Nope. Excellence in your career and in your life is just like excellence in anything else. It takes work. Do the drills, get the skills. I can’t help a person who wants to learn through osmosis (these are the same people who buy every hot self-help book and think they’ll learn something by putting them on their shelf). But I can show them how to build and use motivation strategies that will work, if they actually try them.

Likewise, I’m not a therapist. I can’t help somebody who is so wrapped up in their personal problems that they don’t believe they deserve to become an effective person. But I can show them exercises that will get them over them and let them move on with their lives, if they are ready to learn them.

I’m not a father confessor, I’m a coach. I will listen to your issues with sympathy, but I’m far more liable to tell you to take a lap than to grant you absolution without working to resolve the problem.

Coaching isn’t for everyone. But for people who are ready to really learn how they can have the things in their life and career that will be truly meaningful to them, and who are ready to do the work, it can be a profound transformative experience, and the difference between getting by (or even not getting by) and living well.