Business & Career: Know

Your Ruling Star!

"Know your Ruling Star. One man is better received by one

nation than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds

more luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his

qualifications are equal or even identical. Let each man know his luck as

well as his talents. Follow your guiding star and help it without

mistaking any other for it. Know how to transplant yourself. There are

nations with whom one must cross their borders to make one's value felt."

- Balthasar Gracian, (Spain, 1600's)

Have you ever felt, "Here I am, best job I ever had, good

money, an excellent career move - but, what in the world am I doing here

where I feel so alone and out-of-place with my surroundings? How did this

happen to me?"

I've been there, because someone offered me a job and I

accepted, knowing ahead-of-time, intuitively I wouldn't feel at home in

the town and surroundings.

Or - maybe you love your location but, sadly, are unable

to find any openings in your field. I've been there also. Looking back on

my years in Austin, Texas, I can't believe the number of short-term,

soul-emptying jobs I tried very hard and unsuccessfully do to. My

job-duration ranged from only two hours (which was long enough when you

hate what you are doing!) to several months (each day seeming like an

eternity) before my opportunities in broadcasting finally came.

It's a rare person these days who is able to say, "I love

this community, love my home, love the work I do, get along great with my

business colleagues and supervisors. How do you beat perfection?"

There is a wonderful quote I repeated to myself many, many

times during my ups and downs in Texas.

"Hence the first principle in changing one's character is

to seek another environment, to let new forces play upon our unused

chords, and draw from us a better music." - Will Durant

That's what I wanted! I wanted another location - another

place - where new forces could play upon my unused chords and draw from me

a better music.

"There are nations with whom one must cross their borders

to make one's value felt." - Gracian

Yes! Yes! Yes! That's what I wanted. To cross borders and

feel my native talents valued again.

"Know your Ruling Star," the Spanish priest Gracian wrote

in The Art of Worldly Wisdom. "One man is better received by one nation

than another, or is one welcome by one city than another. He finds more

luck in one office or position than in another, and all though his

qualifications are equal or even identical."

We are better received in certain locations or areas than

in others, welcomed when we show up, and we most certainly do find more

luck in one place than another.

"But where, where, where is THAT PLACE?" I wondered.

In Texas, for every 100% plus I gave in my career, the

returns (feeling valued, appreciated, and being monetarily rewarded),

always fell short.

I hosted a noon talk show for awhile at an Austin TV

station. Our ratings were great. The guests I booked were top names in the

literary, entertainment, self-improvement, and political arenas.

After our ratings came in one spring, I couldn't believe

how well the show was doing.

Several days later, however, the General Manager wanted to

see me.

After all the years of my show's success, he said, "James,

I can't complain about your ratings. That's good for ad revenue, but I

finally got a chance to see your show yesterday. As you know I only have a

tenth grade education, never finished high school, started in sales,

worked my way up to where I am today." He beamed proudly, "I didn't

understand it."

I knew when he said, "I didn't understand it," my show was

doomed.

The GM was the standard by which all business decisions at

our stations were made.

I wanted to call him, "Idiot," but restrained myself.

My favorite line in Texas TV came from a female news

director who told me, "You have a master's degree. We don't need people

that smart to do the news." I never worked at that station.

"Let each man know his luck as well as his talents. Follow

your guiding star and help it without mistaking any other for it. Know how

to transplant yourself," Gracian reminds us.

Know how to transplant yourself!

Finally, I did transplant myself, once again. It was time

to move from the newsroom and go into teaching; use, finally, that masters

degree referred to earlier that wasn't needed to report the news.

"There is a simple answer to the question 'What is the

purpose of our individual lives?" A.J. Ayer wrote. "They have whatever

purpose we succeed in putting into them."

Yet, if you believe you are being guided by and toward a

higher destiny, as I do, use what others know (their gifts and resources)

to inform and enlighten yourself.

I've also successfully used relocation astrology as an

essential tool to follow my guiding star. Through my sessions with Cait

Benten, I'm finding, as we'd all like to do, a balance of the "right

place" and the "right work" combined.

"This time, like all other times, is a very good one, if

we but know what to do with it." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://www.astro-earth-relocation.com

About The Author

Now, after a career as an award-winning media communicator

and as a university professor, James has shared meaning-filled

conversations with film stars, recording artists, US Presidents and first

ladies, state governors, world-famous authors, scientists, and people from

most every walk of life