If you could do anything, anywhere, what would you do?

Men of the locker room, I ask for your ideas. A fellow member of the locker room inquired about career advice the other day, and it got me thinking. Perhaps it is time I start taking my own advice. My advice was to find your passion and pursue it, and that money would follow. Well, I am very fortunate to be at a point of considerable freedom in life. So now, I am looking for a new endeavor. I have several opportunities within my existing career, (wireless telecommunications infrastructure), but I would have to say that after many years in telecom there are plenty of dollars, but not much passion in it for me anymore. So, here I sit in my office thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. LOL Here are my skills: Extensive business development  and project management experience in Real Estate, Mortgage Banking, Wireless Telecommunications and Trucking. What I know: I know I do NOT work well in highly structured corporate environments. I work best with smaller, more flexible companies. I have to be on the street. I go crazy sitting in an office for more than a few days. Passions: Travel, Culture, History, Technology. I love to travel. Now that Alaska has been checked off, I have spent time in 49 of the 50 states, most of Canada and Mexico. I have not been overseas and very much want to go. If I could create my own job it would require significant global travel, working on short term intensive projects. It would not have to pay crazy money, but at least enough to cover expenses and would have to be interesting and challenging work. Nothing too dangerous or in volatile political climates, but by all means adventurous is good. So, any ideas from the gallery? And I challenge the rest of you. If you could do anything you wanted in life, what would it be and what are your obstacles? JP

Oh, you're talking about a new CAREER!   I was thinking, if I could do anything, anywhere, I would join the Mile High Club. But I don't think you can make a career out of that...  

That ship sailed in a Cherokee 180 coming back to Tampa from the Daytona 500 in 1986. I'm with you, that it would be difficult to make a career out if it, but you never know..... JP

JP, Asia is booming.  I travel there for work frequently.  You might find a niche for yourself consulting in telecommunications, real estate, or banking for that matter.  Or, with your knowledge, you might want to consider serving as a professor and teaching your experiences to someone else.  Many universities have a lot of international exchange agreements.

Jim, Thanks, I have always meant to ask what had you running all over Southeast Asia a while back. No Phd here, just a Bachelor's degree and a bunch of experience. I could always go the TEFL route and teach English, but I think I would enjoy something more related to sales or development. I love teaching, mentoring etc. Consulting to companies wanting to break into the US market would be great, if I could break in. I know of AIG and a few other large firms that do that on a big scale. I have looked into representing a Chinese wireless telecommunications manufacturer in the US, but they wanted most of my time spent here, not there. South Korea seems to be exploding with development. If I do something on my own, it will probably be a real estate play, like an apartment building, hotel or resort property somewhere. I have done pretty well at taking undervalued properties here and rehabilitating them, then selling for a profit. Of course, stepping outside the US and doing something like that would be very new territory for me. (Both good and bad) In Telecom, I have some contacts at Vodaphone in Itlay, and a few with Ericsson in Ireland. However, I am finding it is very hard for an America to get hired buy an EU company in the EU, due to strict employment regulatory issues. Ericsson would have me here in the US, at which point I could work my way through and get myself transferred somewhere. However, talking about 800 pound gorillas, Ericsson is a HUGE corporation. My friends there tell me it is like living in a Dilbert cartoon. I would never last there. Vodaphone is ginormous as well. For my first venture overseas, I would obviously like to do it with minimal risk to my own coffers by being employed. A telecom company I currently do business with has an interesting idea. They are offering that I do contract administration for them "remotely". It involves the real estate side of  telecom, which is a "hanging curve ball" for me. I could do it from anywhere in the world, as long as I have good internet access and my laptop.  It's a thought. Boring work, but it would enable me to take extended travels and still make decent money. I'd love to hear more about the university programs you are talking about, if an advanced degree is not required. JP

