One of the things Zach and I talk about in our speeches is the need to take an entrepreneurial approach to work, no matter what the job may be.

Last week we launched the first ever Pursue the Passion Entrepreneurship Conference to drive home this point to hundreds of FBLA high school students. These students all had an entrepreneurial requirement in order to attend the conference- they had to conduct their own Pursue the Passion interview with a professional from their community who has a job they’re interested in. Their reward was a ticket to a conference filled with engaging speakers and workshops, and more importantly, a ticket to that night’s Suns game.

Here’s a video featuring the conference speakers and the advice they had for the students who attended.

Last night I was asked to do a commencement speech for 2100 people, which will take place this Saturday. Pretty crazy! I’m going to do it just to see what 2100 people looks like (about 3x as many people as I’ve ever spoken to). This event will come off our first ever Pursue the Passion Entrepreneurship Conference taking place this Friday.

Busy week!

I believe the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again. To keep myself from going insane in the quest to publish a Pursue the Passion book, I’ve experimented with a variety of other ideas to present the information we gathered.

Perhaps the sample chapter below could be bordering on insane, but, I want to know what you think.

Pursue the Passion- A Sample Chapter Pieced Together By Being Oh So Clever

There was a little monkey named Julius.

Julius didn’t know what to do
Or which passion to pursue
So he decided to hit the road
Just him and his crew (Picture of Julius with Puppy, J. Fox, and Noah)

What they would do
For the next month or two
Is find cool jobs
And do an interview (Picture of Julius envisioning the crew doing an interview)

They hopped in the bus
And without great fuss
Headed to California
Without a compass (Puppy driving, Julius waving goodbye to his monkey friends, Noah listening to music, J. Fox with a map upside down)

As they drove through groves
And around rocky roads
They came to a beach
To a store within reach (Julius pointing from the beach to the store)

They looked through the door
And couldn’t believe what was in store
Because they saw all the ice cream in the world
From ceiling to floor! (picture of all the ice cream in the world)

A chef in the back
Stirred sugars and paste
And then scooped it up
Making sure it was fit to taste (picture of the ice cream guy)

Julius asked him for an interview
The chef said it was cool
In fact he was doing something similar
When he was in school

I was pursuing my passion
While my other friends watched TV in bed
I studied hard and eventually
That’s what got me ahead

Now I eat ice cream
Day in and day out
I just create new flavors
And I never want to clock out (ice cream guy doing something magical)

The chef gave them some samples
In cones and in cups
And off they went
To where the next interview was lined up (ice cream guy waving goodbye, Julius and team eating ice cream and going back to the RV)

I was reviewing the stats of pursuethepassion.com yesterday and found a few interesting things.

1) Facebook has not only been one of our top referring websites, but the audience stays longer than any other referring site. Four minutes, six seconds. Guess we have to start posting more to Facebook.

2) Google gives pursuethepassion.com about 40 percent of our visits. The majority of the searches come from the word ‘passion,’ or from one of our more notable interviews – D’Wayne Edwards, Samantha Harris, Matt Klentak.Guess we have to interview more passionate famous people.

3) Our average amount of daily visitors was 51.7 percent higher when we were on the road during the 2007 tour. Guess we have to get back on the road…

4) The amount of traffic driven from traditional press appearances pale in comparison to that driven by the almighty blogosphere. Anyone want a bunch of career videos to embed on their site? Go to http://phoenix.jobing.com/video/pursuethepassion if you do so we both can get some more traffic.

Cheers to keeping a close eye and making corrections.

Here’s a funny picture of a turkey, followed by 5 things I’m thankful for. 

1) I’m Thankful that I have a job right now.

2) I’m Thankful to be home for Thanksgiving with friends and family.  It was great to see everyone yesterday and not be entertained by TV, but by family storytelling until close to midnight.  I’m incredibly thankful for great friends and family. 

