion, I found myself at the Ministry of Planning and also at the University in
Baghdad in Iraq when Saddam was in power, giving my vision for their countries reconstruction for
when the United Nations sanctions were lifted. Whilst I could then have never imaged how things
would end up turning out, I was right in how I believed the reconstruction could go wrong. I have
never been daunted by sharing my dreams and ideas, or trying to bring them to reality. I have met
some incredibly interesting people along the way and learnt a huge amount about myself, life, the
world, business and people, which helps me to make sense of job hunting and careers today.

Just some of the media I have been in

I have personally experienced severe job hunting and career problems and know first-hand the
difficulty, pain and suffering that they can cause. With huge empathy and understanding, I am on a
personal mission to inspire, motivate, help and support as many people as possible, to solve their
job hunting and career problems, so they can achieve a breakthrough, success and happiness.

I am an Explorer, Adventurer and Innovator in Life and Business, and am committed to helping
others to Live Better Lives, Run Better Businesses and Make the World a Better Place.


My Journey from Job Hunting and Career Pain, to World’s Number 1
Job Hunting and Career Problem Solving Expert

The film Forest Gump, starts with Tom Hanks saying “My momma always said, life was like a box of
chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”.

None of us, can really know what is going to happen to us, whether we are going to end up rich or
poor, happy or unhappy, whether we are going to be blessed with good health or cursed with bad
health, whether we are going to be lucky or unlucky, whether we are going to have a great career or
a terrible career. Any of us could be struck by lightning, hit by a meteorite from space, knocked over
by a bus, involved in an accident, or be diagnosed with cancer. We all hope for good things, we can
work towards good things, but sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. We can be
careful, we can take precautions, we can wrap ourselves in cotton wool, we can live in a germ free
tent with no contact with anyone else, but for what purpose? What is the purpose of any of our
lives other than to keep the human species going? Why is it that we have been given minds to think,
feelings to experience and senses, so that we can sense? I don’t have all the answers, I only have my
opinion, which is no less or more valid than anyone else’s opinion. If we get what we think we want,
would it actually make us happy? Are we aiming for the right things? You might have noticed that I
frequently mention happiness as well as success, because I believe that having a high flying career
that is seen as successful by others, is worth nothing if it makes you desperately unhappy. Success
and happiness need to go hand in hand.

I was walking to school with my nine year old daughter the other day, and we are chatting about this
that and the other, and somehow she came out with the saying: “you are born, you live and you
die.” It wasn’t so much of a conversation as a statement of fact, why she said it, I do not know. It
somehow felt poignant; she and I had just spent the weekend with my mum and dad. My dad has
cancer; you can see it is getting worse, we all know it can’t be cured, and that there is only going to
be one ending, but then we all know that we are all going to die sometime. My daughter isn’t aware


of quite where the situation is; it seems better than way. You can see my dad is reflecting on his life,
trying to enjoy what time he has left. We went to a gathering with some of his and my mother’s
friends, which was very pleasant, but two of them had lost their children, one to a brain tumour and
another is unexplained, but thought to be accidental death rather than suicide, both these children
were younger than me. Earlier this year, a childhood friend, who I used to go skateboarding with, a
son of some other friends of my parents, committed suicide.

We are all on a path from birth to death:

We are all on a journey through our lives – are we striving for the right things?

Do you believe in the concept of destiny and fate? The idea is prevalent in classical and European
mythology. Fate is often taken to imply no choice, whereas with destiny there is an element of
participating in achieving an outcome that is directly related to itself. Participation happens wilfully.

I keep an open mind, perhaps it is true, or perhaps it is not. Have you ever found that meeting
someone, or being somewhere at a particular time, or doing something has led your life and career
down a particular path, that you could not have envisaged, maybe a good path, maybe a bad one or
even something in-between?

Is it really about the money, or is it about something more?

As you will have been able to see from my potted biography, I have done many things and my life,
and had many things happen to me to, but I have a strong feeling that some higher forces have been
at play, and that destiny has brought me to a point right now, where I am here ready to help you and


as many other people around the world as I can to achieve a breakthrough, to solve whatever job
hunting or career related problems you have, so that you can achieve the success and happiness that
you desire.

The chapter of my life that brought me to this point as a Job Hunting and Career Problem Solving
Expert was a painful one, but sadly there are an increasing number of people finding themselves in
exactly the same position. For me, it started in 2008, when the wheels fell of my career – big time,
and the headline in The Independent Newspaper on 7th December 2007 explains why:

“The storm clouds are gathering over the jobs market; the climate on the high
street is growing distinctly chilly; a typhoon of bad debt is buffeting the banks.
Could a "perfect storm" be about to hit the British economy?