JP, Most professors do have a Ph.D., however, administrators don't need to have a research degree.  Many hold professional degrees like the MBA. University admissions is very similar to sales.  You find out what the needs of your customers are and something about their characteristics.  Then you go after them.  In the case of international admissions, that means going abroad a lot. Many Asian countries don't have the infrastructure developed yet to satisfy the needs of their students for higher education.  That is why they look elsewhere.  This is also the case in many other industries. You might want to contact the US Commericial Service (or visit their web site).  They have local expertise and intelligence reports for your countries of interest.  Most of it is free!  This is a good way to identify local needs.  For example, if a market research reports states that a city wants to develop their wireless telecommunications capability and needs to hire consultants, you can get contact information and introductions. You mentioned South Korea.  They are actually very advanced in the area of technology and could probably teach us a few things.  It has become very expensive there as well. The Austrailian telecom companies seem to have a really strong foothold in Asia.  You can look into working for one of them to get some experience. Good luck.

hey JP,

as for the real estate, stay away for now. my g/f and I do speculative real estate on the west side of Los Angeles. that's a very expensive area and about the only one still making money but even at best, it's slow. that's a market and career that takes a long time to learn, flipping properties is nothing like it's portrayed on tv. you want to get to a point where you know your market and the houses in that market so well that the real estate agents ask YOU for advice! i'm serious. that way you don't have to count on anybody but yourself to make the right choices. just a word of wisdom from somebody that does this.

you have a great skill set but i just don't know where you would put all that experience. i would stay away from owning a business unless you want to put in tremendous hours. a franchise is even worse. someone in your pocket pretax. having been self employed almost forever i would just say to try to keep your overhead as low as possible and as few employees too! i like the consulting idea but can understand if you're burned out. i used to own carwashes and detail shops in LA. yeah, great cash cows but i hated it. not challenging at all and sold them. so try to find something that's going to want to make you get up in the morning and want to start work. ok, i'm no help.....carbonblob

Hey CB, Perhaps I should provide some background. I am rather experienced in real estate. I have owned my own Real Estate Brokerage Company and a separate Mortgage Company for over 12 years. I $old them both during the refi boom a few years ago. Concurrently, I have been an officer (in charge of all real estate) in a large publicly traded telecommunications infrastructure company. I wouldn't touch real estate in SoCal for love nor money right now. In fact, I think we are going to see a continued correction in all the major markets through 2009. I think there will be some great buying opportunities starting late 2008, but we will have to see how things go. I flipped houses in Austin with great success for the last 10 years, but stopped about a year ago as I saw the writing on the wall. I would still buy all the commercial development land I could get my hands on in Austin, but it has become really, really expensive. SoCal is a crazy volatile market, with both big money to be made and lost. I like more stable markets, like state capitals that are also large college towns. (Austin). Take care. JP

hold on, trying to get foot out of mouth! yep, you're qualified! all kidding aside i agree completely. we're staying out of the market until 09 and even then we're not so sure we'll go back in. right now i do a little bird hunting for other flippers now and then. i still have a lot of contacts so i use them when i can. i got a property for a friend last year in my neighborhood for a steal. we got it under the table for about $650K. they scraped the property and put up a 3600 sq ft and it's listed for just under $2m. and it's sitting! scary. i'll be happy with my finders fee for now......lol.

so with all that exerience why not try for some position with a development company. i was approached several times to be a project manager. you have another skill set that would be worth something to an investment team. i liked this idea because it wasn't my money on the table. sometimes i think i might go back into it with a team. my back hurts too much to keep doing what i'm doing. although it's a lot more fun when you call all the shots. so maybe until the market turns around keep an eye out for a group that could use your talent. just a thought.....carbonblob

I hear you. I have buddy that is about $2M upside-down on a place in Crested Butte, CO. Very Scary. I like acquisition work, and do it in telecom. It is fun to play with other people's money. T-Mobile going to be doing a sale/lease back on their towers soon (about 6500) and I will consulting to one of the banks looking to do the purchase. I'm not sure I have the patience to deal with a huge corporation, like Amli, or one of them, to do acquisitions for them. Seen too many stupid decisions made for all the wrong reasons. No passion for it. It's all about passion for me at this point. If my heart is not in it, I'm not really interested. I don't need to make crazy money anymore, just want to do something interesting and travel the world. If I were a billionaire, I think I would buy the penthouse suite on a Crystal cruise ship and move and circle the globe a few time****ting every port along the way. LOL Can you get paid for that? LOL JP