3) I’m Thankful for health.  We had this game we played yesterday at the table where everyone had a question they had to answer.  My stepdad’s dad had this question: ‘What’s your favorite quote?’ to which he answered, ‘You may leave the hospital now.’  Amen to that.  Health and happiness.

4) I’m Thankful for leftovers.  Chocolate mouse, brie, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, and pumpkin cheesecake.  That’s a deadly combination I’m thankful to partake in a second time.

5) I’m Thankful for not getting duped into shopping on Black Friday.  I can’t stand waiting in line, acting in inhumane ways, or really partaking in the tradition of grossly overspending for Christmas gifts.  I’m Thankful that our family is drawing names this year. 

 What are you thankful for?   

We’ve heard the stats. 1.2 million jobs eliminated so far in 2008. Unemployment rate is at 6.5% and rising. After the Big Three automakers miss out on a bail out, we could see anywhere from a million to three million more jobs eliminated.

What is America to do?

The answer is that we need to create jobs. Fast. People need jobs right away. So, this is my suggestion for immediate work. Go be a Somali Pirate Defender. The job itself sounds cool. Spend life sailing the sea, looking for bad guys, protecting the guys who bring us oil…

In all seriousness, this is probably where job relief will come from. Government controlled organizations may be the future of employment for the next three years. This morning the Census Bureau announced it will be hiring 140,000 people, and then up to a million more for the population count in 2010. I’m sure the Gulf of Aden would appreciate America employing people to build boats, and then employing more people to sail around on the boats and fend off pirates. The government is where it’s at.

So if you’re an adventure seeking, unemployed American looking for something to do until that intervention comes, get out your sword, strap on an eye patch, and go defend Somali pirates. Arrrr!

As you many of you know, I believe taking a road trip is one of the coolest life experiences you could ever have. My goal in life is to be able to incorporate road tripping into my job, which is a goal I’m currently pursuing with writing my book about the Pursue the Passion tour.

Well, the San Jose Museum of Art has taken the road trip theme and created an art exhibit out of it. This was brought to my attention by Susan Krane, a former PTP interviewee, who has assumed directorship of SJMA. I plan to check out the road trip exhibit when I take a road trip home for Christmas, and I think you should as well at this link.

Until then, road trip! Gas is cheap these days.

Yesterday Pursue the Passion went up to Prescott to present 250 FBLA students with a challenge.  That challenge was to find someone who has a job they’re interested in and interview them about their career path.  For one student in the audience, that interview opportunity came sooner than expected.

Immediately after the Pursue the Passion speech, this student dislocated their knee while engaging in a game of ‘Collide-a-Scope.’  An ambulance arrived, picked the student up, and began the forty-five minute drive to the hospital.

While in route, the student had the bright idea to conduct a Pursue the Passion interview with the paramedics.  The student reached into their pocket, withdrew a camcorder, and began to fire away with questions.  By the time they reached the hospital, the student had concluded their first interview. 

The student plans to edit the footage into a video and post it to www.pursuethepassion.com when they get out of the hospital.  Hopefully the morphine didn’t have too much of an impact on the camera work. 

The Pursue the Passion program is spreading through the Arizona school system.  There are over 1,000 students conducting interviews with professionals in the community who have jobs they’re interested in.  If you are interested in volunteering for an interview or if you would like your school to be involved with Pursue the Passion, please contact Brett at brett.farmiloe@jobingfoundation.org.     

Alex Guarnaschelli, who Noah interviewed last year on the Pursue the Passion tour when we landed in Manhattan, now has her own show on the Food Network. We’ve only interviewed two chefs- both have made big splashes on the Food Network since we met them.

Here’s a blast from the past with Alex’s video:

A reader just informed me that Gerard Nebesky, who Pursue the Passion dubbed as the “Paella King” after our interview last summer, defeated celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a ‘Paella Throwdown’ on the Food Network on July 30th.  Congratulations to Gerard…here’s a blast from the past with Gerard’s video: