Making a Living While Making a Difference

Book excerpt: Making a Living While Making a Difference is a timely and highly informative guide to a working life built on principled choices and an entrepreneurial attitude. It’s about greener enterprises and technologies, socially responsible business, innovative nonprofit work, and reinventing government. It’s really about putting the pieces together with creativity and hope. Working people everywhere are realizing that personal success is interconnected with healthy communities and the environment. We are all looking for our unique “creative edge” with work that allows us to make an impact close to home and in the world. The substantially revised third edition of Making a Living While Making a Difference acknowledges that while the path to finding a life’s work that is satisfying, sustainable, and financially feasible is not easy, there are simple steps to follow. An empowering ten-step program includes: Paying attention to what you most care about Stabilizing your life with regard to time, money, and relationships Assessing your core aptitudes and attitudes Cultivating the entrepreneurial skills to create the workplace you want, whether or not you are in business for yourself With dozens of rich personal stories and a thorough look at the options, this is the comprehensive life and work guide for people who care about their communities and the planet. Melissa Everett is a career counselor, group facilitator, and educator in the field of sustainable development, and is the executive director of Sustainable Hudson Valley.