The signs couldn't be much bleaker. The switchback in sentiment since the
credit crisis began in the summer has been violent. The Nationwide Consumer
Confidence Index recorded its largest drop yesterday, and joins the GFK/NOP
survey earlier this week in suggesting that a wave of pessimism not seen for
years is washing over the economy.

House prices have begun to fall, albeit slightly; commercial property is
seemingly on the brink of collapse on a par with that seen in the early 1990s.
The buy-to-let market is vulnerable. The Bank of England has,
unprecedentedly, voiced concerns about the grim prospects for real estate.
And the Financial Services Authority has warned of the "very real prospect" of


the global credit crunch getting much worse. It is that bad.” – The
Independent

Can you remember how it all started with US Sub Prime Lending, followed by the Credit Crunch, The
Global Financial and Banking System Meltdown and then the Global Recession?

Sometimes in life you can find yourself in the right place at the right time, and other times you can
find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately for me, I was in the wrong place
at the wrong time, and in hindsight it was ironic, since I thought I was in the right place at the right
time.

Have you ever felt like you ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time?

As you will have gathered by now, I am a bit of a risk taker at heart, I have had numerous
entrepreneurial ventures, even floated my company made and lost circa £25m and been CEO of a
quoted company for nearly five years, but right then my career was at a turning point, I wasn’t sure
quite what to do, and then what I believed to be a safe opportunity presented itself. My grandfather
had died, and I part inherited his house, a stunning waterside property on the banks of the River
Dart in Devon. It was prime real estate, favoured by rich bankers for second homes. There is a
saying “safe as houses”, which means that “owning property was considered probably the safest
investment of all, since the price of buildings generally tend to appreciate in value over time”. What
could be safer than prime real estate in a prime location and property hot spot?

The property was in need to renovation, I acquired it, borrowed money for the renovation and
converted it into a 6 bedroom (5 en-suite) luxury home. It was valued by the UK’s top agents; Savills,
Knight Frank and the top local agent at between £2.5m - £3m, showing a handsome profit, enough
to secure my families future for life. The renovation was complete, just as the market crashed and
the “perfect storm” unfolded. The market for high end, luxury second home property for wealthy
bankers with bonuses to spend evaporated. It was under offer for £2m, but the buyer couldn’t
borrow money, because the banks had stopped lending. Two years later it was repossessed, and
subsequently sold by the bank for £650K, despite the rebuild cost alone being professionally
estimated at over £1m.


These are just some of the media coverage I got for the sale of my home

My job turned from property developer to one of salesman and marketer, I invented extreme house
selling, generating more publicity for the sale of my house than any other homeowner in the UK has
ever done before, full page editorials in the national papers, six page feature articles in top property
magazines, I even went on TV globally with Reuters, regional TV and national radio (BBC Radio 5
Live). The website had over 250,000 hits, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. You name it, I tried it,
refinancing, holiday lets, I even got myself a highly paid new job, with signed contracts of
employment, but that, along with everything else disappeared, just when salvation seemed in sight.

I was broke, unemployed, and had lost everything I spent a lifetime building. When I talk about
the pain of having job hunting and career problems, I know how it feels, because I have experienced
and felt it. I know what it feels like when doing your best, doesn’t deliver the results you want.

It was another career turning point, but this time, not one of my choosing. Even thinking about what
happened hurts, it leaves a scar, but if you turn it around and take the positive, it teaches you
lessons too. I have always felt that it is possible to take good things from bad situations if you try
hard enough. A good friend lost two of her children both under 11, and her husband to a congenital
heart problem, enough to destroy anyone’s lives and make them bitter and twisted, but she is
anything but, positive, loving, grateful for having had them all for the time that she did, and
determined to make the most of her life, and help her remaining daughter to do the same. Talk
about an inspirational person!

I don’t want to dwell too much on the pain a suffering of job hunting and career problems I
experienced, when things go wrong with your job hunting and career there are consequences, and
many of them severely unpleasant, but you have to try and keep them in perspective, hopefully no
one has died, and as people sometimes say: “shit happens”. You have to deal with it as best you can,
and get on with life, making the most of it.


Sometimes good things come from bad things, it is easy to be so involved and so down, that you just
don’t see it, or allow it to happen.

Success is really failure turned inside out and vice versa, they are on the same axis.

.

