The votes are in from last week’s poll, and so we’re moving to Monday mornings at 7am US Eastern, starting next week. And as promised, we’ll have some great announcements then. But for now, given it’s the Labor Day holiday in the US, here’s an excerpt from the upcoming book, The Two But Rule that’s all about careers and career change.The Late Career ChangeThere are few situations that paint a clearer picture of the need for the Two But Rule than the challenge of course-correcting your life. Have you ever wanted to change careers? Even if you’re reasonably content doing what you’re doing, take a second and consider whether you have a dormant desire to do something different. Start adding up the buts. But… But… But… So many gaps between where you are now and where you want to go. Are you seeing all the missing qualifications, connections, and know-how to succeed in something new? If you’re like me, you’re feeling a significant amount of discomfort looking at all those impossibilities. Here’s the thing. Most of the time, you aren’t wrong about the challenges ahead. And all the optimism, all the anecdotal success stories, all the willpower in the world will not change certain realities. This is a factor for everyone, young and old alike. We’re going to look at several career changes here. But if my experience is any guide, buts get bigger as we age. So let’s consider the late-career change.Leading With Your But: The Non-NegotiablesLet’s say you’re responsible for providing for a family and want to end your career as a corporate executive to pursue acting. You don’t get to say, “I’m going to move the family from Des Moines to Los Angeles and start auditioning for movies, and I’ll succeed if I just believe in myself enough.” No. Sorry. There’s a better way.Start by listing everything that’s non-negotiable. Everything you won’t give up. Don’t say you can’t give it up. You can decide to sell the house and have your family live out of a station wagon while you go on auditions. But you won’t. At least--I’m with your spouse on this one--I hope you won’t.Starting with your list of non-negotiables is strangely liberating. It disabuses you of magical thinking that keeps buzzing around your change fantasy. The problem is that most people stop there. For those unacquainted with the Two But Rule, this list is scary. It’s the end of the line: “I want to change careers, but I won’t give up the loss in salary that would certainly come from me starting over at the bottom with no experience, connections or reputation.” That’s a big momentum killer. So what do some career gurus tell you to do instead? “Think positively. Believe in yourself.” That’s “cruel and unusual” advice, really. It’s a guaranteed headache. It solves nothing, and the lapses in judgment you’ll make in pursuing your dream with a positivity-blindfold on could easily land you in that station wagon … likely alone, because your spouse is going to take the kids and go live with their mother.Most people won’t take action and pursue their intentions if they look at the obstacles, but remaining willfully blind to them is a good way to fail. Worse, it can become a path to quiet desperation as your dreams take flight while your unexamined, subconscious awareness of unacceptable tradeoffs keeps you miserably rooted in place.BUT this isn’t a problem when you know how to apply the Two But Rule. You know that the non-negotiables are just grist for the mill--the start, not the end. You’re going to take all those big 1Buts and relentlessly find 2Buts, even crazy ones. Here’s one you can try on your spouse: “I want to give up my six figure job and become an actor, but the non-negotiables are that you won’t give up being a stay at home parent, we won’t give up our house, and we won’t stop contributing to the kids’ college fund, BUT is one of your non-negotiables that you won’t change your approach to living? What if there are other families in the community facing career changes? Would you consider multi-family home living? It’s a choice that was featured in the documentary Happy about a twenty-family community in Denmark that cooks for each other and jointly takes care of the kids. Is there a story in your future about forming the “Actor’s Enclave,” a co-op community in Los Angeles made up of former corporate executives that banded together to raise families and support each other as they pursued their dreams of breaking into the movies? Maybe not, but who knows where this line of thinking might lead you. Ken Jeong’s JourneyEveryone’s story is different. Consider the case of actor and comedian Ken Jeong. Ken was a practicing physician for over a decade. He wasn’t willing to give that up, so he started performing standup on the side. First in North Carolina while studying at Duke, then in New Orleans during his residency. But, breaking into the comedy big leagues was going to be tough while working as a physician in Louisiana, BUT doctors are in demand everywhere. So he moved to Los Angeles and joined Kaiser Permanente as an internist. Then he got married. Later, Ken decided to quit his job and become a full time comic actor, but they had just got pregnant … with twins. That might have been a reckless move, BUT Ken had continued performing standup in LA before the kids came and had landed a few television roles. He got his big break when he was cast as Dr. Kuni in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up. The rest is history. Ken had become a successful actor and comedian, but he didn’t want to give up being a doctor. BUT he managed to maintain his status as a licensed physician. He frequently uses that experience in his comedy. And who knows? Maybe he has a lucrative side hustle treating fellow actors on set and writing marijuana prescriptions when shooting in states that only permit medicinal use. Hold Onto Your ButsWhatever your age or situation is, before taking that big leap, be sure to embrace your buts. Know what you’re not willing to give up. And don’t let that stop you. Use it to find the creative path to where you really want to go.The Two But Rule is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Explore the study by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Lancaster University showing how approaching a problem by starting with bad ideas was a very good idea. