"So how does one become a treasure hunt master?"  It's a question a lot of people have asked me over the years. To which I generally answer, "Oh, you know, the usual career path...school of clue-ology, that kind of thing!" Which gets a laugh, of course.  But really!  How did it happen?  Here then, in brief, is my story: From Blues To Clues

The year was 1995. I had just turned 31 and I was "temp"-ing around in corporate offices all over San Francisco, wondering if and when my real career "light bulb" was ever going to go on. Everyone else around me seemed to know what they wanted to do with their lives (or so it seemed). So why not me? Why was I still stuck in the "career blues"?

An unabashed extrovert, I knew one thing very clearly about myself: I process things best out loud, in conversation with others. Luckily, I had a friend from the neighborhood, Scott, who was willing to indulge me in a series of regular brainstorm sessions: The purpose - to help me get a clue about my career.

And so we began to meet at a nearby cafe, me and my "business buddy," every Monday night. Over the course of several weeks, we talked about a large variety of job titles, but nothing was clicking. Scott, an entrepreneur with his own environmental planning business, then made a radical suggestion that changed my life. He asked:

"Have you thought about starting your own business?"

The son of a journalist and a teacher -- as liberal and anti-business as you can get -- I burst out, "Are you kidding! I don't know the slightest thing about economics or marketing or bookkeeping. There is no way I'm starting a business!" Scott, bless his heart, was a patient and persistent fellow. He kept on pushing and probing and eventually talked me into at least thinking about entrepreneurship. As I had recently been working in an employment agency, we both decided I should take a week to ponder starting a possible business as a professional interview and resume coach. So off I went.

Then the strangest thing happened.

The notion of life as a career coach just wasn't sitting right with me. Not that there's anything wrong with that career, certainly.  It just didn't sound fun to me, and fun is a big deal in my life. If I was to start a business, with all its challenges, then shouldn't I LOVE what I'm doing? Clearly I needed to look at things another way. So I ripped out a new page in my notebook and jotted down the title: "Activities I love doing."  My thinking was, if I could figure out the things that really thrilled me over the years, then perhaps I could craft a business built on the direction of my heart. What I came up with were these three "touchstones":

1) Travel. 

2) Working with groups.

3) Games and wordplay.

So Monday came around again and I explained to Scott that these three activities were what really turned me on. Couldn't we perhaps come up with a "career" that might incorporate my favorite touchstones?  Scott soon reminded me that I had once attended a treasure hunt in San Francisco -- a big public-event fundraiser -- from which I had come back quite jazzed. Perhaps, Scott suggested, I could start my own treasure hunt business. "Well sure, I could try it," I answered. "But would it fly?"  Moreover, would it be possible to incorporate "teamwork" into the treasure hunts. Now that would be interesting!

And the rest, as they say, is clue history. Okay, that's a flip response.  Truly, it's been a ton of hard work, persistence and luck, as any entrepreneur can tell you. In fact, I kept my day job for 5 years (!), creating treasure hunts on the weekends for friends and family at first, then later expanding out to social groups, organizations and companies. The learning curve was intense, but what sustained was the source of the business itself -- my heart. Rather than looking outside myself for something to excite me, I instead looked inside for my passions and brought something new into the world - teambuilding treasure hunts. The job for me! And now, I feel like one of the lucky ones, doing at least one of my "touchstone" activities almost daily: traveling, leading programs or creating word puzzles!

And you can build a career from your touchstones as well! For those of you in job transition and even those who aren't, consider trying the following: 

1) Make a list of all your favorite jobs and activities, the ones that make you giddy with excitement just thinking about them. 

2) Try to determine what features or values characterize those jobs or activities.

3) Narrow your list to down to three or four "touchstones" -- the thing at the core that turns you on.

What you'll have before you is a powerful, personal list of the features and characteristics that you deserve to have at the heart of your next "career". Making the list takes as little as a weekend, but the results can be profound!  Try it!