Are you a recent college graduate or a seasoned employee aspiring to get to your next level and are not sure how you are going to make that next leap? If you answered yes to any portion of the previous questioned posed and would like to see your college degree translate into more than a ticket to the rat race, there’s a group of college friends who recently released a book that will help you to navigate the ladder of success.
Business partners Omari Worthy, Mario Taylor II and Barry Givens, co-founders of Maven Investment Group and blog MoneyIsJustAnIdea.com, are serial entrepreneurs who teamed up with fellow Georgia Tech alum Anthony Hylick, Ph.D., to pen and self-publish the book Plan “B” Sucks: WORK ON YOUR DREAMS, AND NOT YOUR BOSS’S with hopes of giving people something tangible to help them follow their dreams.
Worthy checks in with rolling out and offers some insight on the book that is sure to provide a road map and offer tools for success for young professionals in a quandary about their career goals. –yvette caslin
What was the tipping point that prompted you and your fellow authors to write Plan “B” Sucks?
There were quite a few defining moments that pushed us into writing Plan “B” Sucks. We started off with a blog, MoneyIsJustAnIdea.com, and the responses were so great we wanted to take it to the next level.
Personally, after self reflection and many conversations about what it takes to be successful, we realized that we all went through very similar struggles and obstacles on our journey — whether it was a certain mindset we acquired or a skill set we picked up. The common consensus among our group was that the methodology of “go to school and get a job” was not the best or only route to total fulfillment.
The tipping point came when we started calling one of the skill sets “2nd Shift,” which is also a mantra in the book. “2nd Shift” became very popular via Twitter among our friends who were tired of their 9 to 5 jobs and took two hours out of their day to work on their passions. At that point, we knew we had something, and we felt it needed to be developed into a book.
What do you hope readers will gain from reading the book? I.e., what is the overall message?
It’s simple, stop settling, find your passion, go after it as though you know you can’t fail. Because there is no other option — plan “B” sucks!
We hope that readers will gain the confidence and motivation to work and obtain their own goals.
In a nutshell, there is another option besides the society norm. There’s a way to be happy in your career and work towards a goal that you are passionate about. We also emphasize that this is not the easy way out and that manifesting your own dreams is hard work.
How did you collect content and gather data for the book?
A lot of 2nd Shifts [laughs]. This book was a culmination of more than two years of extensive writing, interviews with successful people in different arenas, statistical research, and dissecting our own life experiences. We had weekly, sometimes daily conference calls to discuss and iron out ideas to ensure we were all on the same page.