Failure and success are on the same axis

If you have failed to prevent job hunting and career problems, and are failing to solve your job
hunting or career problems or to maximise your success and happiness, you need to take stock,
come up with a strategy to turn failure into success. You have two simple choices:

A. Continue doing the same thing and hoping for a different result. (Einstein’s definition of
insanity) or
B. Change – do some new or something better or both
I was faced with these choices.

These are some of my books – the biggest has over 1,000 pages, went to three editions and was
translated into Korean!


When my career turned upside down, I was an international bestselling author, mostly then of
technology books, which have the disadvantage that they are out of date almost as soon as they are
published, meaning you need to keep rewriting and updating them, the bottom line was there was
no money from that. I had been CEO of a Quoted Plc, and done lots of other jobs.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to do, so much so that I was almost paralysed into indecision and
indecision leads to inactivity. Lack of action means lack of results, and that is where I was.

Mike has worked in the financial services industry
since 1963 and founded the St. James's Place
Group with Sir Mark Weinberg in 1991. He was
Chief Executive until September 2004 and was
Chairman of the company until December 2011,
when he resigned from the Board. Mike is a
director of the St. James's Place Foundation and
was formerly Chairman of the Mental Health
Foundation.

Web Site

Michael Wilson One of the UK’s Top Business Leaders

I went to see one of the best mentors anyone could have; Michael Wilson, who co-founded the
financial services business St James’s Place, and took it from virtually nothing to £1b turnover, and
the UK FTSE 250 share index. There are not many people who have achieved something as
impressive as that. Michael is one of those people who just seem to have an inner wisdom; he is one
of the few people I know who I would class as a great leader. I went through my options with him, he
listened intently, made insightful comments, but when it came to the crunch, where I desperately
wanted him to tell me what to do; he said you have to work out what is right and best for you, only
you can do that. He looked me in the eyes and said something to the effect that you are clever and
resourceful person, with a multitude of talents, I have total confidence you will find success again, of
that I am certain, and with that I was on my own again, and full of contemplation. We always want
someone else to tell us what to do, but in life there are some things you just have to work out and
decide for yourself, you can take advice, but when it comes to crunch time, you need to step up to
the plate, accept responsibility and get on with it. I know that really, and I am sure in your heart of
hearts you probably know it too, but it still doesn’t make it any easier.

John is the Founder of the
Bravehearts programme, which is
now available through the Job
Hunting and Career Emergency
Service for Individuals seeking
personal transformation, to kick-
start change and a new and better
life and career. It is powerful stuff:
see the testimonial videos.

John Peck - One of The Finest Men You’ll Ever Meet


Following my meeting with Michael Wilson two things happened, firstly a very good friend of mine,
John Peck see www.John-Peck.com gave me some “tough love”, and what I mean by that, is told me
to get my act together, and do anything that bought in some money to support my family, this was
closely followed by a call from Morgan Lobb, a recruitment industry stalwart, who is now Managing
Director of www.DiversityJobs.co.uk , whom I knew from my recruitment days. He said he knew this
executive job board website / company called; The Ladders, which was looking for an executive level
CV writer to work for on a freelance basis – would I be interested?

The pay was pants (sorry Ladders, but it was), totally rubbish in fact, but it was work, and it was
money, and at least I could work from home. It felt like such a come down, my pride and ego wanted
to turn it down, but it wasn’t even an offer, it was just an opportunity to apply. I had to sell myself
for a job that I didn’t think I wanted, and that is not easy. Even for the naturally positive person
that I am, it was difficult to feel positive about anything, when you have just lost everything.

In hindsight however, it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me, even
though it didn’t seem like it at the time, for the following reasons:

1. It confirmed in my own mind that I really like helping other people.
2. It helped me to understand what I really wanted in my career was to help people, live better
lives, run better businesses and make the world a better place.
3. It helped me to understand other people’s problems and have the sort of empathy that can
only come from having been there yourself.
4. I discovered that because I have broad and deep experience about people, business and life,
and a raft of personal experiences to draw on, it could help me to help others, with unique
advice that could make a difference.


5. It made me decide that I wanted to become the number one job hunting and career
problem solving expert in the world, which in turn made me want to find out who was the
number one person, so I could learn what they did and then be better still.

“Sometimes not achieving your goal, gives you your destiny” Tony Robbins

You might start up with aiming for a goal and then find your destiny, which transforms your life.

Tony Robins says: “sometimes not realising your dreams, can give you your destiny.” He tells a
rather nice story about the film “Field of Dreams”. In the film Kevin Costner, plays a struggling
farmer and ploughs up his field and turns it into a baseball field, which becomes the field of dreams.
He meets an old guy, whose dreams of playing baseball, at the highest level was dashed. Kevin
Costner says

“that must have been terrible... to be so close but not achieve your dream”.