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Issue #33 of The Two But Rule | Explore the dilemma between wind energy and bird fatalities in the US. Discover how vertical axis and bladeless wind turbines offer a potential solution. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Explore the complexities of the Two But Rule in dealing with odious buts, empathetic buts, and the buts of an ass. Learn to navigate conflicts and maintain momentum. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Explore how the Two But Rule, through the historical lens of Athens' path to democracy, can offer new perspectives on resolving modern political and social conflicts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Issue #30 of The Two But Rule: Momentum Thinking Saved My But | Gain insights from a former AI and blockchain executive as he shares failures and learnings in his quest to find the Two But Rule. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Issue #29 of The Two But Rule | Learn what sickle cell anemia, malaria and balanced polymorphism can teach about Momentum Thinking. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Issue #28 of The Two But Rule | Explore unique strategies to optimize downtime in our Substack article. From noise-cancelling headphones to VR headsets, turn wait times productive! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

Happy holidays to our readers in the US. And to everyone dealing with parenting this summer, I thought this issue should be for you. Just because a problem or opportunity is subject to the confines of our personal lives doesn’t mean it can’t be frustratingly complex. In the grand scheme of global conflict and calamity, a poopy diaper might not seem like a big problem. But tell that to a single parent in the middle of delivering a career-making speech on a livestream with a one hundred people watching. Especially when there’s no help in the house, the baby is screaming, and it’s one of those diaper-destroying blow-out poops that shoot up the child’s back and into their hair. Fixing the FanThe poopie diaper problem may actually have no workable solutions under the current laws of physics, but here’s a challenge from my personal experience that turned out to strain my buts (and my back).My youngest child recently grew tall enough to pull the chain that controls the ceiling fan in their room. So, of course, they promptly broke it. The chain was made of those little metal beads connected to each other by little metal threads. The chain broke in a way that left the end connected to the on-off switch hidden inside the fan’s metal housing.My Intention: Fix the fan. Earn points with my spouse. Possibly get lucky.But, I couldn’t get to the tag end of the chain stuck inside the housing in order to reconnect it. BUT I could, if I managed to take off the housing and access the inside. After fumbling around trying to figure out how to do that, I managed to get the housing off. I’m happy to say that I did this without pulling the fan clean out of the ceiling when I fell off the chair that I was using as a step ladder. But even with the housing off, the part of the chain still connected to the fan was now too short to push through the housing, which I had to do in order to connect it to the rest of the chain that had broken off. BUT I figured that I could reverse the problem and push the broken-off part of the chain through from the outside of the housing and reconnect it that way.But because of the way the chain was made, it was wobbly and wouldn’t go through the weirdly long tunnel in the housing simply by pushing it. Why was there a tunnel in the housing and not just a simple hole that I could have easily pushed the damn chain through? That’s a mystery well outside the scope of this article to address. BUT in a flash of 2Buts insight, I scurried off to the kitchen, found a toothpick, and connected it to the chain with some tape. Then I pushed the rigid toothpick through the tunnel, grabbed it on the other side, and pulled it through until the chain emerged. From there, it was a simple matter of using the little metal connector bracket that comes with these kinds of chains to attach the broken segments and reattach the housing. Voila! I fixed the fan in just six buts. #6ButsBut, now my shoulders were on fire, and I tweaked my back by holding my arms above my head for twenty minutes. BUT I had Advil. Ok, so … eight buts. (Getting credit with my spouse for my heroic act, and caching in on those credits? That involved many more buts.)The Two But Rule is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe

The Two But Rule in Movies and Real Life, from Captain Kirk to Volkswagen's Deception | Read about ingenious solutions and costly consequences. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.2buts.com/subscribe