A Groundhog Career

A Tale of Career Traps and How to Escape Them

Last week we submitted our near-final manuscript to Alison and her team at PI Publishing.

You may recall last month’s newsletter story. We have asked her to dust off the croissant debris and start the final editing process.

Manuscripts go through multiple editorial stages. At the formal level, there are three stages: conceptual, copy, and proof. However, the reality is that we have already been through numerous draft versions, and our natural leaning toward achieving perfection in all things will see us wanting to keep polishing right up until the final production deadline.

However, so as not to miss a perfectly good opportunity to celebrate… let us share with you two things:

1 – A Groundhog Career: A Tale of Career Traps and How to Escape Them is OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE for Pre-Order!

You can find links now on Amazon and PIP’s websites (follow the links). We have also updated our website to provide advance ordering information.

Alison and her team are targeting a March 2025 release date. We know that seems like a way off, but trust us, this is how the publishing world works: 6–9 months between manuscript submission and release date.

In order to create the pre-sale site entries, we have written a small summary of the book contents. We won’t repeat it here as you will be able to see it if you follow these links. However, we did want to give you some more insights on our goals for this second book. You will find a special newsletter readers’ synopsis and summary in the following article.

2 – A Groundhog Career Artwork

We have once again teamed up with the legendary Birmingham artist and animator, Andy “Doodles” Baker, to create original artwork for the book. Last week Andy produced some stunning art depicting Shey Sinope as he turns 30 years old. We have included our current favorite image above.

We are both contemporary art fans and are delighted to see how these images have taken on a Lichtenstein/Warhol component. Andy tells us that in actual fact their artwork “borrowed” from some true pioneers of the 1940s and 50s. Whatever the heritage, we love the style and hope you do as well.

While we have a lot more hard work ahead of us over the next few weeks as we finalize the manuscript and complete the edits, we are looking forward to sharing our second book with the world.

We hope you are also excited and will support us by going out and placing some pre-orders. What better Easter/graduation/birthday present—or just summer read—for your friends and family? We all struggle with navigating our careers, and regardless, as we have said a few times, we have designed it to be entertaining for everyone.

As they say in Chicago, buy it early and buy it often… or is that voting?

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A Groundhog Career: A Tale of Career Traps and How to Escape Them

A Special Preview

With our second career advice book we have set out to explore more deeply three “career traps” we experience in the first 10–15 years of our professional lives:

• The challenge of getting trapped by game-playing
• The struggle to distinguish your own needs and identity when the world pushes you down a prefabricated path
• How fighting to attain a leadership status can have some perverse and absurd consequences

Career game-playing is a natural artifact of the professional world. Everyone does it. You play games when you try to decode the systems being used to hire, promote, or reward people. When you focus on the tools and apparatus of professional life rather than the outcomes and purpose.

We think it’s important (a) to acknowledge we all play games to some extent and (b) to be very careful not to become prisoners of the game.

Equally, as we grow up and enter the professional world, we can easily place far too great an emphasis on being who we think others want us to be—our parents, our bosses, our colleagues, our Instagram followers. At some stage we naturally wake up and ask ourselves whether corporate life has more to it than playing a role, wearing a mask, and running ever faster on a corporate treadmill.

Related to both is the allure of becoming a leader. Of obtaining a Vice President, Managing Director, or CEO title. Of being “appointed” to be the boss of everyone. Seeing this as a reward or accolade is again quite natural, given how many corporate promotions systems work. But at its most extreme, it creates perverse and absurd consequences.

These are the issues we explore in A Groundhog Career. Once again, we have illustrated these through the entertaining story of Shey Sinope as he faces a professional crisis. In this case, he is now 30 years old and chasing a big promotion at work. He has become consumed and fixated by achieving this promotion. But what happens when things don’t quite go to plan?

Our Shey Sinope sequel story explores what happens to Shey and those around him as he suffers a seismic career breakdown… before reinventing himself to reframe, re-prioritize, and re-shape his trajectory. We are tempted here to launch into a Steve Austin “we have the technology” riff… but you get the drift.

We have again split the book into two parts, with the second examining in more detail our three themes and supplementing this with thinking exercises and career vignettes from some impressive people.

As of writing this summary, we have submitted a complete manuscript to our publisher colleagues and are entering into the final stages before the drop-dead production deadline.

We have tested our manuscript with some BETA readers. We are encouraged by their feedback which includes the following:

“…again, as in the first book, I like the structure very much, that there is a story, which is nice to read and it’s not as boring as other career or self-improvement books…”

“…it’s deeper, more substantial than the first book. The subject matter is spot on for a post great resignation… silent quitting… audience…”

“… I loved that I got to spend time with Shey and am impressed by how familiar he is—meaning you’ve done a great job carrying on a character in an authentic way. I liked Shey in the first book, but I was pleased to find I grew to like him even more here. His search for meaning in his life was lovely to follow…”

“…As with your first book, the major success is that you’ve taken a complex idea/experience and broken it down into manageable parts. The story about Shey entertains while also making the issue clear. The latter chapters of the book point out how to start the process of addressing yourself and your own goals, leading the reader down a productive path…”

The second book in the Shey Sinope saga is intended to be a deeper exploration of balancing our desires to compete—to “win” at work—while retaining our essential selves.