Kevin Costner in the Film Field of Dreams

The old guy replies:


“No that wasn’t terrible, what would have been terrible is if I had not become a doctor and come to
this small town, and saved that man’s life, delivered that little girl, and had all these people as my
very best friends”.

Sometimes you have a dream, something you strive towards and don’t get it, but as Tony Robbins
suggests, it can provide you with your destiny. Sometimes it can be accidents, illnesses or financial
ruin, can change the entire course of your life, terrible negative things, but positive things can from
them. Your deepest, darkest hours may be the start of a whole new life, which is better than you
could ever imagine.

Destiny is a concept that only you can decide whether to believe is valid, it is a concept that there is
a higher force driving all our lives, and that some things are “meant to be”. I think destiny is closely
aligned to purpose, but destiny more relates to an outside force intending you to be on a certain
path, where purpose is more something that comes from within.

In my book The Business Voyage, I tell the story of a New Zealand man I met called Mike, who was a
boat builder. He built a boat, and was sailing it single handed in the Southern Ocean. Mike said God
spoke to him and told him to set up a mission for seamen in the Falkland Islands.

I met him in Plymouth in the UK, he had sold his yacht, bought an old north sea fishing boat, and was
living on it with his wife and young family, planning to go the Falklands and fulfil his destiny.

He couldn’t afford the fuel to motor there, so had put a huge mast on the boat so he could sail
there. Shortly after I met him, disaster struck, he was taking his boat out for trials, it got stuck in the
mud and as the tide went out, it fell towards the quay, causing extensive damage. Mike prayed, got
on with fixing his boat and he sailed with his young family down the North Atlantic Ocean, into the
South Atlantic Ocean and established his mission for seaman. It was an amazing achievement.

The Late Christopher Reeve

The late actor Christopher Reeve was an actor who played superman. He was involved in a horse
riding accident, and became a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair, with a breathing machine for
the rest of his life. He established a foundation and research centre, and his destiny became being
lobbyist on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries, and for human embryonic stem cell research.


Michael J Fox

Michael J Fox was a Canadian actor who became famous in the films “Back to the Future”. He was
struck down with Parkinson’s disease at a very young age, and has since become an activist for
research toward finding a cure.

“If you have failed to achieve your dreams, be open to discovering and
embracing your destiny, because doing so, could turn out to positively
transform your career and life.”

Whatever you do, don’t sell out on yourself.

The interesting thing about working for The Ladders was I simply couldn’t just write CV’s that I didn’t
believe in, or that I thought were rubbish, in fact I couldn’t just write CV’s full stop. What I wanted to
do was to help people to solve their job hunting or career problems; in my opinion the CV is just a
part of that. I couldn’t not make it personal, because I know that it is only making it personal and
really caring, that would enable me to make the greatest difference. I was basically doing lots of
extra work, that I wasn’t being paid for, and that people didn’t expect or perhaps felt came with the
service, but I couldn’t not do the best that I could. I could feel other people’s pain, I could sense
their frustration and worry even more, because I had been there myself, and I could feel the impact
that it was having on both them and their families. I had real, genuine empathy, but no one knew
anything about me.

Being an originator of ideas and a pioneer, and also a researcher and explorer looking to make
discoveries, I couldn’t help but see the big picture and the small picture, and focus on what the
client’s biggest objective was. People often have more than one objective. The CV was only a means
to an end, even though they had been sold it on the basis that it what the solution.

I think I had a very strong sense of why I was rewriting people’s CVs, I have since learnt that your life
and career can be transformed when you have a clear sense of why, which gives you a purpose, that
is bigger than yourself. When you have a why in your life and tune into it, stay in focus, everything
changes, it makes success easiest, and brings inner fulfilment that is so important to all of us.

I get a real buzz from helping people and making a difference to their lives, it is fantastic, I really love
my work, I care and I think it shows.

I couldn’t help but feel that the sales tactic of The Ladders, and others in the industry was somehow
morally wrong. The offer of a free CV review was just a chance to tell someone their CV was rubbish,
to undermine their confidence in it, and tell them they really needed a new one written by the
company. I would rather not have the business, than feel that is was obtained slightly unethically. Of
course everyone’s CV’s can always be improved, but when people are often desperate, vulnerable


and in need of good honest advice, I feel that there is sometimes a fine line. I have to say that
everyone I met at The Ladders on a personal basis, I found to be very nice, caring genuine people
wanting to do the best for the client; my gripe is with the business model, not the people driving it. I
think there is a conflict of interest. If people are not getting interviews, they naturally think their CV
is at fault, and often it is, but the reasons are often deeper and more complex than that.

