Want a Dream Job? Create Value For Others
A doctor who travels with pro sports teams.
A travel nurse for VIP clients.
A physiotherapist who hosts a wellness retreat.
For every nay-sayer, there is someone in their field who has a "dream job."
And I assure you: they didn’t just get lucky.
Take Dr. Rena, for example.
Typically, optometrists spend all day in a room doing eye exams. But Dr. Rena carved out a different path:
- He can work from home.
- He counsels patients virtually and writes educational blog posts.
- He leads training seminars and collaborates with community optometrists.
- When he works in the clinic, it’s for specialized care like post-ops and dry eye treatments.
This wasn’t handed to him, and it wasn’t luck.
He didn’t find a dream job. He built it by creating value.
Why Creating Value for Others Comes First
We often want the perks before we’ve proven our worth.
But the professionals who end up with flexible schedules, fulfilling work, and better pay all have one thing in common:
They consistently create value for others.
At first, Dr. Rena had a standard in-person clinic role.
But instead of staying in that lane, he looked for ways to be more useful.
- When tasked with written content for the clinic website, he went above and beyond by learning basic web design and uploading the content himself.
- He took on speaking roles to represent the clinic.
- He held workshops to help his staff perform their best.
- All of this while excelling in his primary role.
Bit by bit, he made himself indispensable.
The Value Loop: How Helping Others Helps You
The more value you create for others, the more valuable you become.
And when you're valuable, you gain leverage to shape your job.
As he continued proving his worth, he started advocating for his needs:
- A work-from-home day to fulfill duties beyond the exam room
- More flexibility in his hours
- A raise by highlighting performance metrics that benefited the clinic
This applies to any field – design, engineering, accounting, teaching. There are people out there who’ve built dream jobs by consistently creating value for others.
Build, Don’t Wait
Successful people create value for others, and often without direct compensation.
But over time, value creation pays back in freedom, opportunities, and job happiness.
You don’t need permission to start – just creativity, initiative, and the willingness to go beyond what’s expected.
Dream jobs aren’t found, they’re built.
🤝 If you've built an atypical career in your field, I'd love to connect and share ideas!
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Fred H Cho
Fred H Cho
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