…This Site

Unready and Willing is about pursuing a career that can ignite your passion and leave a lasting legacy to the world. It’s about taking calculated career risks even when you don’t have it all figured out. Here you’ll find articles on career creation, the future of work, business and marketing, personal productivity, and, most important of all, finding happiness no matter what you do.

Don’t expect to find articles on this site like “10 Ways to Supercharge your Resume” or, “The Seven Deadly Sins You Shouldn’t Commit in an Interview.” If you just want to get a job, no matter what that job may be, this blog is not for you. If, on the other hand, you’re interested in creating a career that makes the most of your strengths and your passions, I hope you’ll stick around.

Although I imagine I’ll be writing the bulk of the articles here on this site, I do welcome guest posts. If you’re interested in sharing your insights about career creation or if you wish to share a story about your own adventures in self-employment, feel free to contact me.

…Myself

My name is Kenji Crosland. For the first five years of my professional life I drifted from job to job with no clear direction or purpose. I majored in creative writing at the University of Washington to pursue a career as a novelist, but at the time I didn’t have the courage or persistence to realize that dream. To support myself, I taught English in Japan for three years, and eventually fell into a job as a headhunter in Tokyo.

The irony still amazes me. After years of drifting with no purpose, all of a sudden I became a career advisor. My job was to sell opportunities that would help advance people’s careers. The problem was, I wasn’t quite sure the best way to advance my own!

To make a very long story very short: I quit. I moved from Tokyo to the sticks to live with my parents, and ever since then I’ve been hard at work creating a career for myself, rather than just taking whatever job that comes along to survive.

So far, my adventures in self-employment have been bumpy to say the least. My first venture was to create a freelance writing business, accompanied by the website full-time-writer.com. When I realized my heart wasn’t in it, I shut both the writing business and the website down. My current pursuit is the development and promotion of the social donations site goldhat.org, which I launched in May 2010. This venture may also fail, but no matter what happens I aim to stay committed to creating a rewarding career based on my strengths, values, passions and, most importantly, my life mission. I hope you’ll join me.

I don’t have all the answers, but I intend ask good questions. My hope is that this blog will be inspirational to those pondering a career change and those like me who are currently in transition. If you’ve already made the transition and are living your dream career, I welcome your insights. Please do leave comments, especially if you disagree with me. If I write anything that’s totally off the wall, I’ll need your critiques to set me straight