I couldn’t help bring all my experience to the job, and use my autonomy of working from home, to
go the extra mile, and to learn from each and every assignment.

500 assignments later, and following a truck load of research, I felt I had something unique to offer;
my take on the problem and the solution needed, my competitive nature and desire to learn what
the very best things people can do to solve their job or career problems, to prevent them happening
in the first place and to maximise their success and happiness.

Slowly and almost by chance I got positive feedback, and got to see the results that I was able to
help people to achieve. Testimonials are powerful, but when it comes to job hunting and careers,
understandably there aren’t many people who want to go public and say “I had a problem”. It is in
all of our interests to have other people think we are in demand, with head hunters continually
knocking on our doors.

“Call it fate, call it destiny or describe it however you want, my purpose in life
has become to help others solve their job hunting and career problems, to
maximise their success and happiness, and in a broader context to help people
to live better lives, run better businesses and make the world a better place.

I aim to be nothing less than the world’s number one Job Hunting and Career
Problem Solving Expert – period! The interesting thing is that I seem to be the
only person who describes themselves as a job hunting and career problem
solving expert, because that is what I believe you need. I believe that
whatever any of us should do, it should excite us, and I have to say helping
you and others does excites me. The greater the result I can help you to
achieve, the greater will be my personal satisfaction.

When I say I want to be the world’s number one Job Hunting and Career
Problem Solving Expert, it is not because I want to be the big “I am”, but
because I want to serve you better than anyone else, because your career and
your future matter. Why should you have anything less than the very best
advice and support available anywhere in the world? I don’t have all the


answers, but I am prepared to take the best that anyone else has, and add to
it; my way is inclusive, open minded, prepared to learn from anyone, and to
continually push back the boundaries, and being a conduit and signpost, to
the best help that exists. I believe the biggest breakthroughs come not from
new ideas, but from the application of what is already known to mankind.

I can’t get excited unless I aim to be the best; it is like being a Royal Naval
Officer, it is impossible to strive to be anything less than the best – your life
and the lives of others depend upon it. Once you have been trained at
Britannia Royal Naval College to be a courageous leader with the spirit to
fight and win, you can’t accept anything less; it becomes part of your DNA.”

“To deliver courageous leaders with the spirit to fight and win”
Britannia Royal Naval College – Dartmouth, England

I was expecting to find one Guru who shone above all the others who had the best solutions, who
knew what I wanted to know, but as I have so often found in life, things are often not what you
might expect. I didn’t find one Guru of Guru’s of Job Hunting and Career Management, I found
many. There is considerable overlapping advice and some contradictory, and in my mind many of the
guru’s advice was significant for its omissions. The more I learnt about what was available, the more
I saw how confusing the situation could be to job seekers and career changers, who just wanted to
learn what they needed to do to achieve the success they desire.

I became convinced that the dire economic background and changes in the
world necessitate a step change of approach, requiring new ways of seeing
the current situation, new ways of thinking, new action, and above all honesty
and realism.


I also came to the conclusion that it is not just gurus of job hunting and career management who
have what you need; it is experts in all sorts of other areas including: sales and marketing,
psychology, philosophy, branding and relationship management, self-development, adventure,
research and exploration, publicity and promotion, personal makeovers, human achievement,
communication, relationship building, innovation and creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship,
technology and social media, and a whole lot more besides.

When you take it to the next level you will see things from completely different perspectives. It is
like the difference between going for a run, or a ride on your bike, compared to a world class athlete
competing at the Olympics, there is a chasm between the two. Top sports people might have
multiple coaches and trainers, each with different disciplines and specialisations. They might have
sports psychologists, physiologists, nutritionists, dieticians, strategists and tacticians, competition
analysts; performance monitors etc. as well as large backup teams of medical people, technologists,
administrators, organisational, operations and logistics people, representatives etc. You might still
both be running or riding your bike, but professional athletes are playing a completely different
game, that you can hardly comprehend, unless you are in their world.