As is so often the case with our writing projects, Dr. Schuster summed this up beautifully:

“…book 2 is about choices and consequences. It’s about the dangers of giving in to our base instincts to get what we think we want today, only to eventually realize that we pay a greater price down the road.

Professional life, and in particular successful careers, are viewed through much longer timescales than the typical deal or transaction mentality of any specific job. The problem is… you can’t always see that.

What we want to do is help people who don’t otherwise have a good mentor, coach, or personal professional support network to work through critical career decisions. To think about choices and consequences. To balance short and long term.

If we can help just one person to make a better career decision, then this is more than worth our time.”

And so, A Groundhog Career sees us take the Shey Sinope saga to what we think is the natural next step: a deeper and more substantial exploration of some very important and difficult-to-navigate subjects. Subjects that, if we are honest with ourselves, we know we aren’t very good at discussing or exploring. We have a fear of being judged for any doubts we may express and believe people may see them as signs of our weakness.

We hope our writing and invitation to be virtual thought partners and confidants will help more people effectively navigate these difficult career subjects.

If nothing else, we believe the Shey Sinope story will entertain. And our mission, after all, is to be relevant, practical, and entertaining.

A Groundhog Career: Essential Facts

1. Second book in the Shey Sinope saga
2. Focuses on:
   a. How to recognize and avoid being trapped by career game playing
   b. Encouragement to pursue professional life on your own terms
   c. A new approach to leadership that focuses on shared purpose and mutual benefit
3. Follows A Career Carol format with colorful story/fable followed by practical, relevant, real-world advice
4. Written with the ambition to entertain and inform
5. March 2025 preliminary release date
6. Pre-order your copy now via Amazon or the Practical Inspiration websites

Other fascinating but perhaps less relevant facts:

7. 25 gallons of coffee were consumed while writing this manuscript
8. Oxley and Schuster’s friends and family rated the fable’s characters as follows:
   • Most relatable: Shey Sinope
   • Best person to have as a friend: Ellen Elpis
   • Best person to invite to a party: Babs the Barista
   • Person you’d hire: Emi and Julia tied

The Curse of Addiction…

The Dr. Schuster Column

Some time ago I read a book by David Hieatt. It was about the power of purposeful brands. I enjoyed the book, but what most stuck with me was a quote by Fred Wilson, who claimed the three most dangerous addictions were to heroin, carbohydrates, and a paycheck.

Ever since reading it, I feel like I have been assailed by constant reminders of its providence. The most recent was at my annual detox retreat in the Austrian mountains.

Over the years of going there, I developed a friendly relationship with my doctor and enjoyed having inspirational conversations about a wide range of topics. This year, I was interested to find out how many people he believed continue to follow the strict routine at the resort. The routine means very little food, no sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine, walks, treatments, very limited social media and phone access, and extensive medical tests. What shocked me was his belief that up to 40% of the guests secretly supplemented their detox with “forbidden treats.”

In my many years of detoxing, I can’t remember cheating once. This I always considered a sensible choice, as the resort is very professional and a very effective way to reset one’s body. It’s also a big investment. Why go through all that trouble and compromise the whole thing?

As I started reflecting on my wider circle of friends, I realized that most of them would find it hard to stay there and not cheat. Most of them wouldn’t even go there in the first place. It also occurred to me that I am actually surrounded by people with some sort of addiction.

Addiction, in its wider sense, has morphed into a global pandemic, wreaking havoc on societies. Unlike the more traditionally recognized substance addictions, modern society grapples with a myriad of compulsive behaviors, ranging from food, social media, sex, to exercise and work. Jobs and their associated regular income are the fuel or oxygen that allows or even encourages people to indulge freely in their compulsions.

This insidious epidemic is particularly rampant in the Western world, where the confluence of technology, consumer culture, and societal pressures creates fertile ground for addictive behaviors.

This seems like a worrying trend. A trend destined to result in more burnouts, more mental health problems, and more existential crises.

Combating this pandemic requires a multifaceted approach, with discipline and moderation at its core. On my way back from my retreat, I felt great. Five pounds lighter, more flexible, and most importantly appreciative of the fact that my brain demonstrated the capacity and strength to overcome the desire for short-term gratification over the long-term benefits of moderation.

I also felt good about the fact that our upcoming book, A Groundhog Career, has a very important theme of countering addiction at its core—work, regular income, and the seductive power of a glamorous lifestyle. And like in real life, Shey Sinope struggles with this vicious cycle of immediate gratification over long-term purpose and happiness. But ultimately, spoiler alert, he will succeed.