As an Inbound Marketer, I rely on Google Trends to track which keywords are being entered into Google’s search engine across the various regions of the world. During my most recent exploration, as it usually tends to be, I stumbled on this story that made me reconsider my entire career.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Google Trends, I took a screen shot of it below. It’s pretty straight forward as you can see. Trends spits out which search-terms are populating the most queries on a particular day in rank order. It can even be segmented by geography.
Here’s the snapshot of my January 5th Google Trends visit
Pretty standard results; celebrity news, followed by more celebrity gossip, a snippet of tech news, and so on and so forth. It wasn't until I made my way over to Trending on YouTube when I found a video classified under “News & Politics,” that I just couldn’t ignore. And, with one click I was transported into this Minnesota man's home.
As you've gathered from the title, the man featured in the video has Autism. While that in itself is unique, you might be thinking what is it about this video that warrants the more than 2 million views on YouTube?
Spoiler Alert: Kruger spent the majority of his adult life undiagnosed. It wasn’t until he was 49 years old when Krueger confirmed that his self-described obsession with mazes and paths was actually Asperger’s, an autism spectrum disorder.
What makes Krueger's story so inspirational is its message of acceptance. One of the most striking parts from the video is how Krueger describes his unique passion. He states, “If it takes a long time, I don’t care, because if I like what I’m doing, I almost don’t want to finish what I’m doing.”
This really got me thinking, and rethinking, how that notion applies to the masses. The New Year, as cliché as it may be, is about starting fresh and seeing outward with a clearer perspective. If you aren't passionate about your career path, perhaps it's time to stop lurking in the shadows and begin accepting what really makes you happy.