Experience I can draw on to help you:

Bestselling Author and
Thought Leader (11
Highly Successful Job Job Hunting and Career
Books / $3.8m Sales) Career Coach
Hunter Problem Solving Expert
Work endorsed by Top
Leaders

Employer in Large and
Recruiter / Head
SME Organisations in Award Winning
Master CV Writer Hunter / CEO of a
Public and Private Salesman and Marketer
Recruitment Company
Sectors

CRM and Sales Force
HR Manager Experienced Business
Automation Expert
Responsible for Leader to CEO of Entrepreneur
Delivering Services to
Recruitment Quoted Plc Level
Major Organisations

Innovator - Founder of
Experience With Job Experienced in Publicity
Imagination Unlimited
Leadership Expert Hunting and Career / Public Relations and
and Disruptive
Problems Promotion
Innovation Agency

My Background Gives Me a Unique Perspective on Job Hunting and Career Problems

One thing that struck me was that most is that Job Hunting and Career Management Guru’s tend to
come from a Career / Life Coaching / HR / Personnel / Recruitment Industry background. On the one
hand it makes perfect sense, they are people who have been involved in recruitment both within
organisations hiring, and within organisations whose job it is to provide recruitment services. The
minority of Gurus come from a Sales and Marketing background. I noticed that many Gurus came
from a position of certainty and righteousness that their way was best, that they knew what
employers wanted, what worked and what didn’t work. Many of the solutions offered are an ABC,
step by step approach. Most Gurus have a track record of success to back up their theories, making
them ever more convinced they are right, yet from working one to one with over 500 people, I could
see that well espoused strategies don’t work for everyone.


My mantra is:

“You must do what works best for you, no matter what, providing it is legal and ethical”

There is a saying “survival of the fittest”, but I don’t think that is the case with job hunting and
careers today, I think it is more a case of “survival of the smartest” or even “survival of the luckiest”.

There was a song sung by Billy Ocean called “When the going gets tough”. Do you know the song?
What do you think the tough people do? “They get going and they get ready.” I don’t know what the
writer had in mind when they wrote the song, seems like it has something to do with love, but some
of the lyrics seem like they could apply to job hunting in difficult times:

I got something to tell you
I got something to say
I'm gonna put this dream in motion
Never let nothing stand in my way
When the going gets touch
The tough get going

You can’t do anything about the challenging economic times, about the global debt, or about the
macro-economic policies, but you can do something about what you do, and how you respond to
your situation. You can choose to fight for your future, you can choose hope over despair, you can
choose to see your glass as half full and not half empty, and you can choose to be more determined
and more effective, than you have ever been in your life before. You can choose to dig deep, to
believe in yourself, to dream about a better future, to never give up, to keep trying different things
until something works, and to pay the price of success no matter how tough it is to pay.

I have always disliked it when people criticise others, when they are not prepared to stand and be
counted or do anything themselves. I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t criticise others, it is
probably important that we should. You might be right in blaming world leaders, politicians, bankers
and regulators for cause your job hunting and career hardship, but it is your responsibility to
respond to the situation you have found yourself in.

Most people won’t do the things they need to do to solve their problems because: they are too hard,
they are too frightened, too lazy with too little motivation, they would prefer to do less and hope
that something changes, rather than do more, on the assumption that the job market isn’t going to
get much better for the foreseeable future.


It is easier to say you are doing everything that you can, than it is to search for more things that you
could be doing. You are possibly being tested right now, if you are down, you need to pick yourself
up, not give up. If you think you can’t you will be right, if you think you can, you can prove yourself
right.

Life’s not always fair, you can complain about the injustice that you are suffering, the cards that you
have been dealt, but it will only harm you if you do.

I was talking to someone recently, who was a self-employed manual worker, a gardener to be
precise, he had hurt his shoulder and wasn’t able to work and was contemplating the need to get a
job. He looked me in the eye and said, no one will give me a job, I am too old, and I don’t have any
qualifications, employers will always give the job to the younger person or to someone who has
qualifications, if I was the employer he said “that’s what I’d do”. He said I have had plenty of
experience, so I know that is the case, and there ended the conversation. I have to agree with him,
that whilst he holds those beliefs he will be completely right. Henry Ford once said “whether you
think you can or you can’t you’ll be right”. I could think of vast numbers of things that he could do to
compete and win, but he was a closed book, it didn’t matter what I said, he wasn’t open to change
the way he saw things, the way he thought, or the things that he would be prepared to do.

Perhaps you are like this person, but then perhaps you are not? The great news is that the world is
full of people like this, and the best news about it, is that it is easy to compete for jobs with them
and win. It is as easy as taking candy from a baby.

Most people think that whether they get offered a job or not is 90-100% down to the employer, I’d
argue that it is more like 75% down to them. Most people also think they know all the things that
they could do, I’d argue that there are an infinite number of things that they could do, and the real
issue is that they can’t do them all.

