Many highly experienced laid-off professionals might find themselves suddenly lost of identities, pride and values after their laid-off. The power, status, authority, security and respect were all gone once they were no longer in their jobs. What was left were bitter feelings and rejection getting from jobs hunting. It is uncommon to hear that “You are too old”, “You are overqualified” and “You are too expensive” from interviewers. This often left them psychologically wounded and wonders do they still have any values and worth in such society?

These laid-off professionals were overwhelmed with such thoughts that they actually overlooked the potential goldmines they have with them. They were busy hunting high and low for new job opportunities but might not aware that there is actually a shining goldmines waiting for them to be explored. Are you one of them?

What are Your Life-time Goldmines?
If you are one of these people, do you know what could be your goldmines? If you are already in your mid 40s or 50s or more, you might think there is no goldmine left. But, if you look at yourself carefully, you may be surprised you have more than what you expected.

Goldmines #1: Valued Skills
The number one goldmines that going to last for life-time is the wealth of knowledge, experiences, skills and expertise you have gathered. You are experts in your own fields and you may have developed deeply specialized skills in your industries which are rarely found elsewhere. These expertises are hard-found skills and are goldmines that can turn into life-time living. Your unique skills are usually comprised of the following.
 

• Technical Skills / Job Related Skills
  These are specific skills you used to perform your job. It is also known as technical skills but not limited to IT, scientific or engineering skills but rather the total skills set you acquired from your actual work experience plus the education you get from your chosen field.
• Transferable Skills
  There are two types of transferable skills – general transferable skills and specific transferable skills. These skills set are transferable from one job or career to another. Examples of transferable skills are communicating with others, supervising, analyzing, problem solving and organizing. 
• Adaptive Skills are also known as self-management skills. These are the skills you use every day to survive and get along in different situations. Examples of adaptive skills include honesty, enthusiasm and getting along with others.

The sum of all these skills make you what you worth. Your salary will depend on how highly complex of these skills are and whether they are now in hot demand. They will only appreciate in values and become more valuable in times so safeguard these goldmines, they are your number one assets.

Goldmines #2: Credential
Do you have credentials that people can trust you? A good credential speaks for your knowledge and experience, it reflects your positive commitment to maintain current in your professional field. If your credentials have helped you to earn more projects and customers, these will set you far apart from your peers. It is a goldmine as credential gives you authority and people will look upon you as their mentor. People will start following you and every piece of advices you give is like a piece of gold to them. There are many coaches and mentors end up getting rich with mentoring programs so don’t underestimate this goldmine.

Goldmines #3: Ideas
If you find yourself constantly generating a lot of fresh and creative ideas, congratulations! One of these ideas might worth a goldmine. You could be the next Harvey Reese turning simple ideas into money-making machine. If you are wondering who is Harvey Reese, he is the one who invented the dumb reindeer antlers that people put on their pet dogs and cats every Christmas. He is making millions of dollars from simple but yet smart ideas.

Creative ideas may be subjective though, but as they saying go – no ideas are dumb ideas, they just need more redefinition and revision. Your ideas could be new solution to old problems or new invention to improve life; they are not limited to business problems but also could be consumer, social or global problems. People are dying for improved solutions to their day-to-day problems, so take note and fully utilize your natural ability.

Goldmines #4: Networking
If you have been actively networking in the past, your hard work will pay off now. The relationship you have built with your network of friends and associates will be a goldmine to explore. You can now leverage on their network, connection and resources to open doors for multitudes of opportunities. The more people you know, the more resources you can tap into, you never know your next breakthrough of your career could be from your network.

Goldmines #5: Passion
Do you have passion and you love doing it? Or you have long forgotten you have a passion? Well, now it’s a good time to rediscover your long-long passion and find back the energy, satisfaction and joy.

You might be wondering why passion could be your goldmine as it is something not marketable? But passion could be the only spark that rejuvenates your life. Remember the times, when you were passionate about something, you were filled with excitement, enthusiasms and energy! You would never find it boring, tiring and discouraging while doing it. This is the same sort of feeling and experience you should bring back to ignite spark into your life again, so go on and rediscover your passion now!

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If you could see by now, the goldmines are not limited to just wealth but also the emotion, experience, knowledge, skills and expertise you have accumulated over your life. You might have just lost a job and one of your goldmines – income, but you still have other goldmines that will stick to you thick and thin for life. These other goldmines could be the mean to your bigger goldmines if you know how to make good use of them. I’ll talk about how you can do that in the later posts so please stay tune.

At the meantime, take inventory of your goldmines now and have fun exploring.