Since I’ve been planning a surprise product for those of you who have animal career dreams, I thought I might rant explore this topic a bit.

As I’ve been working on these projects I’ve been reflecting over trends and experiences through my years as an animal career coach.

Do you have animal career dreams?

Then I have two words for you, “Wake up!”

Dreams do nothing for you without action. It is a real world that requires real effort.

You don’t just get handed an animal career–you have to earn it.

Now there are those of you who are really interested in a career with animals, right?

What are you doing about it?

I get questions all the time asking about animal careers and I have to tell you, many of them I already answered on the blog or the web series I wrote, called Unusual Animal Careers.

What amazes me is that the majority of people are just dreaming about it.

What do I mean by that?

Take the statistics for the Unusual Animal Career series, most people never read past the first part of the series.

I find that both funny and sad because I put insider information in the series for those who seriously want a career with animals.

When I held seminars and weekend events (which I am going to offer again) very few people had the burning desire for a real animal career.

Instead, they were intrigued by the romance of the idea.

But I remember at one of the weekend intensives, there was a star in the group.

She ate, breathed, studied, and worked on her dream of a career with animals.

We animal professionals love that–so do the animal facilities that are hiring.

When she got licked by a leopard that weekend, it was like she won the lottery.

I’ve lost touch with her since that time but last I heard she was working in a California Zoo fulfilling her lifelong dream–and I’ll never forget that look of joy and pure bliss in her demeanor.

Priceless…and is one of the reasons I do what I do.

Now there are also people who I’ve coached solely by phone, but who have taken my advice and found themselves in an animal career because of it.

Then there are the ones who want a career with animals handed to them–they don’t want to work for it and actually have “insert (relative, friend, teacher)” contact people (like me) for information about animal careers or a job  with animals.

I have news for you, when you are too lazy (or whatever) to take action yourself, when you don’t follow up, or you are simply rude, then you get tossed into the round file and get on the blacklist.

The animal industry is a small world and what you do and how you do it is what telegraphs your intent and reflects how you will be out in the real animal job world.

The first time I encountered a badly behaved animal career seeker was via the phone.

The young whipper-snapper booked a phone consultation.

Now today I fire clients–end of story. If it happened again I’d just terminate the call, but at the time I always worked hard to help my clients achieve their goals and their dreams.

One of the things I still don’t get is why people hire professionals and then don’t listen to them or let them do their job.

She didn’t want to hear what I had to say and got very pushy–demanding I turn over the insider information I was going to provide.

At first I was taken aback because after 30 plus years, I have something to share and a method to how I convey that information so it gives people the biggest bang for their buck.

Then, I just moved forward and terminated the call right on the button. No extra time or advice for that one and none of the really meaty info that could have been valuable.

Now you might think that this was a rare incident, and it was.

But it was the first inkling of a trend I’ve been seeing for some time.

There are more and more people who think they deserve something just because…

Okay, this is the real world and this is not true, to EARN an animal career you have to be above and beyond the norm, be willing to learn, work hard, and then continue when it seems really, really difficult.

Only then can you earn the purr of a mountain lion, the greeting of an elephant, the mental challenge of a marine mammal, or the nuzzle of a dog.

Okay, enough ranting for today. I want to know what kind of animal career you want and what exactly you have been doing to earn one.

Leave your comment below.