If you take knowledge of anything and everything, there is far more available that any of us could
possibly know. If you narrow it down to knowledge of things that could impact job hunting and
career success, there is still an infinitely great amount of things that you don’t know, compared with
what you do know. If you don’t know that is the case, you are likely to do nothing about it. None of
us know, what we don’t know, if we really knew what we didn’t know, we would probably feel
horrified. Every day, we fail to see that ignorance of things is costing us lost opportunities.

Three things you can do to change this situation are to regularly start asking yourself three questions
that relate to job hunting and careers:

1. Why this or that etc.?
2. Why not ?
3. What if ..?

A curious and inventive mind that is open minded, innovative and creative can change everything;
you can see opportunities and threats and do something about both, before others are even aware
of them.

It all has to start with seeing things differently, because if you see things differently, you start to
think differently and if you think differently, you have the opportunity to do things differently or to
do completely new things.


You are largely responsible for your own success or your own failure, you might find that you are
almost completely responsible for your own predicament, if the situation doesn’t change; you are
going to stay where you are, and if that is unacceptable, you have a problem, the answer is that you
need to change. It is easy to say, but often difficult to do. Getting started is often the hardest part.

I am not trying to be smart and a know it all, as I have been as guilty as the next person of not seeing
things, not thinking difficulty and not changing, we are after all just fallible human beings, however
through my curiosity and search for knowledge, my experience and my connections of people in the
know, I have learnt things that are not commonly known.

I have made £25m+ in less than a year, and there are not many people who can say that, regrettably,
I subsequently later managed to lose it again, but that’s a story for another time, the point I am
trying to make is that seeing things differently, and thinking differently helps you to do different
things and achieve extraordinary things.

It might feel like mission impossible, but for most people getting a job even in today’s highly
challenging economic times, doesn’t usually qualify as extraordinary.

I’ll give you an example of what does. I have a business called Amazing Authors Agency, I help highly
successful people who are short of time, and whose time is valuable to write a book quickly in some
cases as short as 7 days. I recently helped someone to write a book, who left school at 16 with no
qualifications, whose teachers thought he would amount to nothing. Today this person has an MBE
from the queen, is worth £100m+ and has two executive jets, a fleet of supercars, a hundred and ten
foot super yacht with a crew in the Mediterranean and a highly successful business empire. He still
has no formal educational qualifications. He had no advantage in life, no silver spoon or rich parents
to give him rich connections or a step up in life, he did it all himself, starting with door to door
selling. There is probably nothing he has done, that you couldn’t if you put your mind to it. You have
to have a burning desire within you, and a determination to get through the tough times.

Sometimes success can come more by chance and luck, than it does by skill, but I would bet that the
vast majority of highly successful people see things differently, think differently and do different
things or things differently. This isn’t some irrelevance, it is the truth.

If you want something to change in your life, if you want to solve your job hunting and career
problems or prevent any happening in the first place or if you just want to maximise your success
and happiness, then you must do these three things:

1. See things differently.
2. Think differently.
3. Do different things or the same things but in a different and better way.
4. Do what works best for you in your circumstances.

In essence that is your success formula.


During my quest to find out what the best things you could do were, I had an idea:

Why not look at everything again, put everything on the table and discover the truth; why didn’t I
bring my own ideas, experiences and thought leadership to the problem solving; in essence the best
of everyone else + everything that I could add or improve too. I once went on a sales training course
and the guy running it said “when you blame other people for things going wrong and point your
finger at them, there is one finger pointing at them, and three fingers pointing back at you”.

I was looking for the answer in someone else, but found many of the answers were within me

Six Basic Secrets You Need To Know To Be More Successful

Six Important Secrets I Discoveries I that you can use to shape your strategy:

Discovery Number 1#

What works for one person, doesn’t necessarily work for another, and what works for you today,
won’t necessarily work for you tomorrow etc. The reason why, is that everyone is different in some


way, and has a different set of circumstances, even if they appear similar on the surface, and that
circumstances, situations and employers change all the time. A one size fits all approach doesn’t
always work. I know that not having a one size approach isn’t convenient, but isn’t it better to build
and craft solutions around what will actually work, and which will work the best, rather than craft
them around something that appears convenient, but doesn’t work in practice? One day your
services can be hot and in demand, you’ll be chased by head hunters continually, and the next day
your skills and expertise can be old hat, superseded by something or someone else.

Discovery Number 2#

The situation is fluid, forever changing. Professional Ken Robinson said “People are trying to work
out, how do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century, given
that we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week? As the recent
turmoil is demonstrating.” I think it is true, don’t you? You need to change and adapt when the
situation changes.

