If you're the parent of a teen or tweener, one of the thorniest issues you face may be how to advise your kids to decide on a career path.
Do you tell them to follow their dreams? To become the next Brad Pitt or Lady Gaga, with the possibility that they may spend much of their adult lives pursuing a dream that might never come to fruition? Or do you advise them to focus on where the jobs will be by the time they’re ready to start working?
There’s no single answer to that question, particularly in an age in which uncertainty and doubt seems to have overtaken the American psyche. However, maybe the answer isn’t in the realm of “either/or.” Maybe it’s a question of working at what you do well while your ideal career finds you.
It’s a path that seems to have worked for tax attorney Mike Dillon, who’s managed to combine his dream of independence and success with his ability to figure out highly complex financial issues for big corporations nationwide. As President of Dillon Tax Consulting, Mike is recognized as one of the nation’s premier experts regarding multi-state retail tax issues. Yet it’s a path that seems to have chosen him instead of the other way around.
“I’m very fortunate,” says Dillon. “There’s no shortage of work. And my practice is portable, so I can work wherever and whenever, even sometimes when I’m on vacation. But the flexibility that comes with it means I get to spend more time with my family too. Sometimes I can’t believe how lucky I am to have both.”
Mike’s career started out ordinarily enough. Switching gears from his goal of becoming an environmental lawyer, he leveraged his limited experience and law degree to capture a spot in the tax department of MCI, simply because that was one of the few jobs available at the time. He soon realized that he was good at understanding and manipulating the numbers. More important, he enjoyed the work, and soon advanced to becoming a Midatlantic Practice Leader in Corporate Tax at KPMG.
These days, Mike has turned his love of independence and expertise with accounting issues into his own version of a “dream job” that keeps him as busy as he wants to be – as a multi-state retail tax specialist, speaker and business consultant. Happily. Even when ETRADE calls him to research a 50-state retail tax decision table that needs immediate attention, just as he’s about to leave for vacation.
“I’m grateful for all of it,” says Dillon. “I never imagined my dream job would find me.”
So what’s the lesson Mike Dillon has for the rest of us? Maybe it’s that success comes at least partly from being flexible enough to re-shape our dreams to fit the situation at hand.
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