You have something unique to offer

At New Directions, we take as our mission statement a remarkable thought from the philosopher Martin Buber:

Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique and every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring possibilities [1960, pp. 12-13].

I truly believe Buber when he says that everybody has something unique to offer. It's become my mission and my privilege to help people get in touch with it, to identify the work or activity that capitalizes on and leverages their assets and skills. The life window of portfolio time is our chance to actualize these gifts.

Of course, no one likes to surrender familiar ways of thinking or doing in order to reinvent him or herself. Psychologist Erich Fromm called the process that Buber describes as "giving birth" to oneself, but he also observes that some people never do it. "We should be fully born when we die," he wrote. But too many people, he added, "die before they are born."

For all the difficulty, however, this is a good news story. That good news is that we have the gift of these extra years and that they are full of possibilities. To seize them, you have to become an entrepreneur of your own life. Develop them. People who think like that do better as they go from careers to life portfolios. They figure things out, not by themselves necessarily, but for themselves.

Disappointments, rejections, losses - all are opportunities. No does not mean never. Everything is negotiable. They ask, "What if?" They are looking for better ways. They make choices. Maybe they are wrong at first, but they jump in. They become players, not spectators, in the game of life.

From Portfolio Life, p. 11