Discovery Number 3#

The best things to do to solve job hunting and career problems will vary from person to person,
from time to time:

 What are the best ways to solve your job hunting and career problems?
 What are the best ways to prevent job hunting and career problems?
 What are the best ways to maximise success and happiness?

Everyone wants to know what the best things to answer these questions are, so that they can do
them. They sometimes seek advice, but mostly they copy everyone else, sometimes without seeing
it, and end up broadly doing similar things to everyone else, because they can’t see there is anything
else they could do. This typically boils down to:

1. Find jobs to apply to.
2. Apply to the jobs, perhaps writing a new CV and Cover Letter.
3. Sometimes following up applications.
4. Sometimes networking with people they know.

The hope is that they will be invited to an interview and selection process and hopefully be offered
the job. If people are not being invited to interviews and selection processes, they usually think it is
their CV which is at fault, and if they get interviews but not the jobs, they often feel it was their
interview techniques that were at fault, or that they simply weren’t good enough. Many people feel
helpless, that they are doing everything that they can, and still not getting results.

Many people feel out of their depth as internet job boards and social media have replaced
traditional methods used by employers to hire. People are worried about employers using
automated processes to scan CVs with keyword recognition, and that job vacancies just seem to be
given to other people without you even getting a look in. Many people feel passed by, rejected,
unwanted, not good enough, not knowing what to do, terrified of rejection and failure. It is a
horrible feeling not to be wanted.

Whatever you are currently doing to get a job solve your job hunting or career problems or to
maximise success and happiness, you can always be doing more and doing better. The best isn’t a


destination where you arrive; it is a direction in which you head, and a notional scale to orientate
your efforts against.

Discovery Number 4#

Innovation in job hunting and career management offers a real alternative and means of turning
failure into success.

I’d like to start by talking to you about innovation, because that is what I believe is needed if you are
not getting results doing the same as everyone else. Fundamentally there are two main types of
innovation:

1. Sustaining Innovation.
2. Radical Innovation which is sometimes called “Disruptive Innovation”.

Sustaining innovation is the prevalent common type, which in product terms is visible with the
addition of new features and functions. If you take any technology, you will usually find
manufacturers making continual improvements. With the automotive industry for example, you will
see that all manufacturers will bring out new models of cars with new features, which could be
safety, performance, comfort, driver experience etc.

By contrast disruptive innovation, changes not just the products or services, but potentially
everything about the way they are made, sold and used.

When Apple introduced the IPod they changed the way music was stored, listened to and bought,
and who they bought it from. They weren’t even in the music industry, but with their disruptive
innovation they went from nowhere to massive in the music industry.

When Henry Ford introduced mass production, he transformed the motor industry and made cars
affordable for everyone. When Alexander Fleming invented Penicillin and antibiotics, he
transformed the way bacterial infection and diseases could be treated. Low cost airlines transformed
the airline industry, there are examples everywhere.

Sometimes problems get so bad that there is a critical and urgent need for a radical new approach
that changes everything, that turns things from being impossible to possible. I think many people are


at that point, where job hunting techniques of yesterday and even techniques of today are simply
not working for many people.

Discovery Number 5#

You have got to know who you are and what you really want before you try to get it, and make
sure that what you want is realistic and achievable in today’s challenging job market.

You would have thought that everyone would know who they are and what they want.

Discovery Number 6#

If the job market is competitive you need to be able to compete and win, if you don’t you’ll only
get a job by being lucky.

It can be terrifying to think you have competition and lots of it. The situation can be likened to
playing sport, whereas unlike at school where they say it is the taking part that matters, it is more
like playing Gladiators, where you have to win, metaphorically kill or be killed, the winner takes it all.
It can really make you feel good when an employer says we really liked you, it was a very close thing
and a difficult decision, but I am sorry this time you just lost out. You are not applying for jobs, using
your effort, energy and valuable time as a recreational past time, you are doing it because you want
or need a new job.

You have to be able to compete and win. Anyone can play sport and see how it goes, and hope they
win, but the reality in today’s job market, those who win are most likely to be playing to win. That is
what you need to do, don’t satisfy yourself with being close.

You have to believe that you can win, and do whatever it takes to win legally and ethically.

What is really wrong with job hunting and careers?
What is really wrong with job hunting and careers is the global economy, but there is more.

We are in an economic storm so bad we have never seen anything like it since the great depression
of the 1930’s, and its effects are wide ranging, and what is worth, it could easily get worse before it
gets better. I was looking at the IMF (International Monetary Funds) forecast for global growth and it
is down:


The Job Hunting And Career Success Formula

The Job Hunting And Career Success Formula

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