No Fears, No Excuses: What You Need to Do To Have A Great Career

Larry Smith is a long-time faculty member at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Although trained as an economist, over the last couple of decades, Smith has become something of a “career whisperer” for his smart and ambitious students (Waterloo is regarded as the MIT of Canada).

In short, scores of students have been drawn to Smith in the hopes that he can help them discover their passion in life -- so that they can graduate and head off in their true career direction. Smith makes it clear that there are only a few souls in this world who are born knowing exactly what they want to pursue in their life. For everybody else, we need to make a serious and concerted effort to pinpoint what our real passion is.

In his straight-forward, no-nonsense approach, Smith walks the reader through all the usual excuses, fears, and worries that most people have about trying to find their true career direction. It’s not an easy task, but one that is essential for anyone who aspires to have not just a good career, but a great career.

Peppered with case studies from everywhere (Smith’s stunning TEDx talk on this subject has been viewed by more than 6 million people from all over the world and continues to generate thousands of new views every day), his unusual take on the challenging conundrum of finding one’s direction is both universal